Cheryl McLaughlin is the director of quality assurance for Cott Beverages in Canada. She has twenty years of experience in food manufacturing. Cheryl is currently responsible for quality for soft drink, natural health products, juice, and alcohol beverage production. Prior to assuming the Canadian role, Cheryl was responsible for plant quality in 10 plants in the US, Canada and Mexico. She currently is a director on two provincial beverage container recycling boards. Cheryl started her career in the meat industry working for various slaughter, processing and RTE manufacturers.

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Don Wilcox is the Vice-President of Technical Services at the Canada Bread Company, Limited. His responsibilities in this role include quality assurance and food safety, regulatory affairs and process development for Canada Bread Fresh, Maple Leaf Baking and Fresh Prepared Foods.

Prior to joining Canada Bread in 2002, Don worked for multinational food companies in both Canada and the United States. His primary responsibilities have been in the areas of product development and quality assurance and food safety, with some overlap in operations and purchasing. Don graduated from the University of Guelph with a B.Sc (Agr) majoring in microbiology.

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Gary Nowacki is the CEO of TraceGains. Gary joined TraceGains in January 2008 after holding a variety of software industry executive positions in ERP, Supply Chain Management, and Quality Solutions. Gary has 30 years experience designing and implementing advanced solutions for Food & Beverage, Nutraceuticals, and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPGs).

For over 10 years TraceGains has been helping producers, manufacturers, and restaurant chains reduce cost and improve quality – automatically.

"We designed TraceGains for Quality, Purchasing, and Sourcing managers who a dissatisfied with the high cost and high risk of manual tracking and control of ingredients and suppliers. TraceGains is a complete compliance and risk management solution that automates data from paper or electronic filing cabinets and makes it actionable. TraceGains continuously controls, illuminates, and predicts risk for ingredients and suppliers," says Nowacki.

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George Gansner is responsible for IFS North America. His responsibilities include building the awareness of the IFS Standard, as well as all of the business properties associated with the Standard's growth in the region including infrastructure, business relationships, Certification Bodies, Auditor Development, and Training. He is also the chairman of the IFS North American Working Group which is responsible for input into the development of the Standard, as well as communication of the developments to the IFS International Working Group.

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Born in Cork, Ireland and possessing a degree in Food Science from University College Cork, Gillian has worked in the food industry in Ireland, the U.K, France and the U.S for over 20 years. Gillian started her career with Express Foods Group (Grand Metropolitan) in England in 1986 working at various locations in manufacturing Quality Assurance. In 1989, she moved to Burger King Europe in London, to work as a Supplier Quality Assurance Auditor.

In 1992, Gillian moved to France to work with Haagen Dazs as plant QA Manager at their green field European manufacturing site. Following that she moved to Paris with Grand Metropolitan Foods Europe in the role of Senior Quality Assurance Manager, responsible for all aspects of QA for 9 manufacturing locations. In 1996, Gillian and her family moved to the US. She started with Wegmans Food Markets in 1997 as a Quality Systems Manager and later became Director of Food Safety & QA. Gillian currently holds the position of Vice President of Food Safety & Quality Assurance.

WEGMANS FOOD MARKETS

Wegmans Food Markets is a major regional supermarket chain headquartered in Rochester, New York. It is a privately held, family-owned company, founded in 1916 by the Wegman family. Wegmans operates 78 stores in 5 states and employs over 40,000 people. The company had sales of $5.6 billion in 2010. Wegmans has raised the bar on the shopping experience- better quality goods, a spectacular abundance of choice, restaurant-quality prepared foods, beautiful stores and displays.

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Heather Gale has been working with Canada's horticultural industry since 2000 and is the National Program Manager for the CanadaGAP On-Farm Food Safety Program for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables. Her career with the Canadian Horticultural Council began as Coordinator for Communications and Commodity Issues, when she was involved in early stages of development of the food safety program. She took on management of the CHC's overall food safety initiative in 2005.

In 2009 Heather was appointed Chair of the Food Safety Committee for the International Federation for Produce Standards, and serves as their representative on the Global Food Safety Initiative's Technical Working Group. She is a Director for the national primary production sector on the Board of the Canadian Supply Chain Food Safety Coalition, and a member of the Canadian On-Farm Food Safety Working Group, co-chairing the Industry-Government Liaison Task Group. Her work history includes several years experience working on a fruit and vegetable farm. She graduated with an M.A. from the University of Ottawa in 1994.

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Jan Eudy is the Corporate Quality Assurance Manager for Cintas Corporation. At Cintas, Jan is the technical resource for cleanroom, food and healthcare garments and products, directs the quality system and ISO registration at all cleanroom locations and supports validation and sterile services. She implemented and monitors the HACCP risk management program at Cintas. She is a Fellow and a President Emeritus of the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology. She is an active member of other professional organizations including the International Dairy Foods Association, Food Processors of Canada, International Association for Food Protection, American Society of Clinical Pathologists, National Registry of Microbiology, American Society for Microbiology, American Society for Quality, International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineers and Parenteral Drug Association. Jan graduated with a degree in Medical Technology from the University of Wisconsin with graduate studies in Medical Microbiology at Creighton University. Jan's additional qualifications include Registered Medical Technologist and Specialist in Microbiology with ASCP, Registered Microbiologist with NRM in Consumer Product Testing and Quality Assurance, ISO 9000 Provisional Auditor with RAB(QSA), Certified Quality Auditor with ASQ, Certified HACCP Trainer by the International HACCP Alliance and is ServSafe certified.

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John is responsible for both North and South America. The BRC is the first of global food safety standard to be benchmarked to the GFSI requirements, and his role includes active engagement with key food industry stakeholders to ensure a consistent thorough implementation strategy maintaining the high standards that the BRC is known for.

John brings to this position over twenty years technical management experience in the food industry, including managing the food certification program for a major certification body, and management positions with Kraft, Ecolab and ConAgra.

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Lloyd Bernhardt's career spans the breadth of the digital and the tangible, transitioning from software developer to coffee roaster.

In 1988, Bernhardt founded Motion Works, one of British Columbia's first Apple Macintosh software development companies. As CEO at the age of 22, he took the company public on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. For his achievements, he received numerous awards and recognitions including a coveted spot in Business in Vancouver's "Top 40 under 40."

But in 1999 Bernhardt would take a trip that would alter his tech career. After he and his wife journeyed to Guatemala to adopt their daughter, a passion for the culture of the country and a desire to better the lives of coffee farmers was ignited. The couple returned to Vancouver and in 2003 launched Ethical Bean Coffee, roasting only fairtrade certified organic coffee.

Bernhardt has built the Ethical Bean brand from a local, to a national, to an international success on the belief that social and environmental responsibility is also good business. The company runs out of a 10,000 square foot roastery built to LEED Gold Standards, purchases green energy, reduces and offsets carbon emissions, manages waste, and makes an enormous impact in both its local and global communities through donations, sponsorships and philanthropy. Recently Ethical Bean received a nod from the queen of daytime TV when it was featured in the 2010 Holiday Edition of Oprah's Favorite Things.

Combining his passion for technology with his commitment to creating dialogue between consumers and producers, Bernhardt developed an iPhone app that tracks the coffee's journey from crop to cup. Each individual bag of coffee is marked with a unique QR code that, once scanned, provides an astonishing level of detail. From video interviews with farmers, discussions with the company's Director of Coffee, cupping, scoring notes and roast profiles, to even a Google Map pinpointing the exact field the beans were grown in, all this information is accessible through just a simple scan.

Besides building the Ethical Bean Coffee brand, Bernhardt is on the board of Compassion Fruit Society, a registered Canadian charity that is building a sustainable village for abandoned children as well as a climate change institute. Ethical Bean is also planning on building a roastery near the village that will provide financial support to the community, education, and the ability for Guatemalans to benefit directly by providing value added jobs.

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Dr. Mejia is currently Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs of Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM). He is also Adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN) of the University of Illinois. His previous work experience includes both academia and the food industry in various positions in the areas of nutrition, regulatory affairs and product development at the Kellogg Company and currently in ADM where he oversees the global regulatory environment and is in charge of gaining regulatory approvals of company's food and feed products worldwide. In Canada, he has interacted with Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Dr. Mejia holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Nutrition Science from the University of California, Davis. He is active member of the American Society of Nutrition (ASN) and a professional member of the Institute of Food Technologists.

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Mark Burgham joined the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in 2010 as Director of the Imported and Manufactured Food Division. Prior to this Mark was with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada where he served in various senior management positions since 2001. He recently completed a two year assignment as A/Executive Director within the Science and Technology Branch of Environment Canada implementing Canada`s Chemical Management Plan. Mark joined DFO after 8 years in various policy positions at Natural Resources Canada, including the post of Departmental Policy Advisor in the Office of the Deputy Minister, and a previous 5 years with the Ontario provincial ministries of Environment and Natural Resources. Mark holds an M.Sc. from the University of Ottawa and a B.Sc. from Queen's University.

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She is currently a facilitator/trainer and consultant for Anaphylaxis Canada, Guelph Food Technology Centre and for various food manufacturers. It is her goal to see the risk of food anaphylaxis reduced through education awareness and research. She works actively on Anaphylaxis Canada's food labelling and allergen risk management issues. Having lost a daughter to anaphylaxis in 1990, Ms. Allen has worked to raise awareness of the dangers of anaphylaxis and has been a persistent and passionate advocate on improved allergen food labelling. Employed in 2008 by Health Canada's Food Directorate consulting on the Allergen Food Labeling Amendments. And, was a co-investigator on the Food Labelling portion of the SCAAALAR research project titled "Precautionary Statements on Packaged Foods in Canada: Perspectives and Purchasing Behaviours of Allergic and Non-Allergic Consumers" due to be published later this spring. Operating as Marilyn Allen Consulting she is currently conducting a project for Health Canada assessing food manufacture's core activities as related to the use of voluntary precautionary labels.

She has represented the allergic consumer on the Food and Consumer Products Canada's (FCPC) Allergy Beware/Best Practices 2000 program, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association's (CRFA) Allergy Aware program.

She holds the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation's ServSafe Certification and has completed the HACCP Prerequisite Program. She has served as a founding member and board member to previous anaphylaxis organizations and their forerunners who united in 2002 to form Anaphylaxis Canada.

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Mary R. L'Abbé is the Earle W. McHenry Professor and Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. In her previous role as Director of the Bureau of Nutritional Sciences at Health Canada, she was responsible for the leadership of Health Canada's nutrition laboratory research, surveillance, scientific evaluation and regulatory programs aimed at the maintenance and improvement of the nutritional quality of the Canadian food supply, including national nutrition labeling, food fortification, health claims, etc. She served as Canadian Head of Delegation to the Codex Alimentarius Committees on Nutrition and on Food Labelling.

Dr. L'Abbé was co-chair of the Canadian Trans Fat Task Force (2004-2006), led the Canadian Trans Fat Monitoring Program (2004-2009), a member of the PAHO Task Force on Trans Fat in the Americas and vice-chair of the WHO Scientific Update on Trans Fatty Acids. She was Chair and vice-Chair of the Canadian Sodium Working Group (2007-2010) charged with developing the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada (2010), a strategy for reducing sodium intakes by Canadians. She is a member of the PAHO regional expert group on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention through Dietary Salt Reduction and a member of the World Health Organization Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG), and Subgroup on Diet and Health (2009-2012).

Dr. L'Abbé holds a PhD in nutrition from McGill University and has authored over 90 peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters. She is an expert in public health nutrition, nutrition policy, and food and nutrition regulations. Her research examines the nutritional quality of the Canadian food supply, nutrition surveys and factors influencing consumers' understanding of nutrition, their food choices related to obesity and chronic disease, and research in the area of minerals and trace elements.

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Originally from St. Mary's Bay, Newfoundland, Melissa graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland. She went on to complete an Advanced Diploma in Food Safety at the Marine Institute of Memorial University. Her career in the food industry began in 2005 upon moving to New Brunswick for a work term as a Quality Assurance technician in the Seafood industry. This was followed by a variety of roles including, Quality Assurance manager and HACCP Coordinator. Her knowledge and experience has led to effective leadership, execution of best in class practice in food safety and meeting and exceeding compliance guidelines for customers and regulators in the food industry. As HACCP and Food Safety Manager at Bonte Foods, Melissa is responsible for implementing and maintaining HACCP and Food Safety programs. This includes leading Bonte Foods towards GFSI compliance with the BRC standard. Never one to back away from a challenge, Melissa is always looking for new and innovative ways to improve and simplify food safety systems within the Bonte Organization.

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• Member of Cargill's Corporate Food Safety & Regulatory Affairs since September 2006 as Director, Global Quality Assurance
• Main focus is to lead the development of Cargill Quality Assurance policies and represent Cargill with strategic customers on behalf of Cargill on quality assurance and food safety initiatives
• 32 year Quality Assurance professional with consumer foods, ingredient supplier, and regulatory experiences.
  • 17 years with Cargill in various positions in Cargill Flour Milling, re-engineering projects and last as the QA Co-Leader of Horizon Milling
  • 10 years in various QA positions at General Mills; last position held was the QA Manager at their most complex plant
  • 5 years in two different Health Department roles figuring out why people get sick
• Master of Science from Michigan State University in Food Packaging
• Bachelors of Science from Grand Valley State University in Environmental Sciences
• Photography and travel are favorite hobbies
• Proudest Award: "Dishwasher-of-the-Month" from Bonanza Sirloin Pit in Hattiesburg, Mississippi

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Ronald L. Doering, B.A., LL.B., M.A., LL.D., is a partner in the Ottawa law offices of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP where he practices law with the Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs Group. He had the lead responsibility for all aspects of setting up the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and then served as its President for several years. He now practices primarily in the area of agriculture, food and drug law where he provides regulatory law services to a broad range of Canadian and international companies. He has written extensively on many public policy issues including a chapter on Foodborne Illness for the book Public Health Law and Policy in Canada. He writes the popular monthly columns on food law for Food in Canada and Food Safety and Quality Magazine, the leading trade magazines for the food industry. Dr. Doering is an adjunct professor at the University of Guelph (OAC).

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With almost two decades of operational and managerial experience at Aviva Canada, Tim Woods, AVP of Engineering & Risk Management Solutions, is a tremendous source of knowledge when it comes to protecting and advancing your food business operations. Prior to joining Aviva, Tim was involved in the process and engineering management of a large wood and paper products manufacturer. In this highly competitive business sector, he quickly learned the slightest oversight leads to serious consequences and as a result he's a strong advocate when it comes to the importance of having an active risk management program in place. Under Tim's direction, the Aviva Equipment Breakdown & Risk Management Solutions team provides the knowledge, experience, vision and service required to successfully manage risk for any food processing or wholesale operation.

When he's not thinking about his next big risk challenge, Tim, a native of New Brunswick, enjoys watching Toronto Maple Leafs games and spending weekends at the lake with his wife Debbie and their 3 children.

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