Caroline Smith-deWaal

Caroline manages the agency’s representation and positions at international standard-setting bodies, such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission, and its various Committees, and engages with foreign governments on emergency notifications and systems recognition. Caroline is also the former director of the food safety program for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and co-author of Is Our Food Safe? A Consumer’s Guide to Protecting Your Health and the Environment (Three Rivers Press, 2002). She has testified more than 20times as a food safety expert before the UnitedStates Congress and has presented papers on food safety at more than100 scientific and public policy conferences and regularly publishes in scientific and legal journals. Caroline has participated in World Health Organization consultations on food safety, and on FDA, USDA, and CDC food safety advisory panels. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont and of Antioch School of Law.

Jeffrey Read

Lauren DiMenna

Andrea Budgell

Pierre Killeen

Tammy Switucha

Tammy Switucha is the Senior Director of Food Safety 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 12 years where she has held various executive positions in International Relations and Strategic Policy. She led the Agency’s efforts to modernize its regulatory framework for food safety –the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations –for several years, the development of which began in 2014. This work also involves the development of guidance material for industry stakeholders to assist with readiness for compliance with the regulations. She is now responsible for the overall program implementation and work planning for food safety oversight by the CFIA.

Dr. William Yan

Michael Perz M.Sc.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. He is as well the former Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. While at the University of Guelph, he was also the Associate Dean of Research for the College of Business and Economics.

Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.

He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.

Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. He also has done some work on social licensing, which include public trust assessments and risk communication evaluations. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. He conducts policy analysis, evaluation, and demonstration projects for government agencies and major foundations focusing on agricultural policies and community development both in Canada and in development settings. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre’s Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces, in the United States, Brazil, Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, China, Great Britain, Finland and the Netherlands.

Erik Hansen

Erik founded DesBarres Chocolate with his partner Ariane in 2015. Initially a part-time outlet for their passion for chocolate, it continues to demand more and more of their time. Erik’s love of dark chocolate was confined to that of a consumer as he pursued a career in the Life and Health Sciences.  He provided research tools for Pharma, Biotech Government and Academic labs, and worked for 16 years at GE Healthcare (formerly Amersham Biosciences) finishing as VP Sales/Marketing. Erik then had opportunities to work with a number of small start-ups before venturing into the world of consulting.

Chocolate now occupies the majority of Erik’s time as he and Ariane continue to receive international recognition for their bean to bar chocolate. With sales continuing to grow in the high double digits annually, regulatory compliance is but one ball that has to be constantly juggled.

Jennifer Marchand

Jennifer Marchand began her career in food safety, quality and regulatory in 1998 at Cargill’s Clavet, Saskatchewan canola processing facility following her graduation from the University of Saskatchewan. She assumed a variety of food safety and quality assurance leadership roles for Cargill in both the processing and specialty vegetable oils space over the next 11 years. In 2009 she joined Louis Dreyfus as a member of a project build team for a greenfield vegetable oil crushing and refining facility accountable for designing and implementing all food safety and quality assurance programs. Following this, she returned to Cargill in 2011 and is currently in the role of Canadian Food Safety, Quality and Regulatory Leader for Cargill’s agricultural and processing businesses in Canada with extension into the United States. Jennifer chaired the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association Food, Feed Safety and Regulatory Committee for 8 years and has had extensive interaction with government agencies both domestically and abroad speaking about both the Canadian oilseed processing industry and Cargill’s food safety and quality assurance practices. She is on the board of directors of the Canola Council of Canada and serves on a variety of industry association and government committees providing insight and support to ensure the safety and quality of the grains, oils, food and feed produced in Canada.

Lesley Brennan PhD, MPH

Dr. Lesley Brennan is the Program Manager at the Children’s Environmental Health Clinic (ChEHC) in Edmonton, Alberta. ChEHC is a WHO Collaborating Centre in Child Health and the Environment and the only program of its kind in Canada. Dr. Brennan works with a multidisciplinary team of experts to provide expert patient care, clinical research, and support the development of educational resources for Child Health and the Environment.

Dr. Brennan earned her PhD in Cell Physiology at the University of Alberta in 2011 and her MPH from the University of Saskatchewan in 2015. Her work at ChEHC is dedicated to identifying and mitigating environmental hazards and protecting children’s health. She also strives to expand knowledge of children’s environmental health within the community.

Christeen Lewis

Lawrence Goodridge

Brenda Stradinger

Sylvanus Thompson

Sylvanus Thompson, PhD, MSc, BSc, CPHI (C) Sylvanus Thompson is an Associate Director at Toronto Public Health. His Formal Education includes a BSc (Environmental Health), a MSc (Food Safety), and PhD (Public Health Administration). AdditionallySylvanus is a Fellow of the Canadian Health Service Research Foundation (EXTRA Program) which is focused on evidence –based decision making. He has extensive training and experience in developing, implementing and evaluating public health programs and services. He is a major resource personnel on environmental public health issues particularly in food safety and quality assurance. Sylvanus is a member of several local, national and international professional organizations including National EnvironmentalHealth Association, International Federation of Environmental Health, and the American Society for Quality, the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors, and the Association of Supervisors of Public Health Inspectors of Ontario. He is the Secretary for the International Federation of Environmental Health, a Technical Advisor for the National Environmental Health Association and the ASPHIO Food Safety lead. Sylvanus was very instrumental in the development of Toronto’s award-winning food inspection and disclosure system, DineSafe, and has since provided consultation to a number of countries, including the UK, Australia, China, Hong Kong and parts of the US in implementing similar systems. Toronto Public Health was the recipient of the prestigious Samuel Crumbine Consumer Protection Award for this effort. Sylvanus is a recipient of a number of professional and community awards including the National Sanitation Foundation /CIPHI Award for outstanding contribution to food safety. He has been awarded the Crumbine Medal, USA (2011) for outstanding contribution to food safety and consumer protection, the Canadian African Unsung Heroes Awards for ground-breaking contribution to public health Awards, the Public Sector Quality Fair Gold Award for consumer protection and was recognised among the "140 Faces of OEC", University of Guelph.Most recently he was recognized by Toronto Public Health and the Government of Ontario for Outstanding Community Contribution.

Ron Judge

Joyce Hughes

Joyce received her Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1988 and worked for many years as a research and plant engineer for Canada Packers (now Maple Leaf) and Unilever. At these companies she gained considerable experience in how equipment affects and ensures great quality products can be effectively produced. She then entered the world of Operations Management and worked for companies such as Neilson Dairy (now Saputo), Kraft, Arla Foods, Cott Beverages and now Chudleighs bakery. She has a wide range of experience including safety, operations, quality and food safety management, plant engineering, continuous improvement, business development, union and non-union culture improvement in startup and turn around facilities. She has worked on quality improvement projects such as listeria mitigation, high care and high risk controls, nonconformance and corrective action programs, effective training of full time and temporary workers and how to make food safety a priority focus in daily operations. Currently she is VP of Operations at Chudleighs and oversee the quality department where they have maintained a BRC AA for the past two years.

Shannon McCoy

Shannon McCoy is currently the Director of Food Safety and Quality at Maple Leaf Foods. Her focus in on the development and implementation of the Food Safety and Quality programs to support the strategic direction of Maple Leaf Foods and advance the companies maturity in Food Safety and Quality both in corporate direction and on the shop floor.

Previously at Maple Leaf Foods, Shannon had direct oversight of the implementation and execution of Food Safety and Quality programs at 9 further processed meat facilities across Canada.

Shannon has previously held roles in national business management as the Canadian Business Manager for Diagnostics with DuPont where she led the support of diagnostic technologies for rapid pathogen detection including collaboration with Health Canada, CFIA, Standards Council of Canada and USDA for method approvals. Prior to her role in Diagnostics, Shannon achieved Six Sigma Black Belt status and was a founding member of the Food Safety Risk Assessment consulting business at DuPont Canada providing consultation and collaboration with industry in North America and Europe including the development of microbial mapping techniques for environmental monitoring. She successfully brought these techniques out of the plant and onto the farm to support Salmonella reduction strategies in poultry grow out operations globally and improve animal welfare in pork farm operations in Quebec and the Netherlands.

Shannon holds a BSc from the University of Toronto in Cell and Molecular Biology. She has worked at Maple Leaf Foods since 2011.

Joe Darden

Anthony Morello

Anthony is a high impact Retail/Wholesale Operations Professional with an outstanding track record of delivering business and financial results, in multiple retail formats. He is also articulate and driven to succeed.

As an articulate and forthright communicator, Anthony encourages opinions and instills harmony and fun into corporate culture. He initiates action to optimize operations, extract costs and grow market share without compromising customer service. He is competitive, energizes, drives accountability, inspires and empowers diverse teams to excel, learn and provide exemplary service.

He is currently President of Aurora Importing & Distributing, the most significant importer of dry grocery products from Italy to Canada with over 750 containers per year. Anthony is a dedicated and driven visionary with a pulse of entrepreneurial and corporate work ethic in his business. He is an unswerving, strategic and tactical pioneer of new concepts and embraces challenges to maximize consumer impact and engagement to entice sales and profits.

With a knack for aligning cross-functional stakeholders towards a single vision, Anthony demonstrates the ability to recognize market trends, identify key opportunities and drive business growth.

Mike Clark

Kim Onett

Technical Manager, Training and Education atNSF International. She has more than 25years’ experience in the food industry. In her role with NSF International she is responsible for technical content and direction for the training needs of all US based clients. She is anFSPCA Preventive Controls and FSVP lead instructor, and an approved trainer for GFSI recognized schemes including, BRC, SQF, IFS. Prior to joining NSF International, Kim was the Director of Auditing for Merieux NutriSciences, was a member of the GFSI Auditor Competency Scheme Committee and conducted both second party and GFSI recognized standards audits, SQF,BRC, IFS Logistics, FSSC 22000.

Christa Lovelock

Jason Hlywka

Dr. Jason Hlywka is the corporate global toxicologist for The Kraft Heinz Company headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA.  In this capacity, Dr. Hlywka has responsibility for leadership and direction on various regulatory and scientific affairs matters that are pertinent to food safety and consumer health across a broad portfolio of food products around the world.  Dr. Hlywka has dedicated his career to the applied field of food toxicology as it relates to human health and assessing the safety of dietary constituents.  His research experience includes analytical and clinical studies on food allergens, and providing guidance on food allergen management practices is within the scope of his current role.  Dr. Hlywka completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in toxicology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.  He received his Ph.D. in food science and toxicology from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA and completed post-doctoral training at the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program at Nebraska under the guidance of Drs. Steve Taylor and Sue Hefle.  Prior to Kraft Heinz, Dr. Hlywka has held industry positions with Kraft Foods, Cargill, and Cantox Health Sciences International.  He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and participates in various industry, academic, and scientific associations and committees.

Adib Farah

Dan Hays

Sam Sum

Professor Henry Kim

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, facility licensing, phytosanitary & import permit programs. Joseph serves as 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. Joseph is the proud father of two grown children and is also a grandpa. He enjoys investing, reading, writing, gardening and exercising in his spare time.

Beatrice Povolo

Beatrice is responsible for the overall development and management of key strategic programs offered by Food Allergy Canada. These programs include the corporate sponsor program, consumer advocacy initiatives, and media relations. She has been the project lead on many allergy-related issues within the community such as food labelling, airline travel, foodservice training and post-secondary allergen management. Beatrice joined Food Allergy Canada in 2007. Prior to this position, she was the Director of Marketing and Product Development with Manulife Financial in Toronto. She also held various managerial positions over a 10-year period in the financial sector with TD Canada Trust. Beatrice first started as a volunteer with Food Allergy Canada in 2005, as the Chair of the Toronto Anaphylaxis Education Group when her son was diagnosed with a peanut allergy and as such understands the issues facing both those individuals at risk as well as the overall allergy community. Beatrice graduated from the University of Toronto, with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics.