Judges
The judges process is extremely robust and ensures a fair competition. The judges for each category will be looking to make an assessment based on the following elements:
- Impact and innovation. Demonstrates significant, positive, tangible impact to the industry
- Efficiency. Adheres to the requirement of delivering an efficient operation, demonstrating how this has been achieved
- Consumer engagement. Takes consumer needs into account and acts as a voice of the customer.
- Commercially aware. Recognises and contributes to the success of the business by acting responsively to commercial needs
- Process improvement. Ability to demonstrate a structured approach to improving processes
- Compliance. Demonstrates has the right set of controls and measures in place
Meet last year’s judges below.
MEET THE JUDGES

Sam Jennings

Sam Jennings
Sam Jennings has been working for Berry Ottaway & Associates Ltd since 2001. She provides advice to industry and governments globally on scientific, technical and regulatory aspects of food, particularly supplements, functional foods and their ingredients. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) in the UK and chaired the IFST Food Regulatory Steering Group from September 2017 to September 2021.
Sam is also the current Chair of the UK Government’s Office for Product Safety and Standards Business Expert (Food Standards & Labelling) Group and is a member of the UK Food Standards Agency’s Working Group on Food Standards.

Simon Clegg CBE

Simon Clegg CBE
Simon Clegg is one of the UK’s most experienced sports and major events businessmen/leaders.
In 2015 he was the Chief Operating Officer responsible for the US$ 1Bn inaugural European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan. He has managed British athletes at 12 Olympic and Olympic Winter Games, including leading Team GB to its most successful Olympic Games for 100 years in Beijing in 2008. He was Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association (1997 – 2008) and Ipswich Town Football Club (2008 – 2013) and was a board member of London’s successful 2012 Olympic bid and subsequent Organising Committee.

Dr James Morehen

Dr James Morehen
Dr James C. Morehen is a performance nutritionist currently working with professional athletes and elite individuals from the corporate world. Through Morehen Performance Ltd, he has spent the last eight years supporting individuals from England Football, rugby union, rugby league, professional boxing, Formula 1, golf, Premiership football, HSBC Global, IKEA and Credit Suisse.

Terence O’Rorke

Terence O’Rorke
As Business Development Manager for international life sciences company LGC Limited, Terence has commercial responsibility for its supplements testing services and certification programmes – including Informed Sport – in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa.
Prior to joining LGC, he worked for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Montreal, which allowed him to develop unique anti-doping expertise. This experience and knowledge has been crucial in making Informed Sport the leading supplements certification programme worldwide.
Terence spent the first half of his career in sports communications, working for several international sports federations, including the Asian PGA Tour, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and Ladies European Tour (LET). He also reported on sport for Reuters, SKY and Eurosport.

Ben Smart

Ben Smart
Ben Smart is Vice-Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) and currently Senior Vice President, Product Operations and Compliance at Nutrabolt. Nutrabolt is a global nutritional life sciences company that specializes in sports nutrition, with a mission to innovate, inspire, and make products that maximize human potential accessible to all. The company’s marquee brands, Cellucor® and Scivation®, include some of the industry’s most notable product lines C4® and XTEND®, which are widely distributed across the world in more than 100 countries in specialty, big box and online retailers including GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, Costco, Holland & Barrett, Walmart, Bodybuilding.com, Amazon.com, and many more.
Ben has nearly 20 years of quality and regulatory experience, across a range of industries and companies and his in-depth knowledge and understanding of U.S. and international laws and regulations has successfully allowed the building, developing and managing of multiple quality / regulatory affairs departments and compliance programs. In addition to ESSNA, Ben currently serves on the boards and committees of several other trade associations and in his free time, enjoys running, biking, and playing golf with his kids.

Shane Starling

Shane Starling
Shane Starling is a 25-year+ journalist, analyst and communications specialist focused mostly in food, nutrition and technology. He is the former senior editor of NutraIngredients, FoodNavigator and other publications in the food and nutrition space where he extensively covered sports nutrition. He helped found the NutraIngredients Awards and is the founder of communications agency, Stardust Komms. A west Australian, he lives in Berlin, Germany. He likes cycling and wok cooking and thinks better nutrition is an under-utilised superpower.

Dr Adam Carey

Dr Adam Carey
CEO of Corperformance
Adam is Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) and Founder and CEO of Corperformance. After qualifying from the University of Oxford Medical School in 1988, Adam spent 10 years training towards specialist qualifications in obstetrics and gynaecology with clinical and research interest focussed on endocrinology and nutrition. After leaving the NHS, Adam has been providing scientific nutritional solutions to elite athletes, corporate clients and media artists to improve their performance in the field, in the boardroom and on stage. He worked with the England Rugby Football Union from 1999 to 2006 as part of Sir Clive Woodward’s team which culminated with the World Cup success in 2003. In 2005 he worked with the England Cricket squad, leading to their success in the Ashes. Other sports clients have included Chelsea FC (Premiership title 2005) and Leeds Tykes (Powergen cup 2005).

Viviana Spaghetti

Viviana Spaghetti
COO & Head of European Affairs, Whitehouse Communications
Viviana is responsible for providing regulatory and strategic advice to a wide range of clients in the UK and the EU on policy issues related to food and nutrition policy, public health and digital policy.
Viviana has an in-depth knowledge of EU politics and policies, having held positions in Brussels and London, advising clients on how to shape and influence European and national policies. Currently she works for Whitehouse Communications and manages the secretariat of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance.
Viviana holds a Masters in European Public Policy from King’s College London and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Milan and the University Jean Moulin in Lyon, France.

Ross Austen

Ross Austen
Business Development Manager at Nutrition Integrated.
Ross is Vice Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance and Business Development Manager at Nutrition Integrated.
Ross started his career at LGC as a Graduate Scientist focusing on sweat testing and hormonal profiling of athletes ahead of the London 2012 games in collaboration with UK Sport. Following this Ross was drafted into the Supplement Testing team within LGC and the day to day job shifted to screening nutritional products for the presence of banned substances via mass spectrometry. Ross is now part of the global business development team within Informed-Sport/Choice with a specific focus on the following territories UK, Europe, South Africa and India. He strives for the day that inadvertent doping is a thing of the past.

Mark Gilbert

Mark Gilbert
Co-founder of FitnessGenes
Mark is the Vice-Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance and Co-founder of FitnessGenes. He has been involved in Fitness and Sports Nutrition for over 20 years, has a BSc in nutrition and has certifications in sports nutrition, exercise and pharmaceuticals. He has been involved in product research & development, patent/IP work, marketing, labelling and provided regulatory advice whilst working for and with over a dozen of the world’s top sports supplement companies.
Currently, Mark spends much of his time as an independent consultant. Mark writes and is on the advisory board for three top fitness magazines and has a degree in Nutrition, is a certified sports nutritionist, has studied exercise science and worked with several high-profile athletes.

Claudia Mucciardi

Claudia Mucciardi
Regulatory Affairs Manager for EMEA at Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN)
Claudia is the Vice-Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance and Regulatory Affairs Manager for EMEA at Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN). She is responsible for the compliance of some of the biggest players of sports nutrition in the region, with brands such as Optimum Nutrition, BSN and Nutramino. Her brand portfolios cover a range of sports nutrition products such as protein and pre-workout powders, protein and energy bars, meal replacement products, as well as RTDs and capsules/tablets. Claudia has over 7 years’ experience in compliance of sports foods and supplements.
Claudia has extensive knowledge and experience working with harmonised EU legislation as well as dealing with challenges which arise from differing national legislation, or from various interpretations of existing food law.

Ian Craig

Ian Craig
Editor of Functional Sports Nutrition magazine
With his joint academic backgrounds in exercise physiology and nutritional therapy and a 20-year career as a British middle-distance athlete, Ian has been developing the concept of integrative sports nutrition since 2007; a fast-evolving discipline that considers both the health and performance of an athlete from an integrative health perspective. He is the author of Wholesome Nutrition and the editor of UK magazine Functional Sports Nutrition.
Additionally, Ian is a clinical practitioner. His client base ranges from chronic health cases, such as autoimmunity, through recreational and elite athletes, to sports and lifestyle induced low-grade chronic fatigue syndrome. Ian is a professional member of the British Association for Applied Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy (BANT) and the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES).

Luca Bucchini

Luca Bucchini
Managing Director of Hylobates Consulting
Luca is Vice-Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance and Managing Director of Hylobates Consulting. He is an expert in food and food supplement law, and a food risk scientist. Luca co-founded the food and cosmetics consultancy Hylobates and his team has registered thousands of sports nutrition products and food supplements across Europe, advising businesses, small and very large, on compliance with EU law.
Luca is also one of the directors of EuroFIR, the European non-profit organization of food composition databases. In recent years, he has been principal scientist on the pre-assessment team on a contract for EFSA, and has participated in several European Commission, and managed the PlantLIBRA project on plant food supplement, which helped start the Belfrit initiative on botanicals.
