Thijs Wullems is the Head of the Tribe at Monkeys by the Sea, a foodtech company producing seafood-inspired creations which he founded in 2021. After a career in international business development across the food industry - of which over a decade in international seafood - his culinary experience shapes how his team builds:

Products are designed with taste as the main driver, built on scalable technology and a unique blend of ingredients from the land and sea. ‘A healthier Ocean for future generations’ is the company’s overarching mission. In addition to an innovative range of frozen plant-based products for foodservice, the company developed the "Powered by Monkeys" philosophy; a B2B licensing model supplying semi-fabricates and formulation know-how to seafood processors, which helps them create hybrid products.

Monkeys by the Sea was a 2025 winner of the Fair Future Challenge by DOEN Foundation, voted 4th in Protein Production Technology International's26 Food-Techs to Watch in 2026, listed in the FoodTech 500, and Thijs has featured in the ‘Food100’, the most influential food personalities in the Netherlands in 2025 and 2026. His pragmatic idealist approach to changing our food systems along with a strong collaborative mindset make him an engaging speaker.