Expert Advisory Panel

NutraIngredients-Asia has an Expert Advisory Panel to help us stay on top of the latest industry trends, regulations, product development, research and technological innovation.

Its members are senior industry specialists from across the region who share their insights and expertise individually on an informal basis, as well as on a number of conference calls of all members held throughout the year.

The panel is chaired by William Reed’s Regional Head of APAC and Editor-in-Chief Gary Scattergood and NutraIngredients-Asia Editor Tingmin Koe.

The Panel

Carl Gibson​

Chief Executive Officer, Complementary Medicines Australia​

Carl started his career in the UK as a public servant, before joining the Conservative Party as a media and political adviser. He served under UK Prime Minister John Major from 1990 to 1994. His career spans over 25 years and he has specialised in Regulation, Public Policy and Campaign Communications. He was part of the senior leadership teams that transformed Allscripts-Misys, the USA healthcare software company, and UK nuclear generator, British Energy. He was most recently Head of Brand & Communications at Australia’s leading natural health company Blackmores, before being appointed in September 2013 as Chief Executive of Complementary Medicines Australia.

Jeff Crowther​

Health Products Association - China​

Since 1993, Jeff Crowther has been working in natural health product industry. During which time he has held positions in retail management, international business development and regulatory advocacy. He’s recognised as a leading expert on China’s dietary supplement industry and nutrition industry.

He works closely with the Chinese and US government to encourage the further development of China’s dietary supplement industry and to promote the association’s member’s products and services.
In 2010, he founded HPA and is its executive director. The association is a non-profit organisation and represents the largest grouping of global dietary supplement and nutritional ingredient manufacturers operating in China.

It is not only an industry advocacy group, but also offers its members a wide variety of business services such as product registration, customs clearance, trademarking, partner search and any other undertaking its members need to succeed in one of the most challenging markets in the world.

Dr. Ram Vishwakarma​

CSIR - Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine Jammu​

Ram Vishwakarma has been working as the Director of CSIR - Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine Jammu (CSIR-IIIM) since 2009. Before joining IIIM, he served (2005-2009) as Vice-President (Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products) at Piramal Healthcare, Mumbai on NCE discovery on cancer, inflammation and drug-resistant infections. Prior to joining industry, he was a Staff-Scientist at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi and contributed significantly to the chemical-biology of the Glycosylphosphatidyl inositol (GPI) anchors.

He did his Ph.D. at Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow followed by the post-doctoral research from the University of Cambridge on biosynthesis of Vitamin B12. He has expertise in natural products chemistry, new drug discovery and chemical biology and has published over 200 original research papers and filed over 60 patents.

He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of India and was awarded Sun Pharma (Ranbaxy) Research Award (2014) in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is a member of Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry of ACS.

Dr Robert Corish​

Author, educator, speaker and practicing physician​

Dr Robert Corish is an expert in preventative medicine – his interdisciplinary approach incorporates conventional medicine with cellular physiology and natural health - a combination that offers many more tools to the physician. Dr. Corish describes himself as a “lifelong medical student” as he continues to study and research the latest breakthroughs – particularly in functional nutrition and preventative medicine strategies. He is a Fellow of the Health Studies Collegium, and an associate of the American College of Nutrition.

An author, educator, speaker and practicing physician, Dr. Corish is able to explain complex medical concepts, in easy to understand terms. He has appeared on breakfast TV broadcasts, national radio shows and contributes to many medical and health related websites.

Hisaaki Kato​

CEO & President, Smooth Link​​

Hisaaki has worked with international food and nutrition businesses inside and outside Japan for over thirty years. As CEO of Smoothlink he now specialises in helping such businesses to overcome cultural, regulatory and business obstacles as they expand into the Japanese market. Before joining Smooth Link in 2012 he spent eight years building DSM’s Japanese business and managing its merger and acquisition activities in the region. He previously managed global accounts for Roche Vitamins Group, creating a new market for carotenoids.  He has a BSc in Animal Sciences from Kitasato University in Tokyo.

Prof Christiani Jeyakumar Henry​

Director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC), Singapore​

Professor Christiani Jeyakumar Henry is the founding Director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC), A*STAR, Singapore. CNRC has been the catalyst that brought to Singapore numerous food companies and facilitated research collaboration with both MNCs and SMEs.

His research focus has been to provide evidence based science for advancing the concept of “food the new medicine”.

Often called the “Godfather of Food & Nutrition in Singapore”, his public outreach includes the highly successful TV program “Food Detective” and articles in FoodNavigator, NutraIngredients, Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao.

He has collaborated with over 50 industrial partners, published more than 350 peer reviewed papers and secured research funding more than S$100million. He has played a fundamental role in providing scholarship, training and direction to both local and international food industries to tackle nutritional challenges in Asia.

Professor Peter Howe​

University of Southern Queensland​

Peter is Professor of Clinical Nutrition at the University of Southern Queensland, Emeritus Professor in Nutrition Research at the University of Newcastle, Adjunct Professor at the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia, Chair of the TGA’s Advisory Committee for Complementary Medicines, former Editor in Chief of Nutrients and a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia.

His multidisciplinary preclinical and clinical research in nutrition, cardiovascular physiology and neuroscience has underpinned health claims for functional foods and nutraceuticals. He has published 300 papers attracting >8,000 citations. He continues to work in partnership with industry to translate nutritional research into evidence-based preventive health products.

Sandeep Gupta​

FSSAI​

Sandeep Gupta has over 22 years’ of industry experience and has launched more than 200 nutraceutical products and evaluated more than 1000 ingredients.

He has worked extensively on India’s Food Safety & Standards (Food or Health Supplements, Nutraceuticals, Food for Special Dietary Uses, Foods for Special Medical Purpose, Functional Foods and Novel Foods) Regulation, which came into force earlier this year.

He is currently chairman of the Standard Review Group (SRG) for nutraceuticals at Indian regulator FSSAI, the president and national spokesperson at the National Advocacy Council for Nutraceuticals, Health, Dietary & Protein Supplements (United Nutraceutical Product Alliance), executive committee member and vice chairman of the IDMA nutraceutical committee, and founder and CEO of the Nutraworks Foundation, among other industry commitments.