Sean Leighton

Sean Leighton is currently VP Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory Affairs for Cargill based in Wayzata, Minnesota. Prior to joining Cargill, Sean worked for over 13 years at The Coca-Cola Company in various roles across Quality, Food Safety and Environmental Sustainability, working in the US, Canada and Europe. Sean has a BS in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MS in Food Science from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Emory University.

Sean sits on the advisory board of many organizations including, but not limited to, IAFP’s Journal of Food Protection, The Center for Food Safety (UGA), GMA’s Science & Education Foundation and the Food Fraud Think Tank (MSU). In his spare time, Sean enjoys running, lifting weights, and spending time with his wife, Kelly, his 3-year old son Connor, and his 9-month old daughter, Parker.

Renata Clarke

Renata holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of the West Indies and a PhD in Food Science and Technology from the Technical University of Nova Scotia. For the last 20 years she has worked for FAO where she is Head of Food Safety and Quality. While with FAO, she has overseen the development and implementation of numerous capacity development projects in all regions. For the last eight years, she has led the FAO Food Safety Programme and has promoted integrated programmes of technical assistance aimed at enhancing the capacities of countries to assure the safety of their food supplies. Under her leadership, the FAO Food Safety Programme has produced a variety of publications and on-line tools to support countries’ 2019 efforts to strengthen national systems of food control and to enhance their engagement in global food standard-setting processes of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Renata has guided new innovative work on the assessment of food control systems and on promoting transparent and evidence-based decision-making on food safety. She also provides general oversight to the FAO Programme for the Provision of Food Safety Scientific Advice, which underpins Codex standard setting.

Craig Wilson

Craig Wilson is the Vice President, General Merchandising Manager of Quality Assurance/ Food Safety, Non-Foods Quality Assurance, Environmental Services/Haz Mat and Merchandise Services for Costco Wholesale Corporation. Costco Wholesale Corporation operates membership warehouses world-wide, that offer a selection of branded and private label products in a range of merchandise categories.

Costco is a global leader when it comes to food safety, and all suppliers must meet their strict compliance requirements. Costco’s food safety audit systems, STEC testing of fresh foods, x-ray product inspection, and unique positions on the Global Food Safety Initiative and the global regulatory environment, is well known industry wide.

Prior to joining Costco Wholesale, Craig worked as a Special Projects Director for Frigoscandia Equipment Food Safety Systems for over 24 years.  During his time with Frigoscandia, Craig published numerous research papers in the areas of food safety and food processing and holds many patents, the most notable for steam pasteurization of food, and is the recipient of the Gia/Matek, Global Excellence in Food Safety Award.

He currently serves on the Global Food Safety Initiative Board, the Center for Produce Safety Board, the Center for Food Integrity Board, the STOP Food Borne Illness Board and the Steering Committee for the National Food Safety Consortium.  Craig is also a member of the Board of Directors for Camp Korey.

Clive Newton

Clive Newton has a 30-year career history in the food industry that encompasses general management, supply chain, food safety and food innovation. Working predominantly in Asia Pacific and global roles, Clive’s focus has orientated towards formulation of organizational strategy and governance. As a member of Yum!’s Compliance Oversight Committee, Clive is responsible for the definition and global deployment of Food Safety policy, standards and compliance programs across more than 130 countries with primary focus on new and developing markets.

Prior to joining Yum! Brands Inc. in 2007, he worked with H.J. Heinz Company in a variety of technical and commercial roles in the UK, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

Clive earned his bachelors degree and doctorate in the UK before completing post-doctoral research at Stanford University.

Frank Sabella

Mr. Frank J. Sabella is Vice President of Quality, Food Safety, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs for Mondelēz International, a position he has held since September 2013.   He is responsible for providing strategic leadership for the combined Food Safety, SARA and Quality function for Mondelēz International, delivering integrated strategies and plans needed for growth while driving excellence in consumer-inspired quality.  Prior to this he was the Vice President of Research, Development, Quality and Innovation for the Kraft Foods Group – Beverages, a position he has held since 2004.  He was responsible for all product and packaging development, food safety and quality matters for Kraft Beverages in North America.  He was also responsible for the development of the Enabling Technology agenda for Kraft’s Global Refreshment Beverage Category.

Mr. Sabella draws upon over 33 years of R&D, Quality and project management experience in the food industry.  He has developed and commercialized new process technologies, ingredient and product innovations and has successful track record of managing tactical and strategic research programs on a local and global basis.  He joined Kraft in 1985 as a research engineer in Maxwell House Coffee, working primarily to develop products and processes for decaffeinated and specialty coffees.  He holds a U.S. patent for his work.  Mr. Sabella received a B.S. in chemical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York.  He was a Certified Food Scientist and Certified Quality Engineer.   Mr. Sabella is located at the East Hanover, NJ Campus for Mondelēz International.

Roberta Wagner

Ms. Roberta F. Wagner was appointed the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Policy and Program Development (OPPD) in the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) at USDA in March 2017. In this position, she leads the development of both Agency policies and the publication of numerous FSIS policy documents, including regulations, instructions to the field, and guidance to industry. Previously, Roberta was Deputy Assistant Administrator in the FSIS Office of Field Operations. Before coming to FSIS, Roberta served in the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CSFAN) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for over 28 years.

Roberta began her regulatory career at the FDA in the ORA’s Baltimore District Office in 1987, where she worked for nearly 20 years, first as an analytical chemist, specializing in pesticide and industrial chemical analyses, and applied research and then as Director of the Baltimore District’s Investigations and Compliance branches. Roberta joined CFSAN in 2006, as the Director of the Division of Communication and Education. She served in this capacity for two years prior to assuming leadership positions in CFSAN’s Office of Compliance (OC). Prior to re-joining CFSAN in February 2013 as the director of the OC, Roberta held the position of Assistant Commissioner for Operations in ORA for two years. In this capacity, she provided leadership to ORA’s field force, including investigators, compliance officers, laboratory staff, and the ORA headquarters components that supported and interfaced with the field organization. Roberta later served as CFSAN Deputy Director for Regulatory Affairs and Associate Director for Food Safety Modernization Act Operations.

Roberta holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Science with a minor in Environmental Science from Hiram College. She also holds a Master of Science in Biochemistry from Bowling Green State University. Following graduate school, she was employed briefly at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a research assistant in the Oncology Department before joining the FDA.

Sharon Lindan Mayl, J.D.

Sharon Mayl serves as the Senior Advisor for Policy to the Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine.  In this position, she oversees and manages significant policy initiatives related to food safety and nutrition.  She currently focuses on implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).  Ms. Mayl co-leads the team that is developing the FSMA import rules and guidance documents, including those related to the Foreign Supplier Verification Program, Voluntary Qualified Import Program, and Accredited Third-Party Certification Program.  Ms. Mayl is also the co-lead for the FSMA import operational team that is preparing the Agency as it transitions from policy setting to compliance, including the oversight of the development and implementation of regulator training, compliance strategies, inspections and work planning, and outreach and education.  Ms. Mayl is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Law School.  Prior to joining the agency in 1994, she worked first in private practice and then for a public interest advocacy group on foods issues.

Sara Mortimore

Sara Mortimore, is a Food Scientist with over 30 years of practical experience and since 2008 has been Vice President of Product Safety, Quality and Regulatory Affairs with enterprise wide responsibility at Land O’Lakes, Inc., covering dairy foods, animal nutrition and agricultural inputs.

Sara started her career with Glaxo SmithKline, working as a Research Technologist in R&D. In 1989 she joined Grand Metropolitan Foods which later became Pillsbury and subsequently was incorporated by General Mills Inc.  She stayed there for close on 19 years moving through a series of global assignments all in Food Safety and Quality, working with global brands such as Haagen Dasz, Green Giant, Old El Paso, Nature Valley and national brands in many countries.

Sara is also the co-author of many successful books on HACCP and food safety management, has served on the editorial board of Food Control and was for several years a trustee of the Royal Society of Public Health. She has also been a member of the BRC International Advisory Board for over 10 years, and is a member of the GMA Executive Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Committee. She has recently taken an active role in the review of the effectiveness of the Codex HACCP and Food Hygiene principles.

Mark Fryling

Mark has worked for 24 years in a variety of leadership roles across Innovation Technology and Quality (ITQ) at General Mills. In his current role, Mark is accountable for Food Safety and Quality compliance for all General Mills operations around the world. The Food Safety and Quality organization at General Mills is a team of roughly 500 quality professionals accountable to provide global business support for all GMI products from design to consumption. Key accountabilities of the Food Safety and Quality team include assuring food safety and quality by design, specifications and labeling, regulatory compliance, raw material vendor approval and maintenance, and manufacturing verification and support.

Prior to his current position, Mark has held a variety of roles in ITQ including food safety and quality leadership roles in six US manufacturing plants, and corporate roles supporting US operating units. In addition to his work on US-based businesses, Mark has also had several roles focused on businesses outside of North America including four years based in Switzerland leading Innovation Technology and Quality for General Mills’ businesses in Europe and Australasia.

Mark holds an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Dayton, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Ohio State University.

Tammy Switucha

Tammy Switucha is the Senior Director, Domestic Food Safety Planning and Requirements with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.  She has worked in the Canadian Federal Government for over 25 years and has been with the CFIA for the past 11 years.  She has held various executive positions at the CFIA, including Director of both International Relations and Strategic Policy.  She is currently leading the Agency’s efforts to modernize its regulatory framework for food safety – the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations – which have been under development since 2013.  This work also involves the development of guidance material for industry stakeholders to assist with readiness for compliance with the regulations.

Stacey Popham

Stacey Popham serves as the Vice President, Quality, Food Safety, and Regulatory, Americas for Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading chocolate and cocoa company. She leads a 140-person team which develops and executes the Quality strategy for the region, which includes 16 company-owned plants in five countries that manufacture 550,000 tons of chocolate and cocoa products a year.

Previously Stacey was Vice President, Quality Systems for TreeHouse Foods, where she shaped and implemented strategy and teams for all systems pertaining to Global Supplier and Co-manufacturer Quality; developed integrated company-wide Food Safety and Quality Policy, Consumer Affairs and led the Customer-facing Quality teams.

Prior to TreeHouse Foods, Stacey was the Head of Research and Development for the $4 Billion Beverage and Snacking Business Unit at Kraft Heinz. In this role, she was responsible for the innovation, renovation and cost management for iconic brands such as Capri-Sun, Kool Aid, Maxwell House and Planters.

Throughout her 20+ year, Stacey has developed cross-functional expertise in Engineering, Research and Development and Quality. Stacey earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1999.

Peter Begg

Peter Begg is currently Vice President, Quality and Food Safety for Glanbia Nutritionals. He oversees all aspects of quality and food safety across the company including risk management, regulatory and food safety conformity and product compliance for the business. Glanbia Nutritionals provides nutritional and functional ingredient solutions for use in the food and beverage industry.

Prior to Glanbia, Peter was Sr. Director of Global Supply Chain Quality for Mondelēz International. His responsibilities included Auditing, Supplier Quality, Sanitation and Hygienic Design, Lean Six Sigma for Quality, Distribution and Warehouse Quality, Policy and Training, and Quality Systems. Before that, Peter was the Director of Quality for Kraft Foods Europe from 2008-2011 and Director of Research, Development and Quality for the Kraft Foodservice (Away from Home) business in North America from 2005-2008.

Throughout his 23-year career, Peter has worked in a variety of business roles including Engineering, R&D and Quality. Peter also represented Mondelēz International on the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) board of directors from 2012-2017. Peter completed his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1994.

Cloeann Durham

Cloeann is currently employed by Coca Cola Consolidated in Charlotte NC as a Vice President of Quality.  Cloeann holds a Bachelor degree in Biology and minor in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Cloeann has over 24 years’ experience in the Beverage Industry.  Her career started immediately after college in Great Britain in Quality Assurance for a major beverage manufacturer.  Since that time she has worked throughout the US supporting beverage manufactures in Waste Water and Water Treatment facilities, Dairy, Concentrate and Carbonated Beverages and also working with an FDA lab as a Pathogen Specialist.  Cloeann has served as a member of the IFT (International Food Technologist),  GFSI (Global Food Safety Institute), the Dairy Manufacturers Council, Food Safety Board and the ISBT ( International Society of Beverage Technologies). Currently Cloeann serves as the Former President of the ISBT (International Society of Beverage Technologies) and has also been a special presenter for the ISBT general assembly technical sessions, the IFT, Food Safety Symposium, and Keynote Speaker for Food Safety Summit.

Al Almanza

Pawel Rudzinski

Lisa Thorsten

Lisa is Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at Campbell Soup Company.  She coordinates a network of regulatory leaders around the world who manage labeling, ingredient reviews and finished product regulatory compliance for consumer-loved brands such as Campbell, Prego, Swanson, Pace, Pepperidge Farm, Plum Organics, Bolthouse Farms and Arnott’s.  In addition to her work in Regulatory, Lisa has had experience managing other R&D and Quality functions at Campbell including Sensory, Product Development, Nutrition Labeling and Global Quality.

Prior to Campbell, Lisa was a Senior Food Technologist at Best Foods, now part of Unilever, and a member of the global team that brought the first Knorr manufacturing facility to the US.  In her first food industry position, Lisa was a Food Technologist at Estee Foods formulating a wide range of foods, including confections, for consumers on medically-restricted diets.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Penn State University and a Master of Science degree in Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs from Temple University’s School of Pharmacy.

Lisa is active in several nutrition and regulatory-related committees within industry including the American Bakers Association, Institute of Food Technologists, the Organic Trade Association and the Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association.   Lisa is also active in her community as a Troop Committee Chair for the Boy Scouts of America and a Supporting Member of the Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Foodshed Alliance.

Christa Lovelock

Christa is responsible for leading the development, establishment and execution of comprehensive food safety, quality, continuous improvement and sanitation strategies in support of the FGF business growth plans for Canada & US.  As a passionate influencer, Christa has acquired over 20 years of quality leadership with the ability to mentor and obtain consistent results within a solid manufacturing and continuous improvement environment.   Christa is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Preventative Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) under FSMA, HACCP, BRC & SQF.   In addition to leading the food safety programs within a bakery environment, Christa has knowledge and experience in both the grains and dairy industries.

Dr. Liz Palmer

As a Quality Manager at Morton Salt, Liz supports food safety and quality for all of Morton’s business units, from ice melt through water softening, from animal food and human food, to pharmaceutical products, etc. She has worked to bring about implementation and execution of quality programs and food safety programs and helps to ensure FSMA-compliance. With her food safety and microbiology background, she provides scientific and technical expertise to ensure quality and food safety from conception and development through execution and production at both internal and external production facilities. She works with external institutions and business partners to maintain technical readiness concerning regulatory, quality and food safety challenges in the industry. Liz previously served as a subject matter expert in cheese and dairy food safety and microbiology at Kraft, working with brands such as Velveeta and Kraft American Singles.

Liz holds a Ph.D. in Food Science with a minor in Microbiology and emphasis on Food Safety from Cornell University. She is a member of ASM, IFT and IAFP. She also loves Kosher salt, dairy products and is passionate about microbiology.

Don Jones

Don Jones is responsible for Quality, Food Safety and Regulatory compliance for Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. based in Denver, Colorado. Responsibilities include oversight of quality and food safety systems at co-manufacturers, regulatory/labeling, consumer affairs and the company call center.

Joining Atkins in 2012, he previously worked with ConAgra Foods for 25 years. He has held Food Safety, Quality and R&D positions supporting both retail and food service businesses at plant and corporate levels domestically and internationally with experiences across food categories that include: raw and ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry slaughter/processing, RTE seafood, dairy, snack foods, jarred sauces/preserves, frozen, canned and dehydrated foods, aseptic and near aseptic products, edible oils/margarine, flour milling, and animal feed production facilities.

Scott Wright

Scott has had the privilege of fulfilling leadership roles over the last 30 years in Agriculture Canada as both a scientist and manager of science programs, the Alberta Government, Saskatchewan Agriculture and the University of Saskatchewan, and for the last 5 years with the Star Group as SVP – Food Safety, & Government Relations.  Scott leads the Food Safety strategy and implementation for the Star Group of Companies produce warehouses, greenhouse and fresh cut facilities.

Scott has diverse interests both in and outside of the workplace that span science and business to people, and personal development.   His ‘outside’ activities include Ground Search and Rescue, Search and Rescue Training and Search Management, and delivering Executive Coaching and Leadership Development blended with personal development work in Emotional Intelligence.

Rajesh Shah

30 years of US Quality experience serving auto, electronics, plastic and molding. Past 10 years engaged with food, dietary supplement and in-flight catering industries serving as quality head under FDA and USDA jurisdictions.

Performed business and supplier site risk assessments in countries like China, Brazil, S Korea, Vietnam, India, Peru, Mexico, Canada and US. Expertise QMS, developing mitigation plans & providing solutions, training and business processes continuous improvement.

B.SC. in Mechanical engineering, MS in Ops from Stony Brook Uni; NY and MBA from LI Uni, NY.

HACCP, FSMA, FSVP, PCQI, FDA 21 CFR cGMP and USDA compliant.

Joan Menke-Schaenzer

Spir Marinakis

Shannon McCoy

Raul Fajardo

Jay Ellingson

Natalie Hadley

Nancy Wilson

Catherine Templeton

R.M. Karr

Dwayne Eymard

Melody Bennett

Hsing-Yi Hsieh

Sean Leighton

Sean Leighton is currently VP Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory Affairs for Cargill based in Wayzata, Minnesota.  Prior to joining Cargill, Sean worked for over 13 years at The Coca-Cola Company in various roles across Quality, Food Safety and Environmental Sustainability, working in the US, Canada and Europe.  Sean has a BS in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MS in Food Science from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Emory University.

Sean sits on the advisory board of many organizations including, but not limited to, IAFP’s Journal of Food Protection, The Center for Food Safety (UGA), GMA’s Science & Education Foundation and the Food Fraud Think Tank (MSU).  In his spare time, Sean enjoys running, lifting weights, and spending time with his wife, Kelly, his 3-year old son Connor, and his 9-month old daughter, Parker.

Steven Graham

Steven Graham was appointed Vice President, Food Safety and Quality – Starbucks in November 2015.

Steve is responsible for leading the development of comprehensive food safety and quality strategies in support of the Starbucks business growth plans. His portfolio covers all products manufactured within the US and sourced from overseas for the Americas, including coffee roasting plant quality and all food and beverage ingredient suppliers. Steve also leads quality related to packaging, merchandise and furniture for all stores,

Prior to joining Starbucks, Steve worked at Campbell Soup Co in various roles throughout the global organization.  After assignments at their World Headquarters and Campbell Canada, he and his family moved to Sydney, Australia where he was Vice President R&D/Quality for Asia Pacific. Immediately prior to Starbucks he led R&D and Quality for Pepperidge Farm based in Connecticut.

Steve’s proven strategic leadership and superior collaboration skills has enabled greater integration across a broad range of teams – driving superior results. His commitment to excellence is reflected in his focus to develop robust teams and valued individuals, resulting in strong employee engagement.

He earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Food Science from the University of Guelph Ontario Canada.

Anthony Auffray

Anthony Auffray is a food safety industry leader, his experience spanning nearly two decades. He studied food production, process and trade at the engineering school École Supérieure d’Agriculture in France. The start of his career brought him to Hong Kong where he held roles at Bureau Veritas, Food Pacific and SGS. In 2002, he joined Starbucks Coffee Asia Pacific, as regional QA manager and was promoted to a global role based in Seattle in 2007. Since 2013, Anthony has lead food safety and compliance globally across Amazon and recently has begun leading product safety globally as well. Amazon food safety programs support all Amazon Food Businesses, including Amazon Fresh, Prime Now, Amazon Go And Treasure Truck, from supplier approval to customer feedback monitoring.

Joann Givens

Ms. Joann M. Givens serves as Office of Regulatory Affairs’ Human and Animal Food Program Director; HAF-West.  In this leadership position, Joann oversees the human and animal food program work plan, accomplishments, implementation strategies of FSMA, program alignment advancement and collaborates with the Center of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Center of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), ORA components and external stakeholders.  Prior to serving in this position, Joann served as the Acting Regional Director of the Central Region for several years, Deputy Regional Director in the Central Region and District Director in Detroit District.  Joann is a graduate of Berkeley College, Little Falls, NJ and also majored in biology at Kean University, Union, NJ.  She is the recipient of numerous awards and a member of numerous professional organizations.

Carmen Rottenberg

Carmen Rottenberg was appointed Acting Deputy Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office for Food Safety in August 2017. In this position, Ms. Rottenberg oversees development, implementation and enforcement of all of FSIS’ regulations, policies and programs. This appointment follows nearly six years in leadership roles in the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS’) Office of the Administrator, including serving as the Chief of Staff, the Chief Operating Officer and, most recently, the Deputy Administrator.

In those leadership roles, Ms. Rottenberg executed a budget of over $1 billion, prioritizing resources and resolving disputes, advancing the Agency’s vision and goals, and leading innovative solutions to challenges in FSIS. She has spearheaded strategic planning at FSIS and implemented numerous initiatives to strategically move the agency forward. She implemented two major reorganizations leading to a more streamlined, efficient Agency better positioned to carry out its food safety mission. Through her leadership and oversight, an early governance process matured into an established systematic approach to agency decision-making, resulting in more deliberative, science-based decisions that consider enterprise-wide risks and benefits. Ms. Rottenberg’s vision led to the very successful i-Impact initiative which has increased the awareness of and engagement in FSIS’ public health mission by the more than 9,000 employees throughout the Agency.

Ms. Rottenberg joined FSIS as an Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist in 2007, and went on to become the Deputy Director of the Civil Rights Staff. Conducting training and working with FSIS employees from every program area and location while in those positions provided Ms. Rottenberg with a broad Agency perspective.

Ms. Rottenberg began her federal government career in the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of General Counsel, and prior to joining FSIS, Ms. Rottenberg was a law clerk at a small law firm in Fairfax, VA. Ms. Rottenberg holds a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from Hope College in Holland, MI and a JD degree from American University’s Washington College of Law.

Cloeann Durham

Cloeann is currently employed by Coca Cola Consolidated in Charlotte NC as a Vice President of Quality.  Cloeann holds a Bachelor degree in Biology and minor in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Cloeann has over 24 years’ experience in the Beverage Industry.  Her career started immediately after college in Great Britain in Quality Assurance for a major beverage manufacturer.  Since that time she has worked throughout the US supporting beverage manufactures in Waste Water and Water Treatment facilities, Dairy, Concentrate and Carbonated Beverages and also working with an FDA lab as a Pathogen Specialist.  Cloeann has served as a member of the IFT (International Food Technologist),  GFSI (Global Food Safety Institute), the Dairy Manufacturers Council, Food Safety Board and the ISBT ( International Society of Beverage Technologies). Currently Cloeann serves as the Former President of the ISBT (International Society of Beverage Technologies) and has also been a special presenter for the ISBT general assembly technical sessions, the IFT, Food Safety Symposium, and Keynote Speaker for Food Safety Summit.

Sharon K. K. Beals

Sharon is the VP of Food Safety and Quality Assurance for US Foods.  In this role, she is responsible for leading the food safety and quality efforts across the manufacturing facilities (12 federal establishments operating under the Stock Yards brand, a seafood operation operating under the Save-On-Seafood brand and a produce facility operating under the Freshway brand), several produce redistribution centers and, the supplier base for all of US Foods manufacturers of our Exclusive Brands.  Actively engaged in the industry, Sharon is on the 2017 BIFSCo Executive Committee, the 2017 Food Safety Summit Planning Committee and an AMSA Board Member, serving as the 2017 Chair of the Reciprocal Meat Conference.

Sharon joined US Foods in January of 2016 bringing nearly 40 years of food safety, quality, regulatory compliance and technical services experience with Maple Leaf Foods, Smithfield Foods, Tyson/IBP, Orval Kent, Arby’s Inc. and Land O’Frost.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition/Foods from Cornell University and is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Wisconsin’s Food Safety and Meat Microbiology School summer short course.

Cindy Jiang

Cindy Jiang is a Senior Director of Food and Packaging Safety, Global Supply Chain and Sustainability at McDonald’s. She leads a global food safety function from farm to the restaurant.  Cindy is responsible for developing the global food safety strategic plan, establishing science and risk based standards & procedures, and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to ensure effective food safety practices along the supply chain.

Cindy serves as a board of director for Global Food Safety Initiatives (GFSI), GFSI is an industry-driven global organization to advance food safety.  She is also a board member of SSAFE and a member of the advisory board for Bor S. Luh Food Safety Research Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. She has a great passion for Food Safety, Food Science, and Quality.

Cindy holds a Master of Science Degree in Food Science and Nutrition from University of Wisconsin.  She is a senior member of the American Society for Quality, a member of Institute of Food Technologist and International Association of Food Protection.

Tammy Switucha

Tammy Switucha is the Senior Director, Domestic Food Safety Planning and Requirements with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.  She has worked in the Canadian Federal Government for over 25 years and has been with the CFIA for the past 11 years.  She has held various executive positions at the CFIA, including Director of both International Relations and Strategic Policy.  She is currently leading the Agency’s efforts to modernize its regulatory framework for food safety – the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations – which have been under development since 2013.  This work also involves the development of guidance material for industry stakeholders to assist with readiness for compliance with the regulations.

Peter Begg

Peter Begg is currently Vice President, Quality and Food Safety for Glanbia Nutritionals.  He oversees all aspects of quality and food safety across the company including risk management, regulatory and food safety conformity and product compliance for the business.  Glanbia Nutritionals provides nutritional and functional ingredient solutions for use in the food and beverage industry.

Prior to Glanbia, Peter was Sr. Director of Global Supply Chain Quality for Mondelēz International. His responsibilities included Auditing, Supplier Quality, Sanitation and Hygienic Design, Lean Six Sigma for Quality, Distribution and Warehouse Quality, Policy and Training, and Quality Systems.  Before that, Peter was the Director of Quality for Kraft Foods Europe from 2008-2011 and Director of Research, Development and Quality for the Kraft Foodservice (Away from Home) business in North America from 2005-2008.

Throughout his 23-year career, Peter has worked in a variety of business roles including Engineering, R&D and Quality.  Peter also represented Mondelēz International on the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) board of directors from 2012-2017.  Peter completed his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1994.

Stacey Popham

Stacey Popham is currently Vice President, Quality Systems for TreeHouse Foods. She is responsible for shaping and implementing strategy and teams for all systems pertaining to Global Supplier and Co-manufacturer Quality, development of TreeHouse-wide Food Safety and Quality Policy, Consumer Affairs and leadership of Customer facing Quality teams. TreeHouse Foods provides private label food and beverage offerings to retail grocery and food away from home customers.

Prior to TreeHouse Foods, Stacey was the Head of Research and Development for the Beverage and Snacking Business Unit at Kraft Heinz. In this role she was responsible for the innovation, renovation and cost management for iconic brands such as Capri- Sun, Kool Aid, Maxwell House and Planters.

Throughout her 19-year career, Stacey has worked in a variety of business roles including Engineering, Research and Development and Quality. Stacey completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1999.

Arthur Liang

Arthur P. Liang, MD MPH is currently the Senior Advisor for Food Safety, Division of Foodborne Waterborne & Environmental Diseases, and CDC.  He is the former Director of the CDC Food Safety Office.  He has been a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and the Chief of the Communicable Disease Division, Hawaii Department of Health.  He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods. He is also serves on the Center for Produce Safety Board of Directors and the Food Safety Summit Education Advisory Board, and is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine.  He is board certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health.  He has a BA from Oberlin College, an MPH in International Health and Epidemiology from the University of Hawaii; and MD from the University of Maryland.

Hugo Andres Gutierrez

Hugo Andres Gutierrez is Vice President, Quality, Food Safety, and Regulatory Affairs for The Hershey Company.  In this position, Gutierrez provides leadership to Hershey’s global food quality, food safety, and regulatory programs in addition to implementation of 6 sigma programs across the company. Recently, he has been given the challenge of building a Supply Chain Learning and Development team for the Company.

Gutierrez has 20 years of experience in leading global, virtual and multi-cultural quality, food safety and regulatory teams.

Prior to joining Hershey, Gutierrez served as Director of International Quality and Regulatory Operations (QRO) for General Mills. In this position, he was responsible for working with regional and international functional leaders to enhance food safety culture, quality systems, and food safety programs. Gutierrez also worked to strengthen the Quality organization by developing leaders that could support the technical area while connecting with the business side of the company around the world.

His career with General Mills also included positions of Director, QRO for the Yoplait Division and Technical Development Director for Latin America and South Africa.

Prior to General Mills, Gutierrez held QA-related positions with Cadbury Schweppes USA, Pfizer in Canada and Chicle Adams (Warner Lambert) in Colombia.

Gutierrez holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Javeriana University and an MBA from Icesi University, both in his native Colombia. He speaks fluent Spanish, French, English and basic Portuguese.

Gutierrez and his family reside in Palmyra, Pa.

Mario Leduc

Manage a team of 53 subject matter experts developing best practices, establishing standardization, building capabilities, providing technical support and assuring compliance of 5 manufacturing sites, 5 distilleries and 12 sales offices.

Responsibilities: Environment, Health & Safety, Quality, Food Safety, Customer Care, Risk, Regulatory, Custom & Trade, Security & Manufacturing Excellence for Diageo North America

Acquired a solid manufacturing experience and expertise in Safety excellence, lean manufacturing, total quality and Continuous improvement with large organizations in the various aspects of a total supply chain.

Previous roles:  Project engineer, maintenance manager, safety chair, packaging & brewing operation management, plant operation and corporate governance.

Joined Diageo on September 2007.  Previously worked 20 years in the beer industry for Labatt Brewing Company and Latrobe Brewing Company in various locations in Canada and the US.

Electrical Engineer from Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal & Brewmaster from Scandinavian Brewing School in Denmark.

Fluent: English & French

Member of the OIQ and the Institute of Brewing

Other interest: Back country hiking, fly fishing and Hockey

For more details: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/mario-leduc-219b012a

Cinda Stricklen

Cinda is the Commercial Director of Supplier Quality for Mars Petcare North America.  In this role, she leads the Supplier Quality and Food Safety team in the development and execution of material quality management while supporting 21 production sites and over 600 supplier sites.

Prior to joining Mars, Cinda was Senior Director of Quality for Sam’s Club in Bentonville, AR where she was responsible for developing and implementing a new Quality system for Sam’s Club Private Brand suppliers and developing and maintaining a Quality program for branded and imported suppliers of items sold exclusively by Sam’s Club. Before that, she was the Corporate Quality and Food Safety Manager for ConAgra Brands. She was responsible for ensuring all ConAgra Brands items complied with each retailer’s Quality and Food Safety programs. Prior to joining ConAgra Brands, Cinda held multiple positions with Allen Canning Company including Quality Manager, Assistant Plant Manager, Thermal Process Authority, Director of Product Development, and Director of Customer Quality.

Cinda holds a Bachelor and Master’s Degree from the University of Arkansas in Food Science.

Darryl Riley

Darryl Riley is the SVP Quality/ Food Safety and R&D for Hostess Brands, LLC and serves on the senior leadership team. He directs the strategic plan and risk management for food safety and quality including policy, practices, and procedures. He also directs the R&D team with headcount and budget approvals, innovation, NPD, and quality improvements.

Darryl previously spent 15+ years at Kraft Foods in R&D and Supply Chain, in roles based in U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, and the U.K. directing technical functions. He also spent 9+ years at the Kellogg Company, as VP, Snacks RQT followed the VP, Global Quality and Technical Operations where he led the strategic transformation of Quality Operations to a scientific risk-based global team.

Gary Swanson

Gary Swanson is responsible for the corporate and regional Quality Assurance teams, as well as the Quality Control operations at Herbalife Innovation and Manufacturing facilities in Lake Forest, CA; Winston-Salem, NC; and Suzhou, China. Gary also has responsibility for the Quality Center of Excellence in the United States and Changsha, China. With over 30 years’ experience in nutritional and pharmaceutical quality and operations roles, Gary has been with Herbalife since 2009. Since that time, Gary has assembled a world-class Quality team that has completely transformed the Quality Assurance and Quality Control functions worldwide. Under Gary’s leadership, Herbalife has established a gold standard for the industry in Product Quality for foods, dietary supplements, botanicals and acidified foods by acquiring and developing the appropriate testing capabilities. Herbalife has made a significant investment in this key area and the Quality team has been instrumental in using Herbalife’s efforts to create the very best nutrition products. Gary began his career as a chemist for a Canadian manufacturer of nutritional and pharmaceutical soft gels and eventually oversaw worldwide operations for Banner Pharmacaps. Gary has focused a substantial part of his career on designing new facilities and helping various companies to improve product and process quality.

Lisa Thorsten

Lisa is Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at Campbell Soup Company.  She coordinates a network of regulatory leaders around the world who manage labeling, ingredient reviews and finished product regulatory compliance for consumer-loved brands such as Campbell, Prego, Swanson, Pace, Pepperidge Farm, Plum Organics, Bolthouse Farms and Arnott’s.  In addition to her work in Regulatory, Lisa has had experience managing other R&D and Quality functions at Campbell including Sensory, Product Development, Nutrition Labeling and Global Quality.

Prior to Campbell, Lisa was a Senior Food Technologist at Best Foods, now part of Unilever, and a member of the global team that brought the first Knorr manufacturing facility to the US.  In her first food industry position, Lisa was a Food Technologist at Estee Foods formulating a wide range of foods, including confections, for consumers on medically-restricted diets.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Penn State University and a Master of Science degree in Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs from Temple University’s School of Pharmacy.

Lisa is active in several nutrition and regulatory-related committees within industry including the American Bakers Association, Institute of Food Technologists, the Organic Trade Association and the Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association.   Lisa is also active in her community as a Troop Committee Chair for the Boy Scouts of America and a Supporting Member of the Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Foodshed Alliance.

Peter Poteres

Peter Poteres Global Vice President of Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN): GPN is the world leader in manufacturing nutritional foods and dietary supplements that are distributed globally.  I have been with GPN for 9 years and have a total of +38 years of Quality Assurance experience in the food, infant nutrition and dietary supplement industry.  Additional work experience includes Dove Candies & Ice Cream, Labatt’s Beverages, Coca-Cola, Nabisco/Kraft and Nestle.

John Budin

John Budin is the Vice President of Product Safety and Quality at FONA International.  John obtained his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Minnesota.  He started his career in 1996 on the faculty in the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Enology at Fresno State University.  In 1998, he began work with Quest International in their flavor division at Hoffman Estates, IL and later became the Manager of Analytical Sciences.  In 1996 Quest was acquired by Givaudan where he his role was as Technical Manager.  In May 2009, John joined Merieux NutriSciences (Silliker) as their Corporate Director of Chemistry, where he was responsible for the technical integrity of chemistry testing in North and South America.  In October 2014 John joined FONA International.  Over the past 20 plus years John has performed the chemical and instrumental analyses of food from a wide variety of matrixes.

John is currently the Past-Chair of the Technical Division of Reference Materials of the AOAC.  He has served as a member of the Executive Advisory Board to the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota and on the organizing committee of the North American Chemical Residue Workshop.  He has served as a lecturer for short courses and workshops offered at the University of Minnesota, IFT and AOAC.  Currently John is a food chemistry, food analysis and food quality lecturer for IFT’s Certified Food Science Prep Short Course.  He has received training from the Food Safety Preventative Control Alliance in their curriculum “Preventative Controls for Human Food”.

John is currently serving as the treasurer of the Chicago Section IFT and the Chicagoland Food Science Foundation.  He has also served on Chicago Section IFT as: Chairman, Hospitality Committee, Supplier’s Day Committee, Chair of Minute Man Committee, Chair of Tanner Lecture Committee and Chair of the Scholarship Committee.

David Abney

David is currently Vice President of Food Safety Quality Assurance for Sonic Drive-in based in Oklahoma City. In this position, David is responsible for creating and managing strategic initiatives that drive food safety and quality across the Sonic supply chain. David joined Sonic in 2007 as Sr. Director of Food Safety and was responsible retail/supply chain food safety, and product commercialization.

Prior to joining Sonic, David spent 10 years with NSF International holding the positions of VP of Quality Assurance International, Director of Food Safety for NSF Cook and Thurber, and Director of NSF Retail Food Safety.

Prior to NSF International, David gained international experience as a Regional Food Safety Manager with Continental Airlines.

David holds a B.S. from Texas Tech University in Biological Sciences.

Joseph Darden

Joseph R. Darden works as Vice President, Food Safety & Quality for Mastronardi Produce.  In addition to overseeing corporate food safety and quality programs, he also oversees microbiology, post-harvest, organics, import permits, social responsibility and environmental affairs.  Joseph serves as a liaison to Mastronardi Produce for government & regulatory affairs.  He also is a member of the Executive Management Team.  Joseph championed Mastronardi’s achievement of the 2010 Food Quality Award. Prior to working for Mastronardi Produce, Joseph worked in the pork manufacturing, chicken manufacturing, and animal breeding industries.  Joseph achieved PhD and Master of Science degrees from The University of Georgia-Athens, and a Bachelor of Science from North Carolina State University-Raleigh.

Rosalind Zils

Rosalind Zils- Director, External Supply Chain Quality, Land O Lakes Product Safety, Quality and Regulatory Affairs

Rosalind Zils has global responsibility for Land O Lake’s External Supply Chain Quality, covering Human and Animal Food Ingredients, Packaging, Co-Manufacturers, Warehouses and Seed Quality. Land O Lakes is made up of three divisions, Dairy Foods, Animal Feed and Crop Services. An alumnus of Iowa State University with a bachelor’s of Animal Science, Rosalind has 25 plus years food industry experience through various positions within Land O Lakes and Cargill. Her career encompasses experiences in Sales, Operations, Quality Assurance, Supply Chain Management and Corporate Quality. Rosalind is responsible for leading a team of quality professionals who manage the activities with external partners that ensure compliance with Land O Lakes requirements.

Rosalind represents Land O Lakes on working groups with Global Food Safety Initiative, Grocery Manufacturers Association, and others. Her past industry contributions include the leadership committee for the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply Laying Hen Housing Research Project. She is a past Minnesota State Quality Award Examiner, a four-time Business Excellence Examiner, and past president of the Wright County Area United Way of Minnesota. She is actively involved in Land O Lake’s ISU relationship. Rosalind is a past ASQ certified quality auditor and mentors many others to achieve that certification. She has been married 27 years to Robert Zils and has one son, Jacob, who is 13.

Aaron Morton

Joining in 2012, Aaron is the R&D Group Vice President of Quality Assurance responsible for Beachbody’s quality and product safety programs.  Aaron has over 20 years of quality and food safety experience across multiple food and dietary supplement categories.

Prior to joining Beachbody, Aaron held quality and food safety leadership roles with a variety of companies in food consumer packaged goods including: MARS, ConAgra Foods, East Balt Bakeries, Pepperidge Farm, Florida Citrus Producers and Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream.

Aaron holds an MS in Food Safety from Michigan State University and a BS in Food Science from Colorado State University.

Anuj Mehta

Anuj Mehta is  Group Director for Quality, Food Safety & Regulatory for Clearwater Seafoods, based out of Halifax, Canada. He is responsible for defining and driving the Quality strategy for Clearwater and also for managing their entire Quality organization in North & South America, Europe and in Asia. Prior to that he spent 19 years with Group Danone in a  variety of roles in Quality and in related areas like R&D, Product Development, Crisis Management and Regulatory affairs in several countries in Asia & in North America. Originally from India, Anuj has been a global citizen for the last 25 plus years with education in 4 different countries including an MS in Food Science from University of Minnesota & a management degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, direct work experience in 6 countries and has worked with over 20 different nationalities in his career so far. Over the years he has managed Quality in its entire scope and over the entire value chain from suppliers to end consumers and is particularly passionate about Quality culture and growing people and teams.

Kris DeMoss

Kris DeMoss is the Director of Quality Assurance for WILD Flavors North America, part of the newly formed Archer Daniels Midland Nutrition Division.  He is responsible for ensuring compliance to a wide range of FDA, USDA, and CFIA food safety programs, customer satisfaction, and colleague development.  A part of an aggressive and growing business unit, Kris assess and aligns quality systems for new mergers and acquisitions.

Kris has dedicated his career to flavor quality, with responsibilities ranging from Quality Control, Microbiology, Auditing, Quality Management, and Food Safety over his 16 year.  He is currently a member of the ADM Nutrition Global Operations Leadership Team.  Kris completed his B.S. in Cellular/Physiology Biology from the University of Louisville in 2001.

Julia Ferrell

Julia L. Ferrell is the Director of Food Security & Regulatory Compliance with Bay State Milling Company headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts.  Ms. Ferrell is a leader within her organization with Food Safety including BRC Certification, Export Regulations, FSMA Compliance, and State & Federal Regulatory expectations.  Much of her work focuses on helping the plant management teams prepare proactive policies, procedures, training and education to prevent food safety incidents and increase the behavioral based food safety culture.  Ms. Ferrell graduated from University of Green Bay Wisconsin with her undergraduate in Nutritional Science, minor Chemistry in 1996, and Associates in Culinary Arts in 1993, and received her Masters of Project Management through Keller Graduate School in 2013. Ms. Ferrell in her spare time enjoys gardening and cooking.

Sigita Baniulis Gudeika

Sigita B. Gudeika is the Senior Quality Assurance Manager for Specialty divisions of Bay State Milling Company headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts. Mrs. Gudeika is a leader within her organization with Food Safety including GFSI Certification, Organic and Gluten Free Regulations, and FSMA Compliance. Much of her work focuses on helping the plant management teams prepare proactive policies, procedures, training and education to prevent food safety incidents and increase the behavioral based food safety culture. Mrs. Gudeika graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology and received her Master’s in Food Safety and Technology in 2008.

Jessica Hinkle

Jessica Hinkle has 20 years of experience working in QA/QC, material qualification, method development, product development and product validation in the pharmaceutical, medical device and dietary supplement industries. She has extensive experience in performing internal audits as well as auditing external laboratories to the GLP standard. In her current role, as the QC Lab Manager at NOW Foods, she oversees the quality control, method development and stability aspects of new vendor/material qualification, new product development and production/packaging of dietary supplements, foods, sports nutrition and personal care products. Additionally, she leads several lean manufacturing initiatives.

Natalie Dyenson

Based at the Dole Nutrition Institute Campus in Kannapolis, NC, Ms. Dyenson has responsibility for food safety and quality programs globally.  Before joining Dole, she spent eight years at Walmart, Inc., most recently leading food safety across 6500 retail stores, 48 company owned manufacturing facilities and 220 fresh distribution centers in 26 countries for Walmart’s international division.  Prior to Walmart, Ms. Dyenson spent eight years with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, where she held various roles in food safety and public health supporting Walt Disney World, Disney Regional Entertainment, Disney Cruise Line and the Parks and Resorts business globally.  Ms. Dyenson holds a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Iowa and a M.P.H. in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of South Florida.

Wendy Maduff

Wendy Maduff is the Vice President of Corporate Food Safety and Quality at The Wonderful Company, a position she has held since October 2016; she is responsible for food safety and quality systems, corporate incident management team, and centralizing functions of the four separate business units. While at Subway for almost three years, she oversaw all food safety, regulatory, food traceability and quality assurance of the food products throughout Subway’s nearly 44,900 stores in 112 countries. From 2009 through 2012, Dr. Maduff was a Principal Microbiologist with ConAgra Foods. In her earlier career, Dr. Maduff was the Director of Technical Services and Manager of Technical Services for Food Safety Net Services from. She received a Bachelors degree in Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a Masters degree from Clemson University and a Doctorate degree from the University of California, Davis.

Paul Thibodeau

Paul has 15 years of experience working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. For the last 24 years he has worked at Loblaw Companies Limited, the largest Canadian Food Retailer where Paul worked in the private label quality assurance and product development teams.  This led to his current role as the National Food Safety Sr. Director overseeing Retail and Supply Chain.

Craig Wilson

Craig Wilson is the Vice President, General Merchandising Manager of Quality Assurance/ Food Safety, Non-Foods Quality Assurance, Environmental Services/Haz Mat and Merchandise Services for Costco Wholesale Corporation. Costco Wholesale Corporation operates membership warehouses world-wide, that offer a selection of branded and private label products in a range of merchandise categories.

Costco is a global leader when it comes to food safety, and all suppliers must meet their strict compliance requirements. Costco’s food safety audit systems, STEC testing of fresh foods, x-ray product inspection, and unique positions on the Global Food Safety Initiative and the global regulatory environment, is well known industry wide.

Prior to joining Costco Wholesale, Craig worked as a Special Projects Director for Frigoscandia Equipment Food Safety Systems for over 24 years. During his time with Frigoscandia, Craig published numerous research papers in the areas of food safety and food processing and holds many patents, the most notable for steam pasteurization of food. Craig is the recipient of the Gia/Matek, Global Excellence in Food Safety Award and serves on the Steering Committee for the National Food Safety Consortium as well as the Technical Committee of the Global Food Safety Initiative.

Diego Beamonte

Diego Beamonte is the vice president global quality for Burger King Corporation (BKC). In this role, Beamonte heads the company’s global food safety, quality assurance and regulatory function, and is in charge of global policies and strategies on those areas.

Prior to this role, Beamonte served as senior director, supply and quality for Europe, Middle East and Africa where he was responsible for the quality assurance, food safety, and supply chain management in the region.

Before joining the company in 2007, Beamonte served different positions in Yum Brands, in the food innovation department, including chief food innovation officer for Long John Silver’s and A&W brands, and Senior Director of QA international.

Beamonte holds a PhD and bachelor’s degree on molecular biology and biochemistry from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, in Spain, and an executive MBA from the Instituto de Empresa, also in Madrid, Spain.

Theodora Morille-Hinds

Theo Morille-Hinds joined The Kellogg Company as a Sr. Director of Global Food Safety and Sanitation in July of 2011 and was promoted to Vice President of Global Quality Food Safety in November of 2013.  In this role, Theo provides leadership for multiple global functions including; Food Safety, Quality Compliance to Design, Quality Innovation, Supplier for Ingredients, Packaging and Premiums, Auditing and Quality Management Systems.  Prior to joining Kellogg’s, Theo was employed by Kraft in Tarrytown, New York.

Theo is on the Food Safety Advisory Board of University of Georgia and Tuskegee University.  She is also President of the Board of SSAFE and affiliated with a number of Industry associations. Theo holds a B.S from York College City University of New York and an M.S in Food Microbiology from Long Island University, City University of New York.

Sean Leighton

Sean Leighton is currently Vice President of Food Safety & Quality for Cargill based in Wayzata, Minnesota.  Prior to joining Cargill, Sean worked for over 13 years at The Coca-Cola Company in various roles across Quality, Food Safety and Environmental Sustainability, working in the US, Canada and Europe.  Sean has a BS in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MS in Food Science from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Emory University.

Sean sits on the advisory board of many organizations including, but not limited to, IAFP’s Journal of Food Protection, The Center for Food Safety (UGA), GMA’s Science & Education Foundation and the Food Fraud Think Tank (MSU).  In his spare time, Sean enjoys running, lifting weights, and spending time with his wife, Kelly, his 4-year old son Connor, and his 1-year-old old daughter, Parker.

Joann Givens

Ms. Joann M. Givens serves as Office of Regulatory Affairs’ Human and Animal Food Program Director; HAF-West.  In this leadership position, Joann oversees the human and animal food program work plan, accomplishments, implementation strategies of FSMA, program alignment advancement and collaborates with the Center of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Center of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), ORA components and external stakeholders.  Prior to serving in this position, Joann served as the Acting Regional Director of the Central Region for several years, Deputy Regional Director in the Central Region and District Director in Detroit District.  Joann is a graduate of Berkeley College, Little Falls, NJ and also majored in biology at Kean University, Union, NJ.  She is the recipient of numerous awards and a member of numerous professional organizations.

Al Almanza

Alfred V. Almanza was appointed Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack in September 2014, after having served as Administrator of USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) since June 2007.  Mr. Almanza will simultaneously serve as Acting Administrator, continuing to lead nearly 10,000 employees in the agency’s mission to protect public health.

In 1978, Mr. Almanza began his FSIS career as a food inspector in a small slaughter plant in Dalhart, Texas.  During his 36-year career with FSIS, Mr. Almanza moved up quickly from that entry level position – serving as Labor Management specialist, District Manager of the Agency’s Dallas District Office, and ultimately Administrator of FSIS.  His experiences in the field and headquarters have made him extraordinarily qualified to lead the agency.

During his tenure as Administrator, Mr. Almanza focused on modernizing inspection and identifying ways to make the Agency more efficient and effective.  He spearheaded the development of the New Poultry Inspection System which redirects FSIS inspection to a more balanced and efficient approach while simultaneously reducing pathogen levels in young poultry slaughter establishments.  It is anticipated that the new approach will prevent thousands of illnesses from Salmonella and Campylobacter.  In addition, Mr. Almanza’s regulatory strategies against potentially deadly E. coli O157:H7 have significantly reduced illnesses from this pathogen.  Under his leadership, FSIS implemented a zero-tolerance policy for six additional strains of E. coli that are responsible for human illness.  He also led the development of new Campylobacter and Salmonella performance standards, which hold slaughter establishments accountable for reducing these pathogens in young chickens and turkeys.  In 2006 the positive Salmonella testing rate was 16%; today it is less than 7%.  In 2013, FSIS released the Salmonella Action Plan, which outlines the agency’s key steps towards reducing the incidence of Salmonellacontamination.

Under Mr. Almanza’s leadership, FSIS launched the Public Health Information System (PHIS), a modern repository for all data about public health trends and food safety violations at the more than 6,000 FSIS-regulated plants across the country.  Since 2011, PHIS has streamlined data collection and access for the agency.

As part of USDA’s Blueprint for Stronger Service, Almanza determined that FSIS could streamline resources by reducing the number of district offices from 15 to 10.  The district consolidation helped to improve efficiency, consistency, and integration by more evenly distributing the circuits, establishments, and FSIS employees that each district office oversees.  Furthermore, Mr. Almanza reorganized headquarters offices and staff to improve organizational efficiency and the ability to better target existing resources.

Mr. Almanza led the development of the FSIS FY 2011-2016 Strategic Plan, which includes results-oriented performance measures.  The plan includes 30 distinct, quantifiable performance measures that support eight larger goals.  In 2012, he led the development of the internal Annual Performance Plan, which included specific outcomes linked to the Strategic Plan.   The plan bridges the FSIS Strategic Plan with Senior Executive Service individual performance standards, and presents three ‘key results’ to be achieved by each Program Area.  The transparency provided by this integration of plans makes it possible for each employee to clearly see how his or her work relates to the FSIS mission.

Mr. Almanza is mindful of the more than 7,000 FSIS field employees in his day-to-day tasks.  Recognizing that FSIS employees are the agency’s greatest asset, Mr. Almanza works diligently to foster productive relationships. In the most recent FSIS employee survey, top ten results indicate employees like their work, understand how it relates to the agency’s goals, have a sense of accomplishment, and believe in being held accountable.

Gary Swanson

Gary Swanson is responsible for the corporate and regional Quality Assurance teams, as well as the Quality Control operations at Herbalife Innovation and Manufacturing facilities in Lake Forest, CA; Winston-Salem, NC; and Suzhou, China. Gary also has responsibility for the Quality Center of Excellence in the United States and Changsha, China. With over 30 years’ experience in nutritional and pharmaceutical quality and operations roles, Gary has been with Herbalife since 2009. Since that time, Gary has assembled a world-class Quality team that has completely transformed the Quality Assurance and Quality Control functions worldwide. Under Gary’s leadership, Herbalife has established a gold standard for the industry in Product Quality for foods, dietary supplements, botanicals and acidified foods by acquiring and developing the appropriate testing capabilities. Herbalife has made a significant investment in this key area and the Quality team has been instrumental in using Herbalife’s efforts to create the very best nutrition products. Gary began his career as a chemist for a Canadian manufacturer of nutritional and pharmaceutical soft gels and eventually oversaw worldwide operations for Banner Pharmacaps. Gary has focused a substantial part of his career on designing new facilities and helping various companies to improve product and process quality.

Richard Carlson

Richard A. Carlson is vice president of quality management for Hormel Foods and is responsible for overseeing company quality, plant regulatory and food safety activities.

In 1990, Carlson began his career with Hormel Foods as quality and process control engineer at the Austin Plant. He has held quality assurance and production management positions at the Stockton (Calif.) Plant, Owatonna (Minn.) facility and at Jennie-O Turkey Store Willmar, Minn. In 2000, he was named director of quality assurance at Jennie-O Turkey Store and assumed the position of vice president of quality management at Jennie-O Turkey Store in 2010. He moved to the Corporate Office in Austin, Minn., and became vice president of quality management at Hormel Foods in 2014.

Carlson graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science and is active with his church and local theater and arts and lives in Austin, Minn.

Carlson has been very involved in the meat and poultry industry. From 1998-2002, he was the Chairman of the Willmar Area Quality Council. He has been a member of the Technical and Regulatory Committee for the National Turkey Federation and served as the committee chairman from 2003-2004. In 2003, Carlson was named a Meat Processing Magazine “Rising Star.” Carlson is a two-time recipient of the Chairman’s Inner Circle award for Hormel Foods.

Carlson currently lives in Austin, MN with his wife Laura and two daughters, Emily and Elizabeth.

Martin Slayne

Martin Slayne has broad experience working across sectors and geographies, leading in scientific, regulatory and food safety roles. Martin joined The Hershey Company in 2014 to head up the Company’s new Global Scientific & Regulatory Affairs organization, based in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Martin was born in Wales, UK. He started his career in scientific research, moved to UK government sector in London, and then to the European Commission in Brussels. In 2005, he moved to the food industry sector in the US, responsible for global regulatory, food safety and nutrition leadership in Fortune 500 food companies. Martin was previously with Kraft Foods through the company split into Mondelez International, where as Chief Food Safety Officer he established and led the Global Food Safety and Scientific & Regulatory Affairs organization. His original move to the US was to join PepsiCo, at the Frito-Lay HQ near Dallas, where he led PepsiCo’s global cross-functional community on scientific & regulatory affairs, food safety and nutrition. Before moving to the US, Martin was responsible for establishing legislation on chemical food safety at the European Commission in Brussels, including EU representation at Codex Alimentarius, and inter-governmental collaboration. Prior to Brussels, Martin built his responsibilities across food, animal feed, veterinary and agricultural science and policy at the UK Food Standards Agency and Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food in London. Martin has a PhD in medical microbiology research.

Marie Tanner

Marie joined Kerry in 2010, and currently leads the Global Food Safety & QHSE function, a role she was appointed to in 2013. During her career at Kerry, Marie has held executive compliance roles and served as the Vice President for QHSE for the Americas region. Prior to joining Kerry, Marie held various quality leadership roles for PepsiCo and Godiva (Ulker). Marie holds an M.S. in Food Science from Rutgers University and is currently on the board of SSAFE, a non-profit organisation that promotes the continuous improvement and global acceptance of internationally recognized food protection systems and standards. In the past, she served on the board of directors for the International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT).

Richard Arsenault

Dr. Richard Arsenault is the executive director of the Domestic Food Safety Systems Directorate at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

Dr. Arsenault began his food safety career as a veterinary meat inspector in 1989. He has been an auditor, a manager, and the Director of the meat hygiene program, and was involved in many significant Canadian food safety events over the past 25 years.

Dr. Arsenault leads the CFIA team that is finalizing the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations and its coming-into-force strategy. His team also works on modernizing Canada’s meat inspection and on-farm food safety programs.

Dr. Arsenault has worked throughout his career to improve food safety in Canada and facilitate the international trade of food products under Codex Alimentarius principles.   He is currently the representative for North America on the Codex alimentarius Executive Committee and the representative for Canada at the Codex Commission.

Dan Kastor

Mr. Kastor serves as Senior Director Global Regulatory for McCormick & Company, Inc. He also serves on McCormick’s Global Quality Leadership Council. Prior to his current assignment, he held positions as Director, Global Food Safety and Quality Systems, Director, Quality Assurance for McCormick Asia-Pacific and Director, Quality Assurance for the U.S. Industrial Group.

Mr. Kastor came to McCormick following seventeen years of factory and corporate headquarters experience with Nestle S.A. He is the past Secretary of the Maryland China Business Council and is active in the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA), American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the International Food Information Council (IFIC).

Leonard Heflich

Len recently retired after 42 years in the food industry from Grupo Bimbo in Mexico City, where he was VP of Food Safety, Quality and Crisis Management with responsibility for 150 bakeries in 23 countries.  He recently authored a chapter on Risk Management in the 7^th Edition of the Juran Quality Handbook.

He has been Chair of the Food Technical and Regulatory Affairs Committee of the American Bakers Association since 2001 and is President of the Board at the Center for Food Integrity.

Len has a BS in Chemistry from Fairleigh Dickinson University and an MSc. in Management Science from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Mario Leduc

Manage a team of 53 subject matter experts developing best practices, establishing standardization, building capabilities, providing technical support and assuring compliance of 5 manufacturing sites, 5 distilleries and 12 sales offices.

Responsibilities: Environment, Health & Safety, Quality, Food Safety, Customer Care, Risk, Regulatory, Custom & Trade, Security & Manufacturing Excellence for Diageo North America

Acquired a solid manufacturing experience and expertise in Safety excellence, lean manufacturing, total quality and Continuous improvement with large organizations in the various aspects of a total supply chain.

Previous roles:  Project engineer, maintenance manager, safety chair, packaging & brewing operation management, plant operation and corporate governance.

Joined Diageo on September 2007.  Previously worked 20 years in the beer industry for Labatt Brewing Company and Latrobe Brewing Company in various locations in Canada and the US.

Electrical Engineer from Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal & Brewmaster from Scandinavian Brewing School in Denmark.

Fluent: English & French

Member of the OIQ and the Institute of Brewing

Other interest: Back country hiking, fly fishing and Hockey

For more details: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/mario-leduc-219b012a

Bill Scopa

Mr. Scopa is the Acting Director of the Interagency Collaboration Division, the Office of Trade (OT), Customs and Border Protection (CBP).  He is the liaison with other federal government agencies that have border authorities or interests and coordinates their activities with CBP field operations. He has been in this Division since 2012. His permanent status is as the Chief of the Partner Government Agencies Branch.

He has over 30 years CBP experience. 15 years were spent at the CBP Ports of Los Angeles and Boston, the remainder at CBP headquarters, where he has held varied positions, such as manager of CBP’s vessel operations, revenue policy, anti-dumping and countervailing Duty (ADCVD) Division, and commercial targeting and enforcement.

Education: Juris Doctorate

Lee Perry

Lee Perry is the Vice President, Quality Management and Food Safety, WILD Flavors & Specialty Ingredients, a division of Archer Daniels Midland Company.  Lee is responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of the safety and quality systems, and supporting the commercial and customer base by monitoring and providing guidance on quality trends and issues.  He also ensures alignment with companywide quality and regulatory standards.

Lee joined WILD Flavors in 2011 as Associate Director Quality Management and Food Safety and was responsible for the overall execution of the Quality Management System throughout WILD North America.  He supported the launch of a Global Quality Council, the establishment of scorecard processes, and partnered with the CFO on a global continuous improvement process.   In 2014, Lee was asked to lead the Human Resources function for WILD Flavors followed by the WFSI North America division of ADM which he held until August, 2016.  During his time in HR, Lee was a business partner to the WFSI leaders and supported a commercial global commercial talent assessment, developed two ADM-wide sales training programs and supported the human resource integration and cost synergies efforts for WFSI.

Lee holds a B.S. from Idaho State University in Biological Sciences.  Lee has over 20 years of experience in quality management gained in his previous roles at ConAgra, Ken’s Foods, Davisco Foods, Leprino Foods, and Nestle USA.

Don Jones

Don Jones is responsible for Quality, Food Safety and Regulatory compliance for Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. based in Denver, Colorado. Responsibilities include oversight of quality and food safety systems at co-manufacturers, regulatory/labeling, consumer affairs and the company call center.

Joining Atkins in 2012, he previously worked with ConAgra Foods for 25 years. He has held Food Safety, Quality and R&D positions supporting both retail and food service businesses at plant and corporate levels domestically and internationally with experiences across food categories that include: raw and ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry slaughter/processing, RTE seafood, dairy, snack foods, jarred sauces/preserves, frozen, canned and dehydrated foods, aseptic and near aseptic products, edible oils/margarine, flour milling, and animal feed production facilities.

Heather Ashlock

Heather Ashlock oversees the quality and food safety of all food and disposable goods received by Raising Cane’s Chicken Finger Restaurants. Raising Cane’s, founded by Todd Graves in 1996, operates over 300 Restaurants in 23 states and two countries.

Heather has over twenty years’ experience managing and implementing quality and food safety systems in both manufacturing and foodservice.  She began her career with Tyson Foods and went on to hold progressing roles at Dean Foods and Don Miguel Mexican Foods before making the leap to foodservice.  In her current role as Director of Total Quality for Raising Cane’s, she has had the opportunity to develop a quality team and all quality systems from inception to implementation.

John Budin

John Budin is the Director of Product Safety and Quality at FONA International.  John obtained his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Minnesota.  He started his career in 1996 on the faculty in the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Enology at Fresno State University.  In 1998, he began work with Quest International in their flavor division at Hoffman Estates, IL and later became the Manager of Analytical Sciences.  In 1996 Quest was acquired by Givaudan where he his role was as Technical Manager.  In May 2009, John joined Merieux NutriSciences (Silliker) as their Corporate Director of Chemistry, where he was responsible for the technical integrity of chemistry testing in North and South America.  In October 2014 John joined FONA International.  Over the past 20 plus years John has performed the chemical and instrumental analyses of food from a wide variety of matrixes.

John is currently the Chair of the Technical Division of Reference Materials of the AOAC.  He has served as a member of the Executive Advisory Board to the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota and on the organizing committee of the North American Chemical Residue Workshop.  He has served as a lecturer for short courses and workshops offered at the University of Minnesota, IFT and AOAC.  Currently John is a food chemistry and food analysis lecturer for IFT’s Certified Food Science Prep Short Course.  He has received training from the Food Safety Preventative Control Alliance in their curriculum “Preventative Controls for Human Food”.

John is currently serving as the treasurer of the Chicago Section IFT.  He has also served on Chicago Section IFT as: Chairman, Hospitality Committee, Supplier’s Day Committee, Chair of Minute Man Committee, Chair of Tanner Lecture Committee and Chair of the Scholarship Committee.

Al Baroudi

Dr. Ata (Al) Baroudi joined The Cheesecake Factory in 2008 with broad experience in the food industry as a quality assurance executive. He is an agricultural engineer with a MS degree in Food Science and Technology / Microbiology from the University of California at Davis, CA. He received his Ph.D. in Food Processing and Technology / Regulatory Affairs from The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. He served as the head of QA and Food Safety (Snacks and Dairy) for Borden Foods Company in Columbus, OH, before moving to the west coast as Vice President, Corporate QA/Food Safety and Regulatory/Environmental Affairs for the Vons/Safeway Supermarkets, Arcadia, CA.  Dr. Baroudi then served as Vice President of QA and Technical Services, Harry & David Corporation, Medford, OR., before becoming the Chief Scientific, Health and Regulatory Affairs Officer at Yum! Brands in Louisville, KY.  He later founded and served as President of the Food Safety Institute, International (FSI).  Dr. Baroudi has lectured around the globe in conferences as keynote speaker, conducted workshops on Food Safety, introduced HACCP program to developing countries on behalf of the US government, published White Papers on HACCP and authored many food safety articles in different food magazines.  He appeared on several TV and radio talk shows as a food safety expert.  His specialization has also given him the opportunity to train food safety auditors and inspectors in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and many federal, state and local health agencies.  He served on the E. coli O157:H7 Blue Ribbon Task Force Committee during the Jack-In-The-Box meat outbreak and then on the Board of Directors of the International HACCP Alliance representing The Food Marketing Institute (FMI).  Dr. Baroudi also served on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Food Safety (CFS) at the University of Georgia.  Dr. Baroudi is a “Certified Food Scientist” CFS, he was elected and served as the Chairman, of the Food Safety Advisory Board in LA County (CA) and he is a member of the Educational Advisory Board (EAB) of the Food Safety Summit Group, Washington, DC.  He is the Vice President of QA & Food Safety at The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated headquartered in Calabasas Hills, CA.

Mike Davis

Michael Davis, Director of Quality Assurance, Compliance & Regulatory Services for Baldwin Richardson Foods, co.  Servant leader with a focus on increasing consumer satisfaction.  For nearly 20 years I’ve been determined to add value and get results.

My varied experience spanning from pet nutrition to dietary supplements and most recently foods such as syrups, sauces and ice cream toppings (my personal favorite) has allowed me to gain a unique perspective of risk based Quality systems.  A scientist at heart, with a B.S. degree in Biology and focus in Chemistry, I’ve applied the “Scientific Method” to many challenges that I’ve faced and have succeeded in gaining an in depth understanding of the science of business.  As an example; after struggling to understand the culture and relationship between Quality and Operations throughout the early years of my career, I’ve finally been able to bridge the gap with a simple handshake and an understanding of what that symbolizes; partnership.

Being a family man who was born to fish but is forced to work, we currently reside in beautiful Upstate NY, where you can frequently find me standing knee deep in the crystal clear and freezing cold waters of the many streams and rivers there.  If you happen to be in the area give me a call. I’d be happy to show you some of my favorite fishing spots (well, maybe my 2^nd favorite).

Evan Rosen

Prior to joining PacMoore, Evan worked with Kari-Out Company, AIB International, and SAI Global with over 15 years of Quality Assurance experience across a broad range of food manufacturing sectors. He holds both a BA in Geography and Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). He is an American Society for Quality (ASQ) certified HACCP and Quality auditor as well as a BRC Approved Training Provider.

Sigita Baniulis Gudeika

Sigita Baniulis Gudeika has held positions of increasing seniority within Bay State Milling Company’s Quality division for the last six years. Before that she worked as a food scientist at TJ Harkins and as a laboratory technician at H B Taylor Co. She has a Master, Food Safety and Technology from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and holds PCQI and SQF Practitioner certifications.