Board of Directors
Grant Ferrier
Chairman
Grant Ferrier has been in nutrition since 1988. In 2007, he founded Nutrition Capital Network, an entity that connects investors and growth companies in the nutrition, health and wellness, natural and organic and green product industries. In 1996, Mr. Ferrier and his firm established a classification system for the traditional environmental industry widely used by government and private entities, including the EPA, the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau. Mr. Ferrier was a Venture Partner at Inventages Venture Capital Investment Inc.
Previously, he worked in academia and the private sector in energy efficiency, solar energy and wind energy. Mr. Ferrier was the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer at the Nutrition Business International, LLC. He is the Founder and Editor Emeritus of Nutrition Business Journal, a business he ran from 1996-2007.
Mr. Ferrier has served as a Lead Consultant or Principal Advisor on proprietary consulting, research and strategy development assignments in the both the nutrition and environmental industries, in addition to acting as a third-party advisor in several mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions. He has been a Director of MotorVac Technologies, Inc., since 1998 and is also a Member of the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors. Mr. Ferrier was a Member of the Advisory Board at SJF Ventures and at Environmental Capital Partners. He also maintains significant connections throughout the more general “Green” and “Healthy Planet” communities.
Mr. Ferrier has represented nutrition and environmental industry interests in many government and business forums, testifying before the three Congressional Subcommittees and serving on advisory committees for the United Nations, OECD, the United States EPA and the United States Department of Commerce. He holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
Timothy S. Avila
CEO
Tim Avila is a leading authority in the nutrition industry, blending over 20 years of experience in discovery, validation and branding of bioactive ingredients and consumer packaged nutrition products. He is president of Systems Bioscience, Inc., which specializes in providing Global Fortune 500 companies with business and product development knowledge regarding dietary supplements, natural and organic foods and consumer products and services.
Mr. Avila has worked as a Senior Executive Advisor to New Hope Natural Media Inc. as leader of the content development advisory board for all of NHNM’s media products including; ‘Engredea’ (formerly ‘SupplyExpo’), ‘Natural Products Expo’, ‘Nutrition Business Journal’ (the journal of record for business and finance of the Nutrition Industry), ‘Functional Ingredients’ and ‘Nutracon’. Tim’s list of clients includes Cargill, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and Coca Cola. Tim has a proven track record for innovative products. During his five years with Metagenics, Inc., Tim was responsible for numerous proprietary formulations that were launched via the companies various brands. It was during this time period and shortly thereafter that Mr. Avila acquired and honed his deep understanding of the biochemistry and biology of natural bioactive ingredients and biomass materials.
After leaving Metagenics in 1997 and founding Systems Bioscience Inc., Mr. Avila initiated a dual track of industry networking and project consulting work, relative to business and finance, as well as technical and scientific expertise. Working alongside accomplished industry colleagues such as Tom Aarts, Anthony L. Almada, Grant Ferrier and many others, Tim was able to connect with a vast network of companies, inventors, universities, government and NGO contacts. This network has continued to grow and is quite robust, reaching the highest levels of food, supplement, pharmaceutical and agribusiness companies. As an advisor to Sambazon Inc. beginning in early 2000, Tim contributed to the development and revenue growth of one of the industry’s most respected triple bottom line companies and brands.
Mr. Avila passionately pushes boundaries for the industry and currently assists large
Lidia Castagneto Gissey
CTO
She is the Inventor of Jemyll’s patents and has made critical advances in the study of dicarboxylic acids and their use in nutrition. In particular, she published a critical paper showing that meals rich in DiCarbs can greatly reduce blood glycemia. She has published twenty peer-reviewed papers on leading journals such as Nature Reviews Endocrinology, PLoS One and the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
She has presented her work at several top-tier world congresses, including the World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes, the IFSO European Chapter, and on various occasions at the American College of Surgeons.
She has received first-class honours in Medicine and Surgery magna cum laude from the Catholic University of Rome. She has a full registration at the Order of Italian Council and the General Medical Council UK. Dr Castagneto Gissey has a specialization in General Surgery cum laude at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. She has a Ph.D. in Advanced Surgical Techniques from the same University.
She is also an experienced bariatric surgeon and has performed a total of 119 operative procedures as operating surgeon and over 600 procedures overall, and is specialised in metabolic surgeries such as gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy.
Michele Migliaccio
Chief Legal Officer
Michele Ferdinando Migliaccio is Jemyll’s Chief Legal Officer. He is an international lawyer specialised in international commercial law, dispute resolution and cross-border arbitration. He is qualified in several jurisdictions, including England and Wales, Italy and Spain.
Mr Migliaccio is an experienced lawyer who has defended several multinational corporations in complex trans-border litigations. He has worked for some of the most prestigious international law firms in the United Kingdom. His legal experience spans from work undertaken in specialised law firms to complex class actions undertaken in large international law firms alongside some of the most renowned international lawyers.
He obtained degrees in Civil Law and Common Law. He completed an LLB in Civil Law in Rome at the Università degli Studi Roma Tre and then completed an LLM at the University of Kent in International Law and International Relations, subsequently obtaining the GDL and LPC Diplomas in Law at the University of Law in London.
Dr Giorgio Castagneto Gissey
President
Dr Castagneto Gissey is a is a serial entrepreneur with extensive management experience in the life sciences industry. He founded some of the most promising companies in the sector, including Metadeq, Keyron, GHP Scientific, and Jemyll. He has been in academia for 10 years, including as Senior Research Associate, and lecturer at University College London, and has been a Principal and Senior Consultant and adviser to the UK government. He is also Honorary Senior Research Fellow at UCL.
Dr Castagneto Gissey obtained his M.Sc. in Economics from Warwick and has an ESRC-funded Ph.D. in Finance from Imperial College London. He has received and managed several large and high-profile projects funded by ESRC, EPSRC, and InnovateUK and has been principal and senior consultant to the UK government and various companies. He has published ~20 papers, including influential studies and reports in economic policy. He has appeared on at least 25 occasions in major news outlets around the world (e.g. The Guardian, The Independent etc). His work is credited to have had significant policy impact in the UK and has been cited numerous times on various UK and international government reports.
He has been interviewed in relation to economic policy by the House of Commons Parliamentary Committee and other governmental institutions and participated in different roundtables organised by the UK government, and has acted as session chair and panel member for the Royal Economic Society.
Prof Marco Castagneto
CSO
Professor Marco Castagneto has 20 years’ experience in bariatric surgery research and practice, has over 1,000 scientific publications to his name and has performed more than 2,000 surgeries, including 500 bariatric surgeries.
Professor Marco Castagneto has been Professor of Surgery; Director of the Department of Surgery at the Catholic University, Rome. He has been Fellow of the American College of Surgeons for 40 years, as well as of the President Italian Society of Intensive Care; the Italian Society of Surgery; The Transplantation Society; and the European Society of Surgical Research. He has over 1,000 scientific publications and has performed more than 2,000 surgeries. He has over 20 years’ experience in bariatric surgery research and practice and has performed more than 500 bariatric surgeries. He has operated a number of high-profile individuals, including major surgeries on Pope John Paul II on two occasions.
Scientific Advisory Board
Globally-recognized experts in nutrition
Prof Geltrude Mingrone
Diabetes and obesity
Professor Mingrone is a world-leading star in the field of nutrition and metabolic research.
Professor Mingrone is Professor of Diabetes and Metabolic Disease at King’s College, and Director of the Centre for Obesity related pathologies at the Catholic University of Rome.
She has pushed forward the boundaries of metabolic medicine for the last 20 years and is widely regarded as among the most recognised researchers in metabolic medicine of our time.
She has published more than 300 scientific papers and written on the most prominent international journals, such as The Lancet, J Clin Invest, Diabetes, Diabetologia, Am J Physiol, etc. She regularly appears in the national and international press. She was a EU expert during the FP5and FP6. Her expertise is mainly centred on the 24h energy expenditure measurement using the Calorimetric Chamber at the Catholic University; insulin sensitivity and secretion particularly in obese/morbidly obese and diabetic subjects before and after bariatric surgery. She implemented new techniques for the clinical practice, such as BIA reconstruction of the lower limb skeletal muscle mass, referring to NMR She is actively contributing to the research aiming at elucidating the mechanisms of reversibility of diabetes after bariatric surgery.
She has been Executive Director of the European Chapter of the American College of Nutrition until 2010, Member of the Board of Directors of the American College of Nutrition, a Former Member of the Board of the European Group for the study of Insulin Resistance (EGIR), Expert in the Panel on Nutrition of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) until 2005, Member of the Board of the Group of Nutrition of the EASD.
Prof José Manuel Fernández Real
Nutrition, obesity and diabetes
José Manuel Fernández-Real is a household name in nutrition. He is Professor of Nutrition at the University of Girona. Dr. Fernández-Real serves as Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Bridge BioResearch PLC.
He began research on insulin resistance in 1991 while he worked as physician in Girona Hospital. He has been there since then and he has created a new lab in endocrinological investigation in the Hospital. His research strategy is based in large part on the analysis of molecular and genetic determinants of insulin resistance and inflammation, using the state-of-the-art techniques of study of insulin sensitivity.
Dr. Fernández-Real is author or co-author of more than 100 scientific articles. He has received several prizes and awards: Research Grant Awards from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in 2002; Award from the Spanish Society of Diabetes in 2000 to the best young investigator in Diabetes; Awards from the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Diabetes in 2002 and 2004; Award from the Catalan Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002, Prize to the Professional excellence in 2005.
Dr. Fernández-Real was founder of Mellitus S.L., a university based spin-off that converted in one of the main bio-techs in Spain.
Prof Antonio Zorzano
Obesity and diabetes
Antonio Zorzano is among the leading authorities in nutrition. He is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona, Coordinator of the Molecular Medicine Programme at the IRB Barcelona, and Programme Head at CIBERDEM. Professor Zorzano received his PhD in Biology at the University of Barcelona, and did postdoctoral studies with Emilio Herrera (Hospital Ramon y Cajal, Madrid), Neil Ruderman (Boston University Medical Center), and Paul Pilch (Boston University Medical School). He was Visiting Professor at Boston University Medical School (1992).
Boehringer Award from the Spanish Biochemical Society (1991). Young Investigator Lilly Award of the Spanish Society of Diabetes (1992). Research Award, Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2001). UB Award to Special Dedication to Research (2008-10). Alberto Sols Senior Investigator Award for Basic Sciences of the Spanish Society of Diabetes (2011). ICREA Academia Award (2013).
He has supervised 35 Ph.D. theses, and has coordinated international consortia funded by different European agencies. He is co-inventor of 21 patents, and has published over 270 scientific articles (more than 20,400 citations), with key discoveries published in leading journals, and an h-index of 71 (Google Scholar). He has been founder of biotechnological companies in Spain and in UK.
Professor Zorzano’s research focuses on the regulation of metabolism and its interplay with insulin resistance, obesity and type 2 diabetes. His current interest links metabolism with mitochondrial dynamics, mitochondrial function, autophagy, and mitochondrial stress. A global goal of his group is to identify and validate molecular targets that permit the prevention or treatment of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes or obesity by using cell-based systems, genetically modified mice, and translational approaches.
Prof Luc Tappy
Nutrition, obesity and diabetes
Professor Luc Tappy is one of the most recognised authorities in the field of nutrition and obesity research. He has more than 400 publications.
Luc Tappy obtained his MD degree at the University of Lausanne in 1981, and was trained in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Service of Endocrinology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and in the Diabetes section, Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA.
Since 1988, he has been a senior researcher at the Institute of Physiology, Lausanne University School of Medicine and from 1991-1997 he received a Career Development Award from the Max Cloëtta Foundation to develop research projects in the field of human metabolism. His studies have focused on nutrition, physical exercise and metabolism in healthy individuals as well as in various clinical conditions, such as diabetes, obesity, organ transplant patients and critically ill patients. In 2002, he was appointed full professor of physiology and associate physician at the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the CHUV. Since 2015, he is also associate physician at the Centre Métabolique de l’Hôpital Intercantonal de la Broye à Estavayer-le-Lac.
Beside his research and teaching activities, Luc Tappy is also involved in public health initiatives. He is presently member of the Swiss Federal Committee for Nutrition, and of the French Scientific Counsel for Nutrition at the French agency for health, food and safety at work (ANSES). He is one of the directors of newly constituted European Society of Preventive Medicine.
Dr Filip Koidis
Nutrition
Dr Filip Koidis is a healthcare entrepreneur, a med-tech global venture adviser, a published author and an angel investor.
Dr Koidis is a specialised clinical nutritionist and dietitian with a Ph.D. (Biomedical Sciences dept. University of Surrey, UK.) in innovative weight managementtechniques that incorporate elements of behavioural psychology and AI. He has over 10 years of experience in the field of nutritional sciences and founded W 1 Nutritionist clinic in Harley st. in 2012. Filip has been involved in several wellness-related projects; from the inception and design of specialised & health-aid supplements to collaborations with world-leading doctors and health-funds, progressive mindfulness retreats and 360-wellness applications and digital-health products. Often quoted in the health section of popular publications, Filip is also an early-stage startup investor, a registered dietitian with the British Dietetic Association with an RD status and a member of the Nutrition Society as well as the Royal Society of Medicine.