Robert Madge is the founder and CEO of FoodReg Daten AG, of Switzerland, a provider of automated record-keeping and controls for the food and grown-products industries and pioneer in food traceability solutions, computerised food safety programmes and sustainability monitoring.
 
FoodReg has been operating since 2004 and has provided traceability solutions for most categories of food product.  It has been active in the palm oil industry and has deployed compliance management solutions (particularly focused on RSPO compliance) as well as traceability for palm oil products.  Since early 2013, FoodReg has been developing an platform, KnownSources, for supply-chain reporting of the traceability and sustainability of palm-based products.
 
Previously Mr Madge was President of the European Association for Secure Identification, a non-profit organisation based in Barcelona, Spain, supporting industry users of tracking and traceability.
 
From 1986 to 2001, Mr. Madge was the Chairman and CEO of Madge Networks NV, a company in the field of networking technology and products.  Under Mr. Madge’s leadership, Madge Networks grew to become one of the world’s leading network product companies in the mid-1990s, producing innovative products based on the technologies of token ring, ATM, multi-media, and wireless networking.  The company’s operations extended to offices in more than 40 countries, and annual sales of $500 million.
 
Prior to 1986, Mr. Madge was the Technical Director of Intelligent Software Ltd, an R&D company in the UK that created chess machines and varied electronic gadgets, and in 1981 was the inventor of the world’s first electronic digital assistant.