Finals Judges
Local Track
Mr Guglielmo Bonora
Head of Nestlé R&D Centre Singapore
Biography
Guglielmo Bonora holds a MSc in Law and Business Administration from Bocconi University (Milan).
He started his career with Nestlé in 2004 in the International Audit Team, one of the most important talent pools within Nestlé for future business leaders of the Group.
In 2010, he moved to Nestlé Middle East where he performed various positions in Marketing & Sales before taking on the function of Group Product Manager for NIDO Growing-up Milks. In 2015 he moved back to Nestlé HQ as Global Category Leader for Children Ambient Dairy, responsible for setting the global strategy of iconic brands like NIDO and BEAR BRAND.
As of December 2020 he was appointed R&D Singapore Centre Head, a multicategory ASEAN R&D Centre focused on delivering locally relevant and agile innovation for the region.
Biography
Esther's journey with Nestlé began in 2010 when she joined the Application Group (AG) in Nestlé USA as a Product Developer in Frozen Meals. Her innovative spirit and dedication quickly propelled her to the role of AG Manager for Pizza & Snacking. She then took on the challenge of managing the AG at the Anderson, Indiana factory, the world's largest Coffee Mate liquid creamer facility, which also produces Nesquik RTD, Nestlé Health Sciences Boost, and Carnation Breakfast Essentials RTD items.
In 2019, Esther rejoined the business to support the Bakery Sweet Division, overseeing a diverse product portfolio that included Nestlé Tollhouse Morsels, refrigerated cookie dough, Libby’s pumpkin puree, and Carnation Evaporated Milk. During the height of the pandemic, she played a crucial role in expanding production capacity to meet increased demand leading to close to USD $1B sales in 2020 - 2021.
Her expertise and leadership led her back to the Beverage Division, where she took charge of Coffee Mate creamers (both liquid and powders), Nesquik (RTD & powders), RTD Iced Coffee, and Nestlé Hot Cocoa where she led her team to launch Coffee Mate RTD Iced Coffee and Coffee mate Cold Foam in 2024 and 2025 which are the category’s Big Bets. In January 2023, Esther led the Product Development team in Arlington, Virginia, before moving to Singapore to head the White Cup Coffee Team at R&D Singapore.
Esther also possesses Bachelor & Master’s degrees in Food Science from the University of Kentucky
Ms Esther Ang
Nestlé Development Unit White Cup Coffee Group Manager, Nestlé R&D Singapore
Mr Andrew Wan
Senior Principal Scientist
Biography
Dr Andrew Wan, Senior Principal Scientist at the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI), is the lead principal investigator of the SFA-funded ECO Meats programme, where he leads a multi-institutional effort on edible scaffolds and coatings. He is a pioneer of the interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation (IPC) fiber technique for scaffold engineering, which has been applied to both biomedical and food areas. This fiber spinning and assembly technique has demonstrated its value in creating 3D-patterned cell constructs for tissue engineering, and has been more recently adapted to the structuring of food products with realistic textures. In 2021, he founded Audra Labs to further develop and commercialize the alternative protein technologies arising from his lab. He has been ranked amongst the top 2% of scientists worldwide for both single year and career long impact (Ioannidis, 2023 and 2024).
Biography
Dr Wong Shen Siung is a global R&D and innovation leader, experienced in driving impactful innovation pipelines across Asia Pacific. He leverages deep scientific and consumer insights to develop winning food product concepts and solutions. With a 19-year track record spanning both the global food & beverage industry and academia, he possesses a proven ability to build and lead high-performing cross-functional teams. He excels at collaboration and have a passion for translating scientific knowledge into commercially successful products.
Currently, Dr Wong Shen Siung leverages his expertise at Tate & Lyle, a global leader in innovative food science solutions. Prior to this, he led the product physical functionality core team as a senior scientist at Abbott Nutrition R&D.
Dr Wong Shen Siung
Application and Innovation Leader,
Tate and Lyle Singapore
Mr Ngoc Quang Le
The Head of Customer Solution Center
(CSC), OFI Singapore
Biography
Mr Ngoc Quang Le is the Head of the Customer Solution Center (CSC) – Singapore at OFI, where he oversees the Innovation Application and Food & Beverage Solutions teams. With over 20 years of experience in the food technology industry, he possesses deep technical expertise in ingredient functionality, food processing, and machinery engineering. Throughout his career, Mr Quang Le has held pivotal roles at leading global ingredient companies, consistently driving innovation and delivering tailored, high-impact solutions to meet evolving customer needs in the food and beverage sector.
Biography
Ms Shanthi Nallusamy is the Vice President of Customer Solutions and Global Innovation Head (Dairy) at ofi. In this role, she leads the regional innovation centres in Singapore as well as centres in China, Malaysia, Vietnam & Indonesia. Ms Shanthi Nallusamy’s leadership in innovation is evident from her involvement in initiatives such as setting up new capabilities in APAC region. MS Shanthi Nallusamy has extensive experience in research and development (over 26 years), coupled with her leadership in customer solutions, underscores her significant contributions to the food and beverage industry.
Ms Shanthi Nallusamy
VP Innovation, Customer Solution Centre
(CSC), OFI Singapore
& Global Head (Dairy IEC)
Finals Judges
International Track
Ms Chang Tze Lai
Nestlé R&D Singapore, Platform Lead MILO
Biography
Tze Lai is the Global Lead for MILO based in Nestlé R&D Centre in Singapore. She began her career with Nestlé Malaysia as Product Technologist for dairy category before moving on to yogurt and yogurt drinks category. Tze Lai has amassed significant experience within the Nestlé organization, having joined the company since 2005. Throughout her tenure, she has been instrumental in launching innovative products across various categories, including milk powder, yogurt, yogurt drinks, and Ready-to-Drink (RTD) beverages in her capacity as the category Innovation and Renovation Manager before moving to Nestle R&D Centre in Singapore in 2023.
Biography
Ms Shanthi Nallusamy is the Vice President of Customer Solutions and Global Innovation Head (Dairy) at ofi. In this role, she leads the regional innovation centres in Singapore as well as centres in China, Malaysia, Vietnam & Indonesia. Ms Shanthi Nallusamy’s leadership in innovation is evident from her involvement in initiatives such as setting up new capabilities in APAC region. MS Shanthi Nallusamy has extensive experience in research and development (over 26 years), coupled with her leadership in customer solutions, underscores her significant contributions to the food and beverage industry.
Ms Shanthi Nallusamy
VP Innovation, Customer Solution Centre
(CSC), OFI Singapore
& Global Head (Dairy IEC)
Dr Allan Lim
Head of Open Innovation,
Nestle R&D Centre Singapore
Dr Allan Lim leads Open Innovation team at Nestlé R&D Center, which is responsible for white space exploration, external partnerships and contracts. Dr Allan Lim started his career in Nestlé as a chemist in 1995 after graduating with PhD from the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. In 2008, Dr Allan Lim took on the responsibility on innovation partnership in Asia. One of his biggest achievements is the establishment of strategic partnership between Nestlé and A*STAR in 2014.
Today, Dr Allan Lim spearheads external R&D innovation in Southeast Asia through different collaboration models with public research institutes, academia, enterprises and startups. A case in point is the Circular Materials Laboratory, a precompetitive R&D consortium of more than 20 companies, universities, government agencies and public research institutes, which was set up in 2018 to accelerate research in material and environmental science for single serve packaging.
At the national level, Dr Allan Lim supports Enterprise Singapore by servicing as Chairman of Singapore Food Standards Committee and member of Singapore Standards Council since 2017. Dr Allan Lim also contributes to the international and local academic institutions by serving as co-chairman of the scientific committee of the 21st IUFoST World Food Congress 2022 Singapore, and as chairman and member in local academic advisory boards.
Biography
Biography
Meiyu has over 18 years of work experiences in the food industry, ranging from laboratory testing, quality control/assurance to product development and application. She is an independent and focused individual who is passionate in baking, sustainability of food and reduction of food waste. For the past 10 years, she has been a key driver in setting up innovation centres for a few multi-national companies and developing numerous bakery solutions for customers in the APAC region. Meiyu is capable of fast prototyping, leveraging insights from the marketing team and presenting the USP of the product concepts to customers. She aspires to develop novel bakery & snacks solutions for customers and see the product being commercialized. She will also continue to empower her team members to achieve collective goals and mentor them to help them in their career growth.
Biography
Biography
Ms Meiyu Lim
Category Manager, Bakery & Snacks
