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François-Xavier Branthôme joined Tomato News as assistant Editor in September 2000 following a first career in various technical roles in the food industry, mainly in tomato processing. After several summer jobs in the industry during his studies, after graduating with a Higher Diploma from the CTCPA school of food preservation techniques in Paris in 1987, he worked for the tomato processors Le Cabanon Cooperative and Louis Martin and powder company Top International in South East France, before joining Société Industrielle des Poudres alimentaires (SIP) in 1990 where he rose from Technical Manager to Deputy Director, leaving when the factory was closed by new owner AGRAZ in 2000.
François’ role as Editor will be taken over by Madeleine Royère Koonings who joined the Tomato News team in 2017 as Community Manager. She was hired as she had the rare double competency in the food industry, having graduated in Food Science and Technology from ENSAIA in Nancy (France), during which time she interned in a tomato processing plant, and in IT, having spent a good 10 years working first for a consultancy company and then a pharmaceuticals company in Paris, before joining Unilever in 1998 as an IT Project Manager. In 2000 Unilever transferred her to The Netherlands initially to work on a European standardization project, and she then changed roles and worked as a Change Manager and lastly as an HR Business Partner until 2008. She started teaching in 2010 at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, until she moved back to the South of France where she grew up in 2013. There, she has since been training adults in various capacities, from IT to English, management, social media and public speaking, in parallel to her work on getting advertisers and managing the back office of the Tomato News website which she helped design. Following an online course in Journalism, she started writing articles last year and will replace Francois as the main Editor from April 2025, as well as remaining the main contact for advertisers and partners.
