John Spink

Dr. John Spink is an Assistant Professor (Fixed-Term) in the Department of Supply Chain Management in the Eli Broad Business College at Michigan State University (USA) where he redeveloped and teaches all sections of “Introduction to Supply Chain Management” and a section “Procurement and Supply Chain Management.”

Since 2013 he has been the Director of the Food Fraud Initiative. Previously he was an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice in the College of Social Science at MSU from 2009 to 2013 and then from 2013 to 2019 as an Assistant Professor in the College of Veterinary Medicines support food safety activities with a focus on food fraud prevention. From 2005 to 2019 he developed and taught graduate courses including Packaging for Food Safety, Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (Food Fraud), and Quantifying Food Risk. He is widely published in leading academic journals including “Defining the Public Health Threat of Food Fraud,” “Defining the Types of Counterfeiters, Counterfeiting, and Offender Organizations,” “Introduction of the Food Fraud Initial Screening Method (FFIS). His 2019 publication Food Fraud Prevention was the first textbook on the topic.

His leadership positions include product fraud related activities with “ISO 22000 Food Safety” and “TC292 Security Management/ Fraud Countermeasure,” GFSI Food Fraud Think Tank, and U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP). Global activities include engagements with the European Commission, INTERPOL and Operation Opson, New Zealand MPI, Codex Alimentarius, WHO/FAO, and served as an Advisor on Food Fraud to the Chinese National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA).

Before returning to MSU to start his PHD in 2006 he spend 11 years at Chevron Corporation, 2 years at a $100 million start-up company, and then as an independent consultant. The Chevron experiences included package plant manager with 30 direct report employees at $7 million budget, sales manager leading 600% growth while achieving the highest margin, technical representative creating 8% growth in a shrinking market, new business development, consulting, and as a business manager of a $100 million joint venture.