Judges
The ESSNawards 2023
The European Specialist Sports Nutrition Awards (ESSNawards) – Europe’s premier sports and active nutrition ceremony – is returning in 2023!
If you are interested in judging this year’s awards, please get in touch at info@essnawards.com.
You can read more about our robust judging process below.
Independent and fair
The ESSNawards judges process is extremely robust and ensures a fair competition. The judges for each category look 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.
Our ESSNawards 2022 judges can be found below.
MEET THE JUDGES

Alec Fenn

Alec Fenn
Alec Fenn is a Journalist and Copywriter who has spent the last 13 years writing about health, fitness and nutrition for magazines, websites, newspapers and brands. As an amateur sportsman and avid gym-goer he has a passion for finding out how elite nutrition can help both professionals and amateurs to reach peak performance.

Sarah-Jane Hodson

Sarah-Jane Hodson
Senior Category Manager of Sports Nutrition at Holland & Barrett
SJ joined Holland and Barrett in 2021, and is Senior Category Manager, leading the category buying team for Sports Nutrition and Nutritionally Complete Food.
Holland and Barrett are an international wellness retailer, and proudly offer the UK’s leading in-store specialist Sports nutrition ranges, with colleagues on hand to offer personalised advice.
As part of SJ’s role, she loves trying the prospective new ranges that her team are working on. SJ has extensive experience of managing wellness and wearable tech categories, including previous roles at Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy and Maplin.
SJ is a big advocate of sport and movement for all and can be found at parkrun most weekends, marshalling enthusiastically.

Kate McDaid

Kate McDaid
Kate McDaid is a health and performance nutritionist with over a decade of practical experience working one on one with athletes and the general population in addition to multiple elite sport’s teams. Kate is the founder of NutriKate, a high-performance nutrition clinic and recently joined the team in Kinetica Sports as Business Development Manager. Kate studied Food Science at University College Dublin before completing an MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition at Loughborough University.
Kate comes from a competitive sporting background. She has captained the Irish Basketball team and has played with the Senior Dublin Football team which has resulted in a strong understanding of the demands of elite level performance and can apply personal insight and understanding when dealing with clients not to mention identify areas for development to allow athletes to compete at their best. She has worked with many elite and high performing teams and organisations such as Dublin GAA, the Gaelic Athletic Association being the governing body of Ireland’s national sport, the Paddy Harrington Golf Scholarship programme at Maynooth University and Vhi for example. Kate has also lectured in Applied Nutrition at Technological University Dublin where she provided practical insights to students focused on working in the nutrition field.
Kate was recognised as ‘one to watch’ in Sport for Business’ 30 under 30 in 2020 and recently completed the Monash University Low FODMAP diet training to support those who may be affected by IBS. She is an ISAK accredited anthropometrist.

Rob Hobson

Rob Hobson
With a successful career spanning over 17 years, Rob is an acclaimed registered nutritionist known for his varied expertise in the field. At the heart of London, he founded RH Nutrition, a renowned consultancy that caters to a diverse clientele. Among his clients are professional athletes and individuals striving to elevate their physical performance.
Rob’s voice resonates beyond personal consultations. He’s a frequent contributor to top-tier health magazines and is no stranger to the airwaves, making appearances on both radio and TV. Adding to his accolades, he is the author of three internationally-sold books on nutrition.
His consultancy acumen is sought after by leading health and wellness brands. This includes collaborative ventures with household names such as Healthspan, Flora, Adidas, Fitbit, and Yakhult. Through these partnerships, Rob continues to shape the landscape of sports nutrition and wellness, one client and one brand at a time.

Nick Morgan

Nick Morgan
Nick works closely with companies in sport, active and lifestyle nutrition regarding their approach to innovation. Nick began his career as an exercise physiologist in elite sport before working at GSK and then subsequently establishing his own company in 2010. Nick’s primary focus is on how our understanding of science, the consumer, and the market integrates to underpin business strategy and innovation.

Dr Bradley Elliott

Dr Bradley Elliott
Dr Bradley Elliott is Senior Lecturer in Physiology and an active research scientist into the growth and loss of muscle mass, specialising in how and why humans lose muscle mass with age and what can be done to prevent this. Dr Elliott is course leader in the Master in Science (Sports & Exercise Nutrition) at the University of Westminster, has worked with multiple industry partners on nutritional interventions to improve human performance, and is a Trustee of the British Society for Research on Ageing. Dr Elliott frequently contributes to television, radio and public debate and policy on exercise, fitness and health of the nation.

Andrew Steele

Andrew Steele
Andrew Steele is a retired Olympic athlete and a digital health technology entrepreneur working as Chief Product Officer for Prenetics EMEA.
Having competed internationally for 15 years, Andrew was one of the most experienced athletes on Team GB, being part of national teams at European, Commonwealth, World, and Olympic levels. In an unusual turn of events, nine years after competing at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Andrew was awarded an Olympic medal for the 4x400m relay when the Russian team who finished 3rd was retrospectively disqualified for a backdated doping failure – finally receiving his medal in 2017.
As Andrew’s competitive career came to a close, he joined the leadership of personal genomics company DNAfit, building the world’s first digital platform to allow individuals to understand how their genetic profile affects exercise, nutrition, stress, and sleep response. DNAfit went on to be acquired by the Prenetics group in 2018, and over years since Andrew helped grow the EMEA business from a startup to a team of over 700, culminating in a successful Nasdaq listing at >$1bn valuation in 2022.

Dr Tilly Spurr

Dr Tilly Spurr
Tilly is a registered performance nutritionist (SENr) and Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Nutrition at the University of Chichester. She has worked with a range of National and International athletes in both team and individual sports, and coaches executives in high stress jobs. She is currently working for Great British and England Basketball, being part of the team behind the successful Commonwealth Games teams, is a TASS Nutritionist and a consultant for Great British Eventing and Akolyte Esports. Tilly’s research focuses on the development of fuelling and recovery strategies around elite performance, and she is particularly passionate about supporting young athletes.
Tilly coaches players to recognise that tiny changes made in what, or the timing of what they eat can add up to great gains. A solid personalised nutrition and hydration strategy can promote good health and performance, enhance cognitive function and improve team dynamics.

Dr James Fleming

Dr James Fleming
Dr. James Fleming, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition at St Mary’s University London, leads the MSc in Applied Sports Nutrition program. With a focus on optimising health, well-being, and sports performance, his doctoral research explored fuelling adolescent tennis players. James continues to prioritise research involving adolescent athletes while also investigating nutrition in masters and ultra-endurance athletes.
Alongside his academic role, James is a Level 3 Anthropometrist (ISAK) and a registered Performance Nutritionist with the Sport and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENr). James regularly leads ISAK body composition courses and acts as a consultant Performance Nutritionist, with experience working across a range professional sports teams and individuals.

Jesse Lambert-Harden

Jesse Lambert-Harden
Jesse Lambert-Harden is a nutrition coach and personal trainer with over 10 years in the industry. She is passionate about coaching women to fuel for both performance and health benefits and her clients range from the general population, recreational athletes to seasoned GB entrants. She is a regular contributor to 220 Triathlon magazine focusing on women in sport, developing nutrition courses as well as public health project development and delivery within the local community.

Dr Julien Louis

Dr Julien Louis
Dr Julien Louis is Reader in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) where he has teaching and research duties. Julien is the Programme Leader for the MSc in Sport Nutrition at LJMU. Julien is also Associate Researcher at the French Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP, Paris), and a Fellow of the European College of Sport Science.
Julien is the author of over 80 scientific publications in the field of sport sciences and he is a member of the Editorial Board of a number of scientific journals including the European Journal of Sport Science, Journal of Sport Sciences, Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, PlosOne, and Nutrients.
Julien’s research focuses on training, nutrition and recovery strategies for optimising sport performance, with an emphasis on elite sport. Julien is also interested in the effects of ageing on sport performance with masters athletes at the centre of his research.
In parallel to his academic roles, Julien regularly works as Nutritionist in Elite sport. He is the current performance Nutritionist of AG2R-Citroen professional cycling team, and previous appointments include Liverpool Football Club, Lille Football Club, the French Football Federation, and many Olympic sports.

Dr Stephen Bailey

Dr Stephen Bailey
Dr Stephen Bailey is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Nutrition at Loughborough University.
Stephen’s research focuses on exercise and nutritional interventions to improve cardiovascular health, oxidative metabolism, and exercise performance. Stephen has published over 100 original research articles on these topics as well as several book chapters and review articles. He is a Fellow of the European College of Sport Science and serves on the editorial board of four international journals. Stephen has completed numerous research projects in collaboration with nutrition industry partners and elite sport organisations such as British Swimming and British Athletics.

Francesca Cappozzo

Francesca Cappozzo
Advertising Compliance Executive at PAGB, Freelance Nutritionist & Personal Trainer
Francesca works as Senior Advertising Compliance Executive at PAGB, the consumer healthcare association representing the manufacturers of branded OTC medicines, self-care medical devices, and food supplements in the UK.
Francesca is responsible for the advertising compliance of major food supplements and pharmaceutical brands, working with companies such as Bayer, Sanofi, Haleon, and Perrigo. Her role consists of providing claims approval services for food supplement packs and advertising material including point of sale, TVC, social media, and website copies, as well as training PAGB members on the Advertising Codes. With over 7 years of experience in the nutrition sector and a master’s degree in sports nutrition, Francesca has also her own business working as a nutritionist (ANutr) and online personal trainer @fitwithfranci.

Jens Bleiel

Jens Bleiel
Jens Bleiel is an entrepreneur and business economist by training. He started his career at a management consultant company in Germany. He worked with Milupa in Germany which was later acquired by Dutch company Numico (brands included Aptamil, Nutricia and Cow & Gate) and is part of Danone today. He held several management and executive functions in the baby food branch of the company in Germany, The Netherlands and Argentina and his last function was Global Marketing Director Infant Milks. After 10 years in this business, Jens Bleiel joined Dutch multinational DSM as Senior Vice President Metabolic Health Products, he built the functional food business in the area of societal lifestyle concerns, like weight management, diabetes, infant nutrition and sports nutrition.
Jens Bleiel was Chief Executive Officer of Food for Health Ireland for nine years up to 2018. Food for Health Ireland combines world-class science of seven Public Research Organisations and the industry expertise of five leading dairy companies (Glanbia, Kerry, Carbery, Dairygold and Ornua) in Ireland in one centre to develop new innovative ingredients and services for the global food, health, sports nutrition and well-being market.

Terence O’Rorke

Terence O’Rorke
Vice Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance and Business Development Manager at LGC Group
As Business Development Manager for international life sciences company LGC, Terence has been providing specialist services to the worldwide supplements industry for the last decade.
He manages LGC’s supplements testing services and certification programmes in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa. These include Informed Sport, Informed Choice, Informed Ingredient, and Informed Manufacturer.
Prior to joining LGC, Terence worked for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in Montreal, which allowed him to develop unique anti-doping expertise. This experience and knowledge have 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.

Jo Travers

Jo Travers
Jo Travers, The London Nutritionist and author of The Low-Fad Diet, is a state Registered Dietitian with a First Class BSc (Hons) in Human Nutrition & Dietetics. She has been in private practice for five years, and in her media role has consulted on and off-screen for the BBC; Channel 4; and comments regularly in print and on radio (more often than not as the voice of reason when the latest outlandish food story hits the news).
She is also a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association.

Mark Gilbert

Mark Gilbert
Mark Gilbert B.A.Sc. (Nutrition), RNutr, CISSN
Mark has been involved in nutrition and healthcare for over 25 years, is a registered nutritionist and has held multiple certifications in sports nutrition, exercise science and pharmaceuticals. He is currently Nutritionist for The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan and Science Officer for TDMR Europe. Formerly, Mark was Vice Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance, Director of Consumers for Health Choice, author, international speaker, on the Advisory Board and columnist for Muscle & Fitness, Flex and Muscle Insider magazines and co-founder of FitnessGenes, Ltd. As a consultant, Mark has advised dozens of multi-national companies on product formulation/IP, regulatory affairs, corporate investment and marketing, including most of the world’s top sports nutrition companies, Tesco, Lion Capital and the Canadian Armed Forces. Mark has also worked with doctors, dietitians and specialist nurses in the NHS, advising and providing training on the use of enteral and parenteral nutrition and pharmaceuticals and worked with the police and the courts as an expert witness.

Claudia Mucciardi

Claudia Mucciardi
Associate Director, Regulatory & Quality Compliance – Europe, Nutrabolt and Vice-Chair, ESSNA
Claudia is a Vice-Chair of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance and joined Nutrabolt in 2021 as Associate Director of Regulatory & Quality Compliance for Europe. She has hands-on experience with a range of sports nutrition products such as protein and pre-workout powders, protein and energy bars, as well as meal replacement products, RTDs and capsules & tablets. In terms of overall professional background, Claudia has over a decade’s worth of experience in compliance of sports foods and supplements, with previous roles at Herbalife, GSK and Glanbia Performance Nutrition.
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.

Luca Bucchini

Luca Bucchini
Managing Director of Hylobates Consulting
Luca is 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.
