SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Inteaz Alli
McGill University
Inteaz Alli is Professor of Food Quality Assurance, Food Analysis and Food Traceability at McGill University. He has directed research projects of 40 graduate student theses (15 Ph.D., 25 M.Sc.) mainly in the areas of isolation and characterization of food proteins and food quality, has published more than 110 research papers in refereed journals and has two patents. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.
Eric Aubin
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Eric Aubin obtained his bachelor degree in soil science at the Macdonald Campus of McGill University (Montréal) in 1989. After completing a Diploma in Groundwater Contamination and Waste Management, he obtained his Master degree in 1994. He worked as a research assistant at the Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering Department of the Université Laval ((1994-97). He was then employed as an agricultural policy analyst in the fields of environment, animal health and traceability with the Union des producteurs agricoles (1999) and with the Canadian Pork Council (1999-2004). Since July 2004, he occupies the position of Regulatory Principle Officer for livestock traceability programs with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Greg Bennet
Iowa State University
Greg is a post-doctoral associate at the Iowa Grain Quality Initiative working on grain focused traceability systems (ISO 22000 & 22005 based). His MBA and Ag Business History degrees have benefited from his military career experience, especially towards the research and design of practical approaches for improving traceability in agriculture.
Pierre Bilodeau
Bio-Industry Division, Research Partnership Programs, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council
Dr. Bilodeau joined the Bio-industry division at NSERC at the beginning of May 2008. His main responsibilities are to develop, establish, deliver, and promote policies and programs, and provide operational and analytical framework to promote research, training, and public-private collaborations in Natural Sciences and Engineering in Canada. His portfolio covers a wide range of industry sectors including biotech, pharma, medical devices, biomedical technologies, agriculture, novel food and bioproducts, fisheries and aquaculture. Dr. Bilodeau sits on many national committee related to bioproducts such as the NRC-AAFC-NRCan National Bioproduct Program Advisory Committee, and the Canadian Biomass Innovation Network Executive Committee. Prior to this, he was Director, Scholarships and Fellowships at NSERC where he managed all of NSERC scholarships programs from undergraduate to postdoctoral levels in both academia and industry.
From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Bilodeau worked in Medicago Inc, a biopharmaceutical company in Quebec City that uses alfalfa as a bio-factory to produce protein-based therapeutics for human health. During this time at Medicago, Dr. Bilodeau was also adjunct professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at Université Laval. Pierre occupied several key positions at Medicago including scientific team leader, research manager and prototype manager. From 1999 to 2001, Dr. Bilodeau worked as a research scientist in the Crop and Plant Business Unit at the Alberta Research Council in Vegreville, Alberta.
Dr. Bilodeau graduated from the department of biochemistry, Université Laval, Quebec in 1990. He completed a Master degree at the same institution in 1992 where he learned his first hands on experience with plant genetic engineering. The same year, he was awarded a Commonwealth fellowship from the Australian Department of Employment, Education and Training to pursue his Ph.D. study in biochemistry and molecular biology at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Following his Ph.D. graduation in 1997, Dr. Bilodeau took a two years postdoctoral position at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Division of Plant Industry in Canberra, Australia.
Cindy Bishop
Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
Cindy Bishop began her career with the Alberta Provincial Government as an extension agent serving farm families and rural organizations. Her background in Human Ecology coupled with a passion for facilitating learning and helping people work through complex issues, converged to a professional focus on leadership and organization development. Cindy is involved in the creation of high-performing teams, partnerships, and organizations that support the growth and expansion of agri-based business and industry. She draws heavily on a systems approach to achieve customer focused results in the four synergistic elements leading to success: the people, the planning and implementation process, the change process, and leadership. Her greatest success comes with leveraging diversity in people and ideas.
In 2006, Cindy assumed the role of Process Lead – Industry Involvement and Strategic Management for her Ministry’s work in establishing Alberta’s Agriculture Traceability Systems. In the time since, she has contributed her process design and facilitation skills to the Federal Provincial Territorial Traceability Task Team crafting the NAFTS (National Agriculture and Food Traceability System). She has also lent her expertise to the IGAC (Industry Government Advisory Committee) Management and Working Groups concerned with livestock and poultry traceability.
In addition to her work with Traceability, Cindy is involved with the Food and Health Innovation initiative in ARD, making “Good for Health, Healthy for Business” food-health connection through research, policy, accessibility, and commercialization.
Andreas Boecker
University of Guelph
After obtaining a B.Sc. in Food Science and Technology from the University of Bologna, Daniele Asioli worked as an International Project Manager in the ADRI.fish project for the Fishery Department of the Emilia Romagna Regional Government. During this occupation he has also been enrolled part-time as a Ph.D. student at the University of Bologna and will graduate mid 2009. Since the conclusion of the ADRI.fish project he has been working as a consultant with the Infomercati Consortium, the Italian Food Wholesaler Association.
Dr. Andreas Boecker obtained his MSc and PhD in agricultural economics at Kiel University, Germany. In 2005, Andreas joined the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Guelph as Assistant Professor. His research interests are traceability in the food system and consumers’ perceptions of food-borne risks. He teaches Food and Agricultural Marketing Management and Marketing Research and Analysis.
Doris Braslins
NSERC
Unavailable at this time
Derek Brewin
University of Manitoba
Derek Brewin has years of experience in applied economic analysis, but his most recent research focus has been the on spatial problems in agricultural markets. The topics of his most recent research include: rural development, the effect of processor location in oilseed pricing, and state trading effects on international trade.
Jake Burlet
ViewTrak
Dr. Burlet is an agribusiness entrepreneur with broad experience in the livestock industry. Having been raised on a cattle ranch west of Edmonton and having worked as a practicing food animal veterinarian, Dr. Burlet has an in-depth understanding agribusiness from a production and animal health management perspective. Dr. Burlet has served in an executive capacity for a number of industry professional organizations, has sat on the advisory boards of two multi-national veterinary pharmaceutical companies, is a Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of Alberta Hospital Foundation and serves on the Board of Directors for three privately held Canadian corporations. Dr. Burlet is an alumnus of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan and has post graduate training in animal nutrition and herd management from the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.
Leslie J. Butler
University of California, Davis
Leslie Butler is a dairy marketing and policy analyst in the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics at the University of California-Davis. Butler earned his B.S. degree at Lincoln College, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He also holds a M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Reading University, England, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University.
Didier Carton
TRACES
Doctor of veterinary medicine (Lyon ‘85), law degree (Aix en Provence ‘93) Former director of veterinary services and plant protection for New Caledonia (1988-2002)
New Caledonia delegate to the World Organization for Animal Health;
Secretary General of the World Organization for Animal Health for Asia, Oceania and the Far East (1991- 2002);
TRACES area manager within DG SANCO of the European Commission (2002-2009) (TRACES implementation in Europe and internationally).
Victor Darias
Hubtechnologi
As President and founder of Hubtechnologi Inc., Victor has been a successful business development specialist with 20+ years of proven success securing multi-million dollar contracts in the international IT and telecommunications industry. Deploying Network Infrastructures as well as developing traceability solutions that capture information via RFID and Bar Codes.
Victor spent several years in the Middle East working in National Defense Projects and as General Manager for Federal Express in Saudi Arabia. Prior returning to Canada the past 10 years were in Australia working for organizations such as Cisco System Asia Pacific as Director for the telecommunication industry and as a National Sales Manager for Telstra in the banking and finance industry.
Hubtechnologi vision is to help drive corporate bottom lines by exploiting the power of mobile technology to improve operations and earnings. Our growing expertise has become recognised as a catalyst for businesses practice in this arena.
Christiane Deslauriers
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Christiane Deslauriers’ training and interests are in plant breeding and biotechnology. She has worked within Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in regulatory, scientific research and management roles. In recent years, she has focused on the bioeconomy and on research policy and planning. She has been responsible for AAFC’s Charlottetown and Saskatoon Research Centres, and worked within a collaborative agreement between the University of Prince Edward Island, the National Research Council’s Institute for Nutrisciences and Health and AAFC, developing more effective models for the delivery of cross-cutting multi-disciplinary research.
Dr Deslauriers is currently AAFC’s Director General, Science Policy and Planning in Ottawa.
Patricia L. Farnese
University of Saskatchewan
Professor Farnese is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Saskatchewan. She is also a faculty member with the Indigenous Peoples Resource Management Program. Professor Farnese completed graduate work at the University of Arkansas in the area of Agricultural Law and her current research activities include on-farm liability and risk, wetland policy, obesity and animal health. Prior to doing graduate work, Professor Farnese clerked with the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal and was admitted to the bar in 2002.
Yves Gervais
Référence Systèmes
Mr. Gervais is senior software developer and consultant for the firm Référence Systèmes Inc., of which he is co-founder. He concurrently performs the duties of development services director and vice president.
For over 20 years, his work has enabled him to meet significant challenges for various private, public and semi-public organizations. In addition to being leader of the development team which has developed and operationalized various systems, particularly production management and complete management of major labour organizations.
More recently, he led the team that engineered the FAST AUCTION system, which is installed in all animal auctions in Quebec. This system permits the automated processing of the sale of animals from their arrival until their departure from the auction. This system integrates the management of all functions of the sale as well as the traceability functions required for Quebec.
Ellen Goddard
University of Alberta
Ellen Goddard is Cooperative Chair in Agricultural Marketing and Business, University of Alberta. She came to Alberta from a position as National Australia Bank Professor of Agribusiness and Associate Dean, Coursework, at the Institute of Land and Food Resources, the University of Melbourne. Prior to that Australian appointment Ellen Goddard worked in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Guelph. Over the past 20 years Professor Goddard’s research has been focused on economic modeling of domestic and international commodity sectors for policy analysis purposes, including assessment of the effectiveness of investment in advertising. Current research includes various aspects of food marketing including consumer response to food safety incidents, consumer interest in labels, demand for credence attributes and certification. She also currently leads a national policy research network for Agriculture and Agri-food Canada in Consumer and Market Demand for Food and a major socio-economic research program examining the examining the impact of BSE on Canada.
Betty Green
Manitoba Cattle Producers
Unavailable at this time
Morteza Haghiri
Memorial University
Dr. Haghiri has joined the Memorial University in Corner Brook as Assistant Professor of Economics since July 2006. He graduated from the Department of Bioresource Policy, Business, and Economics at the University of Saskatchewan in 2003. From 2003 to 2006 Dr. Haghiri was full-time faculty member of the Economics Department at Mount Allison University. He has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Tehran, Iran. Dr. Haghiri has presented more than 40 papers in different conferences in Canada and international countries including Brazil, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States. As date, he published over 20 papers in academic journals, conference proceedings, and working papers. Dr. Haghiri has served as referee in several journals including Applied Economics, Journal of Food Distribution Research, International Journal of the World Universities Forum, and Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics.
David C. Hall
University of Calgary
Dr. Hall is a veterinarian with a PhD in agricultural economics, specializing in animal health economics, policy, and international development. He has extensive experience working in livestock development and animal health in Asia and Africa. His research includes economics of prion diseases and livestock markets in developing countries.
Mary Helander
IBM
Dr. Mary Helander is a Math Scientist with the Business Analytics and Mathematical Science Department at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center, and is the Research Division leader for the Consumer Products Industry. Mary's current research focus involves sustainable supply chain management, and she recently took on the role of exploring risk management research in safety and security within consumer product supply chains. Mary has more than 20 years of combined industry and academic experience in supply chain management, operations research, optimal network and transportation planning and software engineering. Prior to joining IBM Research in 2003, Mary led the Supply Chain Transportation System Management group for IBM’s Business Innovation Services. She has led and participated in over 20 client projects related to design and implementation of supply chain management solutions, using both package and custom approaches, spanning industrial, distribution, public and communications sectors. Prior to work at IBM, Mary was the Director of the Applied Software Engineering Lab at Linköping University in Sweden, where she was a faculty member of the Computer and Information Science Department and a Research Fellow with the Department of Mechanical Engineering / Quality Technology. Her publications include articles appearing in: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Networks, Transportation Science, Software Quality Journal, Empirical Software Engineering, and Computers and Industrial Engineering.
Mary earned a B.A. in CIS and Mathematics from the State University of New York at Potsdam, an M.S. in IE/OR from Syracuse University, a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University at Buffalo, and a Docent in Quality Technology and Software Engineering from Linköping University.
Jill E. Hobbs
University of Saskatchewan
Jill Hobbs is a Professor and Head of the Department of Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics (formerly the Department of Agricultural Economics) at the University of Saskatchewan, a position which she has held since 2006. Prior to joining the University of Saskatchewan in 1999 as an Assistant Professor, Dr. Hobbs held academic appointments in the UK and at Mount Royal College (Calgary). Professor Hobbs holds a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Her recent research focuses on supply chain and food economics, including: analyses of supply chain relationships in the agri-food sector, the economics of food safety, quality assurance and traceability, consumer attitudes toward food quality attributes, and assessments of the regulatory and business environment for functional foods.
Rick Holley
University of Manitoba
Rick Holley is currently Professor Food Microbiology and Food Safety, Department of Food Science, University of Manitoba. He has published over 150 papers in peer reviewed journals, a book and book chapters. Research interests include microbial ecology of meats, use of natural antimicrobials in food, and zoonotic pathogens in animals and the environment. He is a former head of the Department of Food Science and chair of the Canada Committee on Food. He is presently chair of the International Standards Organization Technical Committee 34 for Food and Agriculture in Canada and is a member of NSERC, CRC and Killam Foundation Research committees in Canada. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology and recently received awards for research accomplishments from the CIFST, the Canadian Meat Council and the University of Manitoba.
There have been over 175 news media interviews given over the last 5 months related to food safety issues in Canada.
Susan Hosford
Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
Alberta Agriculture 1984 to 2009. Sheep program management: Building Better Lambs, Lakeland Carcass Sire Project, Lamb Traceability Pilot Production extension, business development, committees: National and Provincial BSE programs, On-Farm Food Safety National Advisory Committee, Provincial OFFS Pilot manager, WCFHP Advisory Committee, Western Suffolk Sire Reference Program, etc.
Phillip Huff
Richardson Oilseed Ltd.
Phillip has been conducting research and working in the area of Fats & Oils since 1995. He completed my Bachelor's degree in Lipid Biochemistry in 1998 from the University of Lethbridge after which he conducted research on transgenic canola for two years at the University of Lethbridge. Phillip then traveled to Germany to conduct his Masters in Lipid Biochemistry working on the proteomic aspects of fat development in cattle which he completed in 2003.
Phillip taught biochemistry at the U of Lethbridge after his masters degree. In 2004 he moved to Los Angeles, California to work at the Burns & Allen Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. At Cedars he conducted tissue reconstruction research focused on wound healing after an injury to skin. He returned to Lethbridge to begin working at Richardson Oilseed Ltd (formerly Canbra Foods Ltd) in the research and development department followed by his taking over the Quality Assurance manager role.
Andrew Kennedy
FoodLogiQ
Mr. Andrew Kennedy has developed and implemented world-class business systems for For-tune 500 manufacturing companies, utilities, telecoms, state governments and for his family's in-vitro diagnostic company, Diba Industries, (sold to Halma Holdings, LSE:HLMA). Mr. Kennedy serves as a board advisor to Issuer Direct (OTC:ISDR) and is the Vice-Chair of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture. Andy is a frequent speaker at events including the Deep South Fruit and Vegetable Conference and the North American Strawberry Growers Association. Andy also serves as a working team chair for the Center for Environmental Systems commit-tee on Building a Sustainable Local Food Economy in North Carolina: From Farm-to-Fork. He lives in Durham, North Carolina and holds an MBA from Duke University and a BA in Economics from Lafayette College
Mélissa Lalonde
Agri-traçabilité International
Mélissa Lalonde, an agronomist also holding a master’s degree in project management, has over 8 years of experience in the agricultural and environmental field, including 4 years in project management. Mrs Lalonde ensures the management and methodological approach of internal and external projects with Agri-Traçabilité International (ATI). Highly structured and organized, she makes sure that ATI’s projects are carried out with the utmost efficiency and quality. As an international Project Manager, Ms. Lalonde is also called upon regularly to present Quebec’s vision on food safety to Canadian, American and international decision makers.
Paul Laronde
Destron Fearing
Paul Laronde is a consultant, specializing in the sales and technical aspects of animal identification, RFID and traceability. Paul has over 15 years experience in the field of livestock identification and implementing RFID for animals. Previously, Paul worked for two of the largest livestock identification distributors in Canada, as well as the two major livestock identification manufacturers. Before becoming a consultant, Paul served at the Livestock Traceability Coordinator for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Erling P. Larsen
National Institute of Aquatic Resources
Mr Erling Larsen, DTU Aqua, has considerable experience in management of research projects, industrial application projects, and demonstration activities and in dissemination information both to the fish sector and to the consumers. He has just finished coordinating the activity ”Seafood traceability to ensure consumer confidence” in the EU funded SEAFOODplus IP project www.SEAFOODplus.org
Ronan Loftus
IdentiGEN
Dr. Ronan Loftus is a co-founder of IdentiGEN Ltd with more than 15 years’ experience in the agri-biotech sector. In his role with IdentiGEN he has focused on the development and commercialisation of DNA based traceability systems in the meat chain and has overseen the deployment of this technology in a number of countries.
Linda Marchand
Agri-Traçabilité Québec
Born in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Linda Marchand has always been interested in business administration. In 1988, she worked at the establishment of an electronic sale system for Quebec’s swine industry, to become later on, the auction’s sale site general manager at the Fédération des producteurs de porcs du Québec.
Her experience of more than 20 years in the agri-food industry, added to her double master’s degrees in business administration from the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Université Dauphine de Paris, allowed her to become the general manager of Agri-Traçabilité Québec. She was actively involved in the creation and growth of the organization, whose mission is to see to the development, establishment and operation of a permanent identification and traceability system for agricultural products, for both animal and crop productions.
Working actively at managing operations, Ms. Marchand is also called upon regularly to present Quebec’s vision on food safety to Canadian, American and international decision makers.
Tom McMahon
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Tom McMahon is Senior Counsel, Department of Justice Canada. Tom is part of the Department of Justice Canada Legal Services Unit that is assigned exclusively to the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). AAFC and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the Legal Services Units for AAFC and CFIA, work very closely together on issues relating to traceability. Tom is the lead lawyer within AAFC Legal Services for providing legal advice in relation to traceability, privacy and access to information issues. Tom has worked with the Department of Justice Canada in various capacities since 1992, including within the Department’s Information Law and Privacy Section. Tom has a B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Manitoba, an LL.M. from the University of Ottawa, and was called to Manitoba Bar in 1986.
Susie Miller
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Susie Miller is a Director General, Food Value Chain Bureau in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and has the responsibility for working with the Canadian agriculture and food industry on issues of marketing, competitiveness and industry development. She is the lead for the Canadian government in working with industry and other levels of governments to develop and implement traceability systems, starting with livestock and poultry. Ms. Miller has worked in the agriculture field for over 30 years, mainly for government, but also for industry associations. She has a Master of Science in Agriculture from the University of Guelph, Canada.
Michael Miskin
Merit-Trax Technologies Inc.
Michael Miskin has more than 10 years of experience in the implementation of traceability solutions. He was instrumental in the development of the traceability system at Atlantic Beef Products and is currently working on traceability solutions for the Ontario Veal Association and the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Program.
Len Penner
Cargill Canada
Len Penner was appointed President of Cargill Limited, one of Canada’s leading agricultural companies, in December 2005. He is also President and Business Unit Leader of Cargill AgHorizons Canada, which consists of Cargill’s businesses focused on serving crop-producing farmers in Canada. Through a network of farm service centers, these businesses provide grain-handling services, risk management tools and crop input products and services to Canadian farmers.
Mr. Penner joined Cargill in 1975 and held sales, sales management, and general management positions in the seed business. He has held various management positions within the Commodity Marketing Division prior to being appointed to his current position.
Currently Mr. Penner serves as a Director of Grain Insurance and Guarantee Company. He is a member of the Business Council of Manitoba and the Canadian Council for Chief Executives.
Mr. Penner received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from the University of Manitoba in 1975. He was an active member of the Canadian Seed Trade Association and currently sits on a number of industry and community boards.
Begoña Pérez Villarreal
Bizkaiko Teknologi Parkea. Astondo Bidea
Begoña Pérez-Villarreal is the Director of Business of the Food Research Division of AZTI. She has been the project leader of more than 80 national and international projects, has 50 publications within Food Technology and is co-authoress of 5 new food product patents. She is a member of the board of the Spanish Food Microbiology Society and of different other societies and committees (AENOR, FEDIT). Further, she is an advisor and evaluator for several councils and administrations for strategic and R&D plans for the food sector. She has been involved in R&D&I activities and technology transfer to the food industry in the last 14 years, particularly in the SME area, concerning quality issues and product development. She has been participant and management team member of several EU R&D projects dealing with Traceability issues: CA-FQLM; FAIR PL98-4174; Tracefish; GoodFood (Demonstration and Exploitation Coordinator); SEAFOODplus (Demonstration and SME involvement Coordinator) and Trace. She works in Spanish, French and English.
Grégory Pétrieux
Epsilia
Mr. Grégory Pétrieux, Vice-President, Business Development. Epsilia is a software company developing eTrace, an agri-food traceability solution that tracks in real time, from raw materials to finished products throughout the logistic chain. Mr. Pétrieux specializes in traceability solutions and productivity optimization, using RFID and Barcode technologies, for the agri-food sector, he followed several management implementations for the Epsilia’s clients. M. Pétrieux is on the GS1 Traceability sub-Committee. This Committee will provide focused technology leadership, direction and expertise to help move Canadian industry to adopt global standards-based supply chain traceability for food and consumer products. M. Pétrieux studied in HEC-Montréal Bachelor of Business Administration with a Finance specialization.
Brian Sterling
OnTrace
Brian is Chief Executive Officer of OnTrace Agri-food Traceability, having been appointed to that position after its incorporation in 2006. He is responsible for management of all aspects of OnTrace operations and is recognized in Canada and internationally for his leadership on food traceability.
Brian spent nearly twenty years in his early career with the DuPont Company, advancing through a broad range of positions in North America. Since 1996, he progressed through senior roles in management and technology consulting. Prior to joining OnTrace, he was Director of Business Development for RFID and Product Traceability at IBM Canada. In that role he became recognized as a traceability expert, helping clients understand and achieve the business benefits of traceability.
Before joining IBM, Brian was Vice President/General Manager of a mid-sized engineering and technology consulting firm. It was at that time that he first developed a vision for whole-chain food traceability and led projects in the USA and Canada, including Can-Trace. During that project, he led development of a business case for whole-chain food traceability.
Andrew Watt
OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs)
Andrew Watt hails from Guelph, Ontario and is an alumnus of the University of Guelph with a background in microbiology. For more than 10 years he held positions in Quality Assurance in the brewing industry, food processing and in nutraceutical manufacturing. During his 10 years in industry he worked closely with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada and the United States Department of Agriculture on food inspection, food safety and bio-security initiatives.
Upon joining the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in 2007, Andrew led the Food Safety Initiative – Traceability Grant Program and Traceability Pilot Project which saw almost 200 small to medium sized agri-food operations implement comprehensive facility-level traceability systems.
As Traceability Coordinator for Agriculture, Andrew is working closely with provincial stakeholders to raise the awareness of traceability and traceability systems. He is a provincial representative on the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Traceability Task Team and Industry Government Advisory Committee on traceability. One current area of interest in traceability includes full-chain or “value chain traceability” – the conversion of the supply chain into the value chain using traceability-based systems and principles.
Ian White
Canadian Wheat Board
Ian White became President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Wheat Board on March 31, 2008.
He has extensive senior management, agribusiness and commodity marketing experience, being a previous Managing Director and CEO of Queensland Sugar Limited, CEO of Grainco Australia Limited, Defiance Mills Limited and Queensland Cotton’s US Operations.
Ian holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) degree from Sydney University, is a member of the Australian Society of CPAs, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has been a Director of a number of organisations including Queensland Sugar Limited, Cubbie Group Pty Ltd, The Queensland Competition Authority, Queensland Cotton Corporation and Defiance Milling Limited.
Tim White
EPC Global Canada
Tim White is Director, Product Development for EPCglobal Canada. EPCglobal Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of GS1 Canada, the not-for-profit, industry-led GS1 member organization promoting and maintaining global standards for the identification of goods. Tim was instrumental in architecting and implementing standards based Product Recall Portal in Canada and the United States.
David Wilkes
Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors
David Wilkes is Senior Vice President, Trade and Business Development of the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors (CCGD). CCGD is a trade association representing the grocery and foodservice distribution industry in Canada at the national and regional levels.
The food distribution industry in Canada is $70.1 billion in retail and $12 billion in foodservice sales. Members employ over 455,000 Canadians, and represent 85% of all grocery sales in Canada.
Dave oversees CCGD’s supply chain agenda. Most recently he Chaired the Canadian RFID center. An industry led group exploring the practical benefits of the emerging radio frequency technology.
Prior to joining CCGD in November 1998, David was the President of the Coffee Association of Canada. Prior to that David was with the Ontario Government for six years. He served as the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade and was a member of the policy group advising the Premier on the Canadian/U.S. Free Trade negotiations.
