President
Florian Berendt is a serial founder in the insect business. He’s the founder of EntoSus the first Naturland certified cricket farm and the co-founder of Farmcycle. Florian wants to be a bridge between all the different members of the BiiF and their interests.
Vice-president
Nico Coen is a Medical Doctor who decided to leave the pharmaceutical industry after some experiences in his basement with insect. Five years after this experience he launched his company, Nimavert with his partner in crime. Five years further he's processing insects and selling food with mealworm and crickets to retail and consumers. As vice-president of the BiiF he is giving support to the novel food files and managing different other projects.
Secretary, IT
Kris Cools grew up in the agribusiness and went on to become an R&D electronics engineer turned breeding excellence enabler for insect and professional as founder of i-Delta. He's a strong believer in the power of collaboration and synergy between humans, nature and technology. Kris wants to help BiiF become a buzzing network and open ecosystem driver for a flourishing EU insect sector.
Members of the Board
Voluntary
Treasurer
Emmanuel Baeten is a founding partner of ProteinFarm that is focusing on large scale production of insect-based protein for feed. Production is envisioned as decentralized, offering opportunities in converting existing farm buildings. The bioconversion process of ProteinFarm being based on fly larvae (BSF), Emmanuel is mostly involved in the aspects of animal feed and green chemistry of the insect industry.
Marketing & Newsletter
Lina von Hackewitz studied Food and Agricultural Science in Uppsala in Sweden and got interested in insects while taking a year abroad at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. She both wrote her bachelor and master thesis about the Acheta domesticus
PR & Outreach
Christian Courbois is a serial entrepreneur who was active in Entogourmet insect for food project. Passionate about alternative protein and innovative food technology.
Spokesperson
Ben Mijten is a pioneer in development of insect feed, professional insect farming and insect processing. He is also founder of M-Food natural ingredients where the focus is the production and marketing of high-grade insect-based food ingredients. His motto is “Nil volentibus arduum”. We want to change the world of tomorrow, so we have to act now. We have no time to lose!