Mrs Zorica Borković and Mrs Núria Feliu Besora to co-chair the EBC Sub-Committee Microbiology.
- 19/09/2024
- general
As of today (20 September), Mrs Zorica Borković and Mrs Núria Feliu Besora will be co-chairing the EBC Sub-Committee Microbiology, replacing Mrs Gudrun Vogeser who had been chairing it for the last 15 years.
The EBC Sub-Committee Microbiology is one of the EBC Sub-Committees in charge of developing the Analytica EBC, focusing on microbiological analysis. After 15 years of active lead, Mrs Gudrun Vogeser is stepping down as a chair and will remain a committed member. Mrs Feliu Besora, an active member for more than five years, as well as Mrs Borković who joined the Sub-Committee three years ago, will actively co-chair the group for the next years.
Regarding EBC and her engagement, Zorica shared: “I'm particularly grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with such a talented group of professionals so far. Today I’m even more honoured to be taking on this new role as co-chair of the EBC Sub-Committee Microbiology and excited to continue with sharing my expertise and co-lead this team to common success in this special and very important topic for breweries. I do believe in fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and growth-oriented team culture, where every member feels valued, supported, and empowered to do their best work and I do believe that this team will continue making significant steps forward in the field of microbiology. I would use this opportunity to express my gratitude to my colleagues who have entrusted me with the responsibility to take this role.”
Sincerely, Núria said “It is an honour to be part of the EBC Sub-Committee Microbiology as a co-chair, following the steps of different colleagues from Mahou San Miguel. Thanks for the opportunity. I can share my expertise to encourage other people in the microbiology field and work together to improve the knowledge of microbiology in the brewery industry”.
The co-chairs can be contacted via info@brewersofeurope.eu.
Curriculum Vitae of the co-chairs
Mrs. Zorica Borković
Zorica Borković, passionate Microbiology & Hygiene expert with 25 years of experience. By educational background MSc. of Microbiology, she started her professional career on the Microbiology Department of Faculty of Natural Science University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Last 21 years she works in Brewing industry and since 2008 she has joined Heineken. From 2023 on, she held the position of Hygiene Quality Specialist in Shared Support Quality & Technology East HUB.
Throughout her so far career in the Brewing industry, she held various roles in Quality department mostly related to Microbiology and Hygiene, starting from brewery level, country (OpCo) and regional positions. Areas of expertise: brewing microbiology; water microbiology; establishing microbiological laboratories and implementation of related lab. methods; validation of (new) microbiological laboratory methods; auditing of brewery labs; hygienic design of the equipment; verification of the C&D procedures, risks assessment of new equipment/product introduction, microbiological troubleshooting, microbiology & hygiene workshops (face to face & online) with the role of the organizer and trainer and coach, Food Safety standards.
Some of her latest roles/recognitions she is especially proud of are: 2017 becoming a core member of Heineken Centre of Excellence (CoE) Hygiene in Brewery with lead/support roles on global projects; one of CoEs Champions in 2020; short-term assignments in the region (2020- 2022); 2021 - certified auditor for Heineken laboratories; 2022 - Heineken representative in the EBC Sub-Committee Microbiology.
On a personal note, she is an avid professional coach (certified by ECA) and highly motivated to support and guidance people (individuals/teams) to become their best version.
Mrs Núria Feliu Besora
Her educational background is Food Technology and Technical Agricultural Engineer at University of Lleida (1998-2004). She has a Master in Brewing Science at University of Nottingham (2012-2015).
She started as an Applied Research Microbiologist in the R&D department focusing her work on rapid microbiology methods for beer, beer mixes, soft drinks, and mineral water. She was in charge of developing, testing, and validating methods. She was actively participating in granted projects for different topics. From 2016 to 2021 she continued as a microbiology specialist in the central laboratory of Mahou San Miguel. During this period, she had more contact to all the breweries that the company has and she was deeply involved in implementing microbiology methods. She has an important role in the definition, coordination, and implementation of the microbiological sampling plans of multiple brewery sites of the company. As a microbiology specialist, she acts as an internal consultant for new development products and participates in microbiological troubleshooting. Núria is responsible for microbiology methods and equipment selection for the rest of the breweries. More recently, in June 2021, she was promoted to head of the central laboratory of microbiology. During all the periods she has been working in Mahou San Miguel, Núria has been responsible for the internal yeast bank.
Throughout their professional career in Mahou San Miguel, she had a close relationship with the EBC Sub-Committee Microbiology. She has actively collaborated with her previous boss Marta Orive revising EBC methods, doing ring tests, and participating in some method validation. Finally, Núria has presented different posters throughout her career at the EBC congress.
