Speakers

Keynote Speaker

JULIA WILSON

Julia Wilson is Vice President of Global Responsibility and Sustainability at Nielsen, responsible for its global environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, ongoing stakeholder engagement, and external reporting. In her career at Nielsen, Julia has led efforts to create and publish Nielsen’s first and second non-financial materiality assessments as well as Nielsen’s first and second Global Responsibility Reports, aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. She was a recipient of City & State NY’s “Responsible 100” for 2017.

Julia is a member of the GRI’s Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) and the Professional Services Sustainability Roundtable (PSSR) with the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. Before managing Nielsen’s global ESG and external reporting strategy, Julia worked on Nielsen Cares, Nielsen’s global employee engagement and volunteerism program, managing its social good efforts focused on the priority cause areas of Hunger & Nutrition and Technology. She holds certificates in corporate citizenship from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Rutgers University. 

DANTE FENOLIO

Dante is Vice President of the Center for Conservation and Research at the San Antonio Zoo.  Dr. Fenolio helps to coordinate both domestic and international conservation efforts to develop captive breeding methods for endangered species including a project in collaboration with the Chilean Amphibian Conservation Center.  He collaborates with colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, focusing on the cave biodiversity of South China and develops conservation strategies.  He also works with Brazilian, Chilean, and Peruvian colleagues to form conservation strategies for wildlife and forests in those countries.  Dr. Fenolio’s department is also involved in a consortium of researchers investigating the impact of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on deep sea and pelagic communities in project “DEEPEND”.  His team also lead efforts to conserve imperiled species living in the Edward’s Aquifer and its springs.  In 2016, Dante published a book featuring his photography focused lantern fish and other animals which spend all or most of their lives in the dark called “Life in the Dark”. Dante earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Miami, Florida.

Speakers

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Afsharmanesh Nadereh
Nadereh Afsharmanesh
Earth Friendly Products
Nadereh Afsharmanesh
Earth Friendly Products

Bio coming soon

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Alvarez Viviana
Viviana Alvarez
Unilever
Viviana Alvarez
Unilever

In Early February, Viviana was appointed as Head of Sustainability for Unilever North America. Prior to this, she was the Head of Corporate Strategy in the US. She has also been part of the Corporate Strategy team in London supporting the overall company medium-long term plans at a Global Level. Viviana has an Executive MBA from ESADE School of Management and BSBA in Business Management. Recent Executive Education at Harvard Business School and University of Oxford on Circular Economy topics, Leadership and Scenario Planning. Other positions in Unilever - Head of Strategy - North America - Global Corporate Strategy Manager - Global Strategies Social Business Models Project Leader - Unilever Foundation Global Ambassador – Oral Care Brand Planner Others: - Co-Founder of H2H ("Help to Haiti") - NGO in Haiti

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Andrews Dee
Dee Andrews
Norcom, Inc.
Dee Andrews
Norcom, Inc.

Dee joined Norcom, Inc., (a manufacturer and marketer of paper-based school and office supplies sold to mass market retailers) in 1993.
In her role as Director of Environmental Affairs for the company's U.S. and Mexico facilities, Dee is responsible for: strategic planning; oversight of corporate sustainability team; goal setting; metric establishment and tracking; stakeholder engagement; environmental reporting including retail account assessments, CFSI conflict minerals and carbon footprint reporting; forestry certifications; supply chain transparency; and corporate and supplier compliance.
Dee is also responsible for California Proposition 65, Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, Fair Packaging and Labeling Act and other government program compliance.
She is actively involved in The Sustainability Consortium, a group of leading corporations dedicated to developing credible measurement tools for assessing sustainability integration into businesses.
Dee graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa 1986. In 2014 she graduated "With Distinction" from the Global Sustainability program at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

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Apte Mandar
Apte Mandar
Visiting Scholar, George Mason University
Apte Mandar
Visiting Scholar, George Mason University

In 2016, Mandar started the From India With Love initiative to reinvigorate the ancient message of nonviolence (or Ahimsa) in the world. Aligned with this mission, in Oct 2018, Mandar hosted the inaugural World Summit for Countering Violence & Extremism that brought together peace activists and law enforcement executives to promote peace and compassion in the world.

Until 2016, Mandar worked at Shell for 17 years at Shell International. In his last role, he managed Shell’s prestigious GameChanger social innovation program investing in ideas that create shared value - business value and social impact. Mandar is an acclaimed expert on leadership, entrepreneurship and social innovation and has spoken on these topics at many prestigious forums including TEDx, Wharton Business School, Social Innovation Summit, Sustainable Brands, London Business School, etc. He is also the winner of the prestigious Ashoka League of Intrapreneurs for designing and delivering an innovation learning program at Shell to over 2000 colleagues using meditation practice.

For over a decade, Mandar has taught leadership programs using meditation practices volunteering for the International Association for Human Values and the Art of Living Foundation.

For more info about Mandar's work click here.

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Armitage Tony
Tony Armitage
International Ingredient Corporation
Tony Armitage
International Ingredient Corporation

Tony leads a group of experienced industry professionals responsible for the procurement of food ingredients and commodities such as sugar, dairy ingredients, cocoa, oils, starches, flour and food grade chemicals.

With nearly 30 years of purchasing experience, including 18 with International Food Products, Tony brings deep insights to customers who rely on his group to manage cost, quality and market risk.

Tony started his career with the Archer Daniels Midland Company as a grain merchandiser trading a variety of agricultural commodities. Tony also traded crush and managed risk with ADM’s soy processing division before moving on to a sales and marketing position.

Tony earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Villanova University and his Masters in Business Administration from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.

Tony is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma and is active in a variety of industry trade organizations such as the St. Louis Agri-Business Club and the American Feed Industry Association.

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Balsam Jessica
Jessica Balsam
APL Logistics
Jessica Balsam
APL Logistics

Jessica Balsam is the Sustainability Director for APL Logistics.  She works to set a global strategic vision for sustainability and corporate social responsibility that is grounded in data and tied to business objectives.  Prior to joining APL Logistics, Jessica served in the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy overseeing communications for $12 billion in stimulus funding and managed global sustainability programs in Nike’s retail business.

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Baltz Carolyn
Carolyn Baltz
The Sustainability Consortium
Director, Membership and Development
Carolyn Baltz
Director, Membership and Development
The Sustainability Consortium

Carolyn Baltz joined The Sustainability Consortium on June 29, 2015. Prior to joining TSC, Carolyn dedicated 11 years to strengthening the membership efforts of the Arkansas Alumni Association at the University of Arkansas. Carolyn was instrumental in growing stewardship programs for members, engagement measurement practices and membership acquisition strategy. In addition to her expertise in relationship management, Carolyn led efforts to create and market a new brand identity for the Association. Carolyn received a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Journalism with a minor in Advertising and Public Relations. She currently volunteers for multiple non-profit organizations in the Northwest Arkansas area.

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479-575-5909
Fayetteville, Arkansas Office
Barsimantov Jamie
Jamie Barsimantov
SupplyShift
Jamie Barsimantov
SupplyShift

James Barsimantov, Ph.D., Cofounder & COO at SupplyShift, received his doctorate in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz with a focus on environmental economics and resource management. Jamie has extensive consulting and academic experience in sustainability, climate action strategy, responsible supply chains and is frequent speaker in academic and corporate venues.

Before co-founding SupplyShift, Jamie co-founded EcoShift Consulting, taught environmental economics and sustainable design at UC Santa Cruz, conducted nation-wide research at the Urban Institute, and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama. Jamie is the driving force behind connecting SupplyShift with its customers and partners, and ensuring successful outcomes and continuous improvement in supply chain operations.

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Battagliese Tom
Tom Battagliese
BASF
Tom Battagliese
BASF

Tom Battagliese is currently the Global Sustainability Metrics Manager for BASF’s Nutrition & Health business, collaborating with the business and stakeholders to measure and improve product and enterprise sustainability along the entire value chain. Tom has worked for more than 20 years within industry, consulting, and academia to help lead organizations to successfully identify, measure, and develop solutions and strategies for continuous improvement to sustainability and environmental opportunities. Since 2012, Tom has been helping to create more sustainable protein value chains, including leading the first comprehensive U.S. beef industry value chain life cycle study with the NCBA and USDA, as well as working across protein sectors on sustainability metrics and life cycle business opportunities.

Tom holds a Master’s Degree in Energy and Environmental Policy with a concentration in Sustainable Development from the University of Delaware, an MBA from Widener University, and a dual degree B.S. in Environmental Chemistry and German from Rutgers University.

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Berger Lori
Lori Berger
UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program
Lori Berger
UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program

Lori Berger joined the University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Project in 2014. Prior to this, she was the Executive Director of the grower-supported California Specialty Crops Council, leading technical and regulatory affairs for a diverse array of fruit, vegetable, berry and vine crops valued at >$5 Billion produced on over 600,000 acres. Lori has been at the intersection of IPM, food systems, public policy, and sustainability over two decades.
Her work has focused on the production community as well as appointments to several EPA and USDA advisory federal committees (pollinator protection, water quality and soil health). She holds a BS in Crop Science, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Entomology, and an MBA. She is a licensed pest control advisor (PCA) and certified crop advisor (CCA) in sustainability. She is a graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership Program.
Lori has worked for two Fortune 500 companies in R&D and Technical Services for new product and market development. She consults on a variety of research, marketing and regulatory projects.

Presenting at
An IPM Approach to Building Communication Channels About Pesticide Use

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Berkenkamp JoAnne
JoAnne Berkenkamp
Natural Resources Defense Council
JoAnne Berkenkamp
Natural Resources Defense Council

JoAnne Berkenkamp focuses on improving the efficiency of the U.S. food system by reducing food waste from farm to fork. She specializes in food-waste prevention and food rescue through industry-based approaches, consumer education, and policy advocacy. Berkenkamp has nearly two decades of experience working in the food-systems arena, including regional food-systems development, public education, institutional food procurement, and food supply chain research and development. Berkenkamp has also worked in the corporate finance and international development sectors. She holds a bachelor’s in finance from the University of Illinois and a masters from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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Berns Keith
Keith Berns
Green Cover Seed
Keith Berns
Green Cover Seed

Keith Berns combines over twenty years of no-till farming with ten years of teaching Agriculture and Computers. In addition to using no-till methods on 2,500 acres of irrigated and dryland corn, soybeans, rye, triticale, peas, sunflowers, and buckwheat in South Central Nebraska, he also co-owns and operates Green Cover Seed, one of the major cover crop seed providers and educators in the United States. Through Green Cover Seed, Keith has experimented with over 100 different cover crop types and hundreds of mixes planted into various situations and has learned a great deal about cover crop growth, nitrogen fixation, moisture usage, and grazing utilization of cover crops. Keith also developed the SmartMix Calculator™, one of the most widely used cover crop selection tools. Keith has a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Education from the University of Nebraska and regularly teaches on cover crops and soil health to various groups and audiences.

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Birt Nate
Nate Birt
Trust in Food
Nate Birt
Trust in Food

Nate Birt is Director of Development & Programming at Trust In Food™, a division of 142-year-old Farm Journal. He and his team partner with diverse stakeholders including conservation NGOs and government agencies to build consumer confidence in the agriculture supply chain by partnering with farmers to advance stewardship of land, water and air. In 2019, Trust In Food™ is engaged in projects with organizations including Iowa Soybean Association, Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership, The Nature Conservancy, The Walton Family Foundation, and the University of Montana. Nate’s first book, “Frozen, But Not Forgotten: An Adoptive Dad’s Step-by-Step Guide to Embryo Adoption,” published in April. He holds a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri. Nate and his wife, Julie, have four children and live in northeast Missouri.

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Bolden Dana
Dana Bolden
Corteva AgriScience
SVP External Affairs and Sustainability
Dana Bolden
SVP External Affairs and Sustainability
Corteva AgriScience

Dana Bolden serves as the Senior Vice President of External Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer at Corteva Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont, leading the company’s public policy and government affairs strategies, in addition to its sustainability, philanthropy, product stewardship and global regulatory activities. He previously served as the company’s communications officer where he led the employee, executive and functional communications; external communications; media relations; regional communications; corporate brand and advertising; platform communications; and digital and social communications. Once launched as a stand-alone company in 2019, Corteva Agriscience will offer a complete portfolio of products and technologies, and a robust pipeline of germplasm, traits and crop protection. The combined heritage and complementary capabilities of DuPont Crop Protection, Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences will make the future, intended agriculture company stronger, more competitive, and better-equipped to deliver growth and value.

Dana joined DuPont from The Coca-Cola Company where he held various leadership roles for most his career including global director for the Bottling Investments Group, communications director for the Eurasia Africa Group and director of financial communications. He led internal communications and stakeholder engagement programs to engage 70,000 employees and government relations strategies for a variety of countries. He implemented a digital stakeholder engagement program that leveraged big data to connect leaders with policymakers around the world. He brings extensive experience in designing and implementing training programs for all levels of leadership. Dana earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Washington & Lee University.  He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for his alma mater and chairs the Trusteeship Committee. He also serves on the College of Charleston’s Communications Advisory Council and lectures at his alma mater, CofC and several universities.

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Cardarelli Emi
Emi Cardarelli
Unilever
Director Club Sales & Sustainability
Emi Cardarelli
Director Club Sales & Sustainability
Unilever

Emi Cardarelli – Unilever - Director of Club Sales and Sustainability.

Emi is responsible for leading the wholesale club customer sales teams for Unilever US. She plays a key role in the strategy development for the club channel, as well as value creating initiatives for both Unilever/Walmart sustainability programs.

Prior to Unilever Emi spent 13 years at Walmart Stores Inc in several merchandising, sourcing, and private brands roles where she grew the business, and built a diverse, cross-functional background including an international assignment in Costa Rica.

Emi was raised in Mexico City in a bilingual/multicultural environment and has spent the past 16yrs in Northwest Arkansas. She received her B.S. in International Business at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City and completed her MBA at the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business. Emi currently serves as past chair on the Sam Walton College Deans’ Alumni Advisory Council and is a board member of Pay It Forward Foundation. Emi lives in Rogers, AR with her husband Tony and boys AJ (11yrs) and Alex (2yrs).

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Carter Craig
Craig Carter
Arizona State University
Craig Carter
Arizona State University

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Chatellus de Thibault
Thibault de Chatellus
Fair Trade USA
Thibault de Chatellus
Fair Trade USA

Thibault is Vice President, Consumer Packaged Goods at Fair Trade USA, a nonprofit and the leading certifier of Fair Trade products in North America. Thibault leads the growth of the Consumer Packaged Goods category, helping mission-driven and innovative brands develop sustainable supply chains and bring to market products made with Fair Trade Certified ingredients across multiple commodities including cocoa, sugar, coconut, and tea.

Thibault has over 25 years of leadership and international experience in specialty retail and food and beverage. He held several senior executive positions at Blockbuster and Jamba Juice including business development, category management, and general management of US and international retail operations. He also served as an independent consultant focusing on business development strategies in international markets. Prior to moving to the US, Thibault worked for 10 years at McKinsey and The Chase Manhattan Bank in France. He earned a Masters in Business from Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris, France.

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Chu Andrea
Andrea Chu
Campbell’s Soup Company
Andrea Chu
Campbell’s Soup Company

In her role as sustainable agriculture analyst at Campbell, Chu, 26, is focused on raising standards for suppliers, setting sustainable sourcing goals and tackling specific ingredients. She developed Campbell’s first enterprise-wide sustainable agriculture strategy, which provides greater transparency to consumers around how their food is grown.

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Conaghan Gabe
Gabe Conaghan
Bunge North America
Sr Manager, Merchandising
Gabe Conaghan
Sr Manager, Merchandising
Bunge North America

Gabe Conaghan is the senior manager of merchandising for Bunge’s North American Milling team. In this role, he supports corn risk management and procurement programs for North America’s largest corn dry miller. Gabe has been a part of the Milling team for nine years and worked previously on Bunge’s grain and oilseed trading desks. He has worked closely with farmers to help them market crops and bridge the gap between farmer to CPG in sustainability and traceability initiatives. Gabe has a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business from the University of Missouri and currently lives in St Louis.

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Cooper Lawren
Lawren Cooper
PepsiCo
Lawren Cooper
PepsiCo

Lawren Cooper is an Environmental Sustainability Manager at PepsiCo with fifteen years of experience promoting sustainable business practices.  Her responsibilities include leading the PepsiCo Recycling Events and Roadster programs, performing sustainability reviews of new products and projects, developing and executing sustainability strategies, and integrating sustainability into the business.  Other focus areas include carbon footprint reduction, product stewardship and customer outreach. Lawren received her B.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Environmental Science & Engineering and an MPH from the University of Michigan in Environmental Health Science and Industrial Hygiene.

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Cooper Spencer
Spencer Cooper
Almond Board of California
Spencer Cooper
Almond Board of California

Spencer Cooper is the Senior Manager of Field Outreach and Education for the Almond Board of California. Mr. Cooper joined the Board in 2016. His responsibilities include working with growers on improving irrigation efficiency by helping to increase the adoption and understanding of new beneficial technologies as well as better understanding the fundamentals of Irrigation Scheduling.

When Spencer is not working in the Almond Industry, he spends his time trying to get lost in the back country as well as working on his family’s small cattle operation in Central California.

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Dee Annie
Annie Dee
Dee River Ranch
President
Annie Dee
President
Dee River Ranch

Annie Dee is the President of Dee River Ranch. Dee River Ranch is a 10,000-acre family operated farm located on the Alabama-Mississippi state line outside of Aliceville, Alabama. The farm works with a rotation of corn and soybeans produced in accordance with the operation’s commitment to sustainable production and conservation practices. Pines and hardwoods have also been planted on some of the farm’s acreage. Additionally, Dee River Ranch has over 1,000 head of Brahman and Angus cross-bred cattle.

Annie serves on the United Soybean Board, speaking at various conferences and events about the importance of conservation practices in U.S. agriculture. In 2018, her commitment to clean water, soil health and conservation planning was recognized by the National Conservation Planning Partnership when she was awarded the Hugh Hammond Bennett Award for Conservation Excellence. Annie was named a Top Producer by Farm Journal in 2016 and Dee River Ranch was awarded the Alabama Farm of Distinction Award in 2013.

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Dellis Jillaine
Jillaine Dellis
Henkel
Jillaine Dellis
Henkel

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Diehl Kevin
Kevin Diehl
Corteva Agriscience
Kevin Diehl
Corteva Agriscience

Kevin Diehl leads the Global Regulatory Seed Platform for Corteva Agriscience, the Agriculture Division of Dow DuPont. He and his team develop and implement the strategic regulatory and advocacy plans to move products thru the research pipeline to the commercial business, and ultimately, to farmer customers around the world. They develop and execute the scientific studies that are used by regulatory agencies around the world to assess product safety.

Growing up on his family’s diversified crop and livestock farm in central Iowa, Kevin was focused on a career connected to agricultural. His interest evolved from working on the farm to working for DuPont, starting in 1993, to bring new science and technology to farmers globally. He has held research, agronomy, business improvement, marketing and sales management positions within DuPont, DuPont Pioneer and now Corteva Agriscience.

Kevin earned his Ph.D. in plant physiology and weed science from the University of Illinois and earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and agricultural studies from Iowa State University. He is a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt.  Kevin participates in various leadership capacities in industry associations including Crop Life International (CLI) and Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).  Outside of work, he is active in the Johnston community and serves on the ALS Association, Iowa Chapter Board as Treasurer.

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Dillinger Megan
Megan Dillinger
Walmart
Manager, Sustainability
Megan Dillinger
Manager, Sustainability
Walmart

Bio coming soon

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Dolak William
William Dolak
Walgreens
William Dolak
Walgreens

Bill Dolak is the Senior Manager, Product Sustainability for Walgreens (Walgreens-Boots Alliance North America). In this role Bill works to advance Sustainability initiatives across the non-pharmaceutical product offerings at Walgreens retail stores. This includes influencing the product’s chemical composition and ingredient provenance, packaging composition and recyclability communication, as well as Vendor Sustainability Practices (via the TSC toolkits). Prior to Walgreens, Bill worked in food manufacturing at General Mills, Tyson Foods, and in Private Brand Brokerage. Bill is a graduate of Indiana University and has done graduate studies at Indiana University School of Medicine and The University of Chicago School of Medicine. He lives in the northern Chicago suburbs with his wife, two daughters, and a puppy.

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Dooley Kevin
Kevin Dooley
The Sustainability Consortium
Chief Scientist
Kevin Dooley
Chief Scientist
The Sustainability Consortium

Dr. Kevin Dooley is a Professor of Supply Chain Management and a Dean's Council of 100 Distinguished Scholars in the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He is Chief Scientist of The Sustainability Consortium, developing science and tools to improve the sustainability of consumer goods. Dr. Dooley is a world-known expert in the application of complexity science to help organizations improve. He has published over 100 research articles and co-authored an award-winning book, "Organizational Change and Innovation Processes". He is on several journal editorial boards including Journal of Supply Chain Management and Journal of Business Logistics. He has been awarded two patents on Centering Resonance Analysis, a novel form of network text analysis, and is co-founder and CEO of Crawdad Technologies, LLC, a provider of text analysis software for academics of Business at Arizona State University.

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480-236-9588
Scottsdale, Arizona
Ehiemere Chisara
Chisara Ehiemere
Field to Market
Chisara Ehiemere
Field to Market

Leveraging over 20 years of experience in sustainable agriculture and supply chain management, Chisara is responsible for the design and implementation of Field to Market’s assurance processes. Prior to Field to Market, Chisara was the Vice President of Certification at Fair Trade USA where she designed and implemented certification strategies for agricultural supply chains to improve farmer and worker livelihoods, improve environmental outcomes, and increase transparency in sourcing. Chisara also formulated procurement and supply chain management strategies across multiple industries as a consultant.  Chisara holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Duke University.

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Elder Jeff
Jeff Elder
Oritain
Jeff Elder
Oritain

Jeff has recently joined Oritain – a world leader in verifying the origin of products – as Managing Director, North America.  Using forensic science and data analysis, Oritain analyses naturally-occurring chemical properties within products to trace them back to their true origin, from any point in the supply chain. Operating globally, they work with some of the world’s largest food, textile and pharmaceutical suppliers. Jeff joins Oritain after 21 years with J.G. Boswell Company, one of the largest agricultural producers in the country, where as Vice President, Marketing, he oversaw the sales and marketing of the company’s agricultural products. He has been active in and served on the boards for many agricultural organizations. Jeff is past president of the Cotton Warehouse Association of America and a past chair of the Supima organization. He is currently the Chair of the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation, recognized as the premier leadership program in its niche.

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Espinoza Laura
Laura Espinoza
Fair Food Program
Laura Espinoza
Fair Food Program

Judge Laura Safer Espinoza is the Executive Director of the Fair Food Standards Council, which monitors and enforces the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ groundbreaking agreements with growers and food retail buyers to ensure fundamental human rights for agricultural workers. The Fair Food Program has been recognized by the White House, the United Nations, Harvard Business Review, CNN International’s Freedom Project and numerous international human rights organizations, as one of the most successful programs in the world today to uncover, eliminate and prevent modern-day slavery, sexual violence, wage theft and other systemic abuses.

 Judge Safer Espinoza is a former NY State Supreme Court Justice who served as a judge and court administrator for twenty years. She helped to design and became the first presiding judge of an innovative alternative to incarceration court for non-violent offenders. Judge Safer Espinoza has an extensive history of work with government, human rights and legal organizations in the United States and Latin America. She has taught extensively in Latin America, in support of law reform and greater transparency.

Justice Safer Espinoza is a graduate of Barnard College and New York Law School. She is a recipient of the City University of New York’s Women in the Law Award and Encore’s ‘Purpose Prize’ Award, celebrating individuals who use their previous life experience to make a difference.

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Fenolio Dante
Dante Fenolio
San Antonio Zoo
Vice President of Conservation and Research
Dante Fenolio
Vice President of Conservation and Research
San Antonio Zoo

Dante is Vice President of the Center for Conservation and Research at the San Antonio Zoo.  Dr. Fenolio helps to coordinate both domestic and international conservation efforts to develop captive breeding methods for endangered species including a project in collaboration with the Chilean Amphibian Conservation Center.  He collaborates with colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, focusing on the cave biodiversity of South China and develops conservation strategies.  He also works with Brazilian, Chilean, and Peruvian colleagues to form conservation strategies for wildlife and forests in those countries.  Dr. Fenolio’s department is also involved in a consortium of researchers investigating the impact of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on deep sea and pelagic communities in project “DEEPEND”.  His team also lead efforts to conserve imperiled species living in the Edward’s Aquifer and its springs.  In 2016, Dante published a book featuring his photography focused lantern fish and other animals which spend all or most of their lives in the dark called “Life in the Dark”. Dante earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Miami, Florida.

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Fenwick Margaret
Margaret Fenwick
BASF
Margaret Fenwick
BASF

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Fisher Kelly
Kelly Fisher
HSBC
Kelly Fisher
HSBC

In 2015, Kelly W. Fisher was appointed Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Sustainability for HSBC Bank USA.  In her role she has helped to launch HSBC’s new U.S. volunteer program “Involve” which has been recognized for improving the volunteer experience.  She also co-chairs the US Climate Business Council, which is helping to increase HSBC’s leadership role in sustainable finance.

Kelly joined HSBC after seven years at Toyota Motor North America, where she created environmental and safety programs that were recognized for having a meaningful impact while greatly improving corporate reputation.  In her tenure there she also created Toyota’s first-ever social media giving campaign, called “100 Cars for Good”.   Prior to that, she worked for four years at Goldman Sachs, helping to manage their global volunteer program and internal marketing campaigns.

In the past, Kelly has held seats on the corporate advisory board of Do Something and the executive board of Corporate Volunteers of New York.  She is an active volunteer with Citymeals-on-Wheels, various animal welfare organizations, and was a recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2011.

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Freeze Zach
Zach Freeze
Walmart
Zach Freeze
Walmart

Zach Freeze is responsible for global product sustainability, working with buyers and suppliers in Walmart’s general merchandise and consumables categories, on key initiatives like factory energy efficiency, chemicals, and packaging. Zach has been on the sustainability team for over 3 years and with Walmart for over 10 years, holding a number of roles in Walmart, including environmental compliance and indirect sourcing and procurement. Prior to joining Walmart, Zach’s experience includes hazardous waste brokering, environmental consulting, and product specification testing. Zach earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Arkansas Tech University and a Master of Science in Operations Management from the University of Arkansas.

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Gassaway Eric
Eric Gassaway
Bayer
Eric Gassaway
Bayer

Eric is the Director of Sustainable Sourcing for Monsanto, starting his career in September 2016.  Eric works with various stakeholders in the food value chain around sustainabile sourcing challenges, solutions, developments, and ideas.  He works with farmers, national and regional commodity boards, as well as consumer goods companies, food manufacturers, retailers, and NGOs, with an end goal of providing sustainable food sources to consumers globally.  His main initiatives are creating a platform to sustainably source commodity crops, potentially certifying these crops on a global level for food companies worldwide, as well as building campaigns to speak to consumers about how their food is grown and produced across the value chain.

Eric began his career in pharmaceutical sales for Pfizer.  After various roles, he moved into account management for cranial staplers with Covidien, followed by a role as regional account manager for Kimberly Clark in their spinal and knee division.  After 16 years in healthcare, he made the transition to agriculture to develop a sustainable future for the production, sale, and consumption of food.

Eric has a BS in biochemistry from University of Missouri-Columbia, and a Masters in International Business from St. Louis University.

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Golden Jay
Jay Golden
East Carolina University
Vice Chancellor of Research, Economic Development and Engagement Professor
Jay Golden
Vice Chancellor of Research, Economic Development and Engagement Professor
East Carolina University

Dr. Jay Golden is Vice Chancellor for Research, Economic Development and Engagement at ECU and a professor of Engineering with a secondary appointment in supply chain.

Dr. Golden comes to ECU from Duke University where he was faculty chair of the Business & Environment Program and Director of the Duke Center for Sustainability and Commerce.  Golden also served as Associate Vice Provost for Research and led Dukes Corporate Relations Office.

Dr. Golden received his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Cambridge, and his master's degree in environmental engineering and sustainable development from a joint program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Organizational Mastery of Project Management from Stanford University and an MLE from Harvard University and a bachelors in management.

Author of more than 150 articles, Golden has participated in 100 invited presentations and more than 70 media interviews. He has testified before Congress and secured more than $30 million in research funding. Golden directed the National Center of Excellence on Sustainable Materials and Renewable Technologies while serving as a faculty member at Arizona State University.

Golden was presented the Faculty Pioneer Award by the Aspen Institute for his leadership in the field of sustainable engineering education and research. He was also named one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics by the Ethisphere Institute.  In 2017, Golden was nominated by peers and appointed to the Board of Scientific Counselors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Golden brings both an entrepreneurial and business background to ECU, having founded a small business in Arizona that grew to have operations throughout the West and Southwest. He has also held leadership positions in multiple publicly traded companies, including a Fortune 150 international service and technology company. Golden serves on a number of boards, including the North Carolina Biotechnology Center Board of Directors and the Coastal Studies Institute.

Dr. Golden can be reached at GoldenJ17@ecu.edu

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Goldstein Rachel
Rachel Goldstein
Mars, Incorporated
Rachel Goldstein
Mars, Incorporated

Rachel is the Global Sustainability Senior Manager for Packaging and External Reporting at Mars, Incorporated. She leads an internal sustainable packaging working group and Mars’ external engagement in key partnerships such the New Plastics Economy, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and the Sustainability Consortium. Rachel is on the Board of Directors for Green Blue. She leads the external sustainability reporting work across a range of platforms and disclosures such as CDP and customer scorecards.  She also implements programs on sustainability related claims, and is the sustainability subject matter expert for Mars’ Global Horizon Scanning capability

Prior to Mars, Rachel was the Team Leader of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP), a voluntary program that encourages methane emissions reductions through the capture and beneficial use of landfill gas.  She was also the lead for this work in India, China and Southeast Asia under the Global Methane Initiative. Rachel was in the health, safety and environmental field before joining EPA.

Rachel has an MBA with an Environmental Management Concentration from The George Washington University, and a B.S. Human Factors Engineering from Tufts University

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Grazian Ariane
Ariane Grazian
Walmart
Ariane Grazian
Walmart

Ariane Grazian joined Walmart four years ago as the sustainability manager for general merchandise. Since, she’s managed Walmart’s factory efficiency programs in China and supported design for Walmart’s sustainable apparel strategy, including the stand up of a global textile mill sustainability program. Currently, she is the global program lead for Project Gigaton, Walmart’s commitment to eliminate 1 billion metric tons – a gigaton - of greenhouse gases from the global value chain by 2030. For Ariane, the most exciting part about her role is seeing the private sector lead from the front, and the role technology can play, to catalyze engagement and combat climate change.

Prior to joining Walmart, Ariane served as a client lead for the Strategy and Operations practice at Deloitte Consulting in Washington, D.C., specializing in program redesign and process optimization. She was born and raised in Chicago, and earned a degree in international business from the George Washington University.

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Green Thomas
Thomas Green
Potato Sustainability Initiative
Thomas Green
Potato Sustainability Initiative

Dr. Thomas Green has been a national leader in market-based sustainability and pesticide risk reduction initiatives for more than thirty years. He is president and co-founder of the IPM Institute of North America, a non-profit working since 1998 to leverage marketplace power to improve health, environment and economics in agriculture and communities. The Institute partners with food companies including Sysco, McDonald’s, Lamb Weston, McCain Foods, Simplot, Basic American Foods, Cavendish Farms, Whole Foods Market and others on sustainability initiatives. The Institute was awarded Supplier of the Year for Quality Assurance from Whole Foods Market in 2015, earned the International IPM Excellence Award from the Sixth International IPM Symposium in 2009, was recognized as an US EPA Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program Champion in 2004, 2005, 2008, and received the US EPA Sustained Excellence in IPM Award and 2009 and 2012. Dr. Green was awarded the Entomological Foundation Medal of Honor in 2015. Dr. Green is a Certified Crop Advisor and a USDA NRCS-certified Technical Service Provider. He holds a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Massachusetts and has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications and presented at more than 250 professional and industry events. He founded the Partnership for Ag Resource Management, a collaborative effort with leading ag retailers to identify, promote, track and report sales and impacts of products and services that reduce ag input losses from cropland, now in its seventh year.

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Greenwood Leigh
Leigh Greenwood
The Nature Conservancy
Leigh Greenwood
The Nature Conservancy

Leigh has worked for The Nature Conservancy since December 2007. Leigh’s work focuses on bringing multiple stakeholders together to achieve common goals in Forest Health, including: managing the Don’t Move Firewood campaign, working to improve the international biosecurity measures in place for solid wood packaging, and convening the annual Continental Dialogue on Non-native Forest Insects and Diseases. Her leadership of the Don’t Move Firewood campaign has led to its being widely regarded as one of the most innovative public outreach arms of The Nature Conservancy. Leigh earned her B.A. in Biology at Williams College and her M.S. in Wildlife Biology at the University of Montana in Missoula, where she studied the intersection of native wildlife and invasive plants.

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Guenther Christoph
Christoph Guenther
BASF
Christoph Guenther
BASF

Christoph Guenther is currently the Global Applied Sustainability Manager for BASF’s Nutrition & Health business and is responsible for all customer sustainability projects in the  animal protein value chain. At this time, he is involved in developing solutions which allow stakeholders to manage and measure sustainability along the value chain from feed to meat/milk/egg. Christoph has worked for more than 30 years within the industry and has focused for more than 15 years on sustainability and life cycle analysis in animal production.

Christoph holds a PHD in Animal Nutrition with a concentration on broiler feeding from the University of Bonn, Germany.

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Hanner Karen
Karren Hanner
Feeding America
Karren Hanner
Feeding America

Karen Hanner is the Vice President, Manufacturing Partnerships for Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief and food rescue organization.  Her team is dedicated to relationship development with over 200 major manufacturers to ensure unsellable wholesome food and grocery products are donated to food banks to feed people and avoid being wasted. Primary focus is with industry partners at the farm/agricultural processor stage within the animal protein and dairy sectors as the area of highest need by food insecure populations. Hanner also leads the Sustainability, Purchasing and Disaster Services work for the national organization which supports 200-member food banks and their 60K agency partners committed to providing nutritious food to 46M Americans.  With a larger mission of ensuring all food insecure individuals have access to enough nutritious food. Prior to joining Feeding America in 2008 Hanner held positions in marketing and supply chain management at Kraft Foods, Keebler, and Nestle.  She holds a master’s degree in Management from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University.

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Hayes Jamie
Jamie Hayes
Production Mode
Jamie Hayes
Production Mode

Based in Chicago, Jamie Hayes’ inter­ests lie at the inter­sec­tion of fashion, art, labor, and iden­tity. Her approach is both collab­o­ra­tive and customized. She believes that clothes should fit one’s body (not the other way around); that people should wear what flat­ters and inter­ests them rather than what someone else dictates is fash­ion­able; that style is a form of self-expression; and that everyone in the chain of produc­tion of clothing should be paid a living wage.

She has explored these topics through her acad­emic studies, earning a B.A. from Wash­ington Univer­sity in English Liter­a­ture, a B.A. from Columbia College in Fashion Design, and a Masters in Social Work from the Univer­sity of Chicago. She has worked in the fashion industry since 1999, and in the field of immi­grant and labor rights since 2009. Her recent work merges these two paths: she has designed for fair trade orga­ni­za­tions including SERRV, Inter­crafts Peru, and Threads of Yunnan, and has volun­teered as a Campaign Leader for Chicago Fair Trade, helping to pass an ordi­nance mandating that apparel procured by the City of Chicago be sweatshop-free. She is the owner and designer of slow fashion line Produc­tion Mode, and also co-designs a collection of luxury slow fashion lingerie and night­wear, Depart­ment of Curiosi­ties.

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Heist Brent
Brent Heist
P&G
Brent Heist
P&G

Brent M. Heist leads the Global Packaging Sustainability team at Procter & Gamble. He is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Brent holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston and an MBA from Xavier University. In his twenty-four years at Procter & Gamble Brent has worked in Process Development, Products Research and most recently Packaging Development spanning several of P&G’s business units.

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Helt Chris
Chris Helt
The Sustainability Consortium
Senior Manager, Technical Development
Chris Helt
Senior Manager, Technical Development
The Sustainability Consortium

Christopher Helt is the Senior Manager of Technical Development at The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), Arizona State University, responsible for the development of the Sustainability Measurement and Reporting System for manufactured and formulated goods supply chains. In addition, he is the Principal Researcher for Leadership Initiatives at TSC related to human health impacts associated with consumer product use. As such, he manages the Common Chemical Criteria Task Force at TSC which aims to provide a common framework to enhance communication regarding chemical safety among broad stakeholders.

Prior to joining TSC, Chris worked for Colgate-Palmolive Company (Piscataway, NJ) as a Senior Research Scientist in their Global Product Safety Department. Chris earned a PhD in Toxicology (2004) from the University of Rochester and a BS in Biochemistry (1997) from The Pennsylvania State University. His academic research focused on the DNA damage response following oxidative stress.

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+1 480 965 2135
Scottsdale, Arizona
Henson Philip
Philip Henson
HanesBrands
Philip Henson
HanesBrands

Philip Henson is a member of Hanesbrands corporate facility engineering team which has responsibility for leading engineering, energy demand, environmental sustainability, and safety activities on a global level. Mr. Henson earned his Industrial Engineering degree from Texas Tech University in 1991 (BSIE ’91) and a Master of Arts degree in sustainability from Wake Forest University in 2015 (MASus 2015).
Mr. Henson has a distinguished career in the textile manufacturing industry spanning over twenty-five years with HanesBrands and predecessor companies. Mr. Henson is an ambassador for sustainability and in recent years has helped elevate the level of energy management, energy data analysis and reporting, and environmental stewardship to internal and external stakeholders. He is an active participant within the ENERGY STAR industrial partner’s network and has helped Hanes leverage this partnership to improve company energy performance and garner US EPA ENERGY STAR award recognition for the past 8 years.

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Holley Franklin
Franklin Holley
Keystone Policy Center
Franklin Holley
Keystone Policy Center

Bio coming soon

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Honeycutt Wayne
Wayne Honeycutt
Soil Health Institute
Wayne Honeycutt
Soil Health Institute

Dr. Wayne Honeycutt is the President and CEO of the Soil Health Institute, where he leads the Institute’s programs to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of soils. He previously served for 5 years as the Deputy Chief for Science and Technology with USDA-NRCS in Washington, DC, where he led programs in technology acquisition, development, and transfer to ensure NRCS conservation practices reflect the latest scientific advances for conserving our nation’s soil, water, air, plant, animal, and energy resources. He served as a Research Soil Scientist for 14 years and a Research Leader for 10 years with the USDA-ARS New England Plant, Soil, and Water Laboratory, where he led and conducted interdisciplinary research on carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling and sustainable cropping systems development. In those roles he led national research teams for predicting nutrient availability, developed procedures adopted by ARS for enhancing national research coordination, and received regional and national awards for technology transfer.

He is a graduate of the “Mastering the Art of Public Leadership” executive development program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and USDA’s “Performance Excellence and Knowledge” executive development program. He has served on assignments to the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, USDA-ARS National Program Staff, and USDA-ARS Area Office Staff.

Wayne’s commitment to agriculture is rooted in his experiences with raising tobacco, corn, and other crops on his family’s 120-acre farm in Metcalfe County, Kentucky. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Forestry and Master's degree in Soil Science from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in Soil Genesis from Colorado State University.

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Hunt Liz
Liz Hunt
Syngenta
Liz Hunt
Syngenta

Bio coming soon

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Jaffe Oren
Oren Jaffe
Workplace Options
Oren Jaffe
Workplace Options

Oren Jaffe is a social sustainability expert with over 14 years’ experience in helping global organizations build transparent, ethical, compliant, secure, and socially responsible supply chains. Currently, Oren runs the North America labor solutions group at Workplace Options, bringing integrated wellbeing solutions to minimum wage workers in emerging countries. His focus is helping companies go “beyond compliance” towards building worker voice and women’s empowerment programs utilizing mobile technologies. Oren’s experience includes working with companies in the apparel, footwear, high tech/electronic, consumer products, and toy industries. Prior to his work in corporate responsibility, Oren worked in brand advertising, professional sports, and even started an aerial outdoor advertising agency. Oren has a BS from the University of Oregon, and an MBA in International Management from the University of San Francisco.

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Johnson Jon
Jon Johnson
University of Arkansas
Professor, Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas | Chairman of the Board, The Sustainability Consortium
Jon Johnson
Professor, Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas | Chairman of the Board, The Sustainability Consortium
University of Arkansas

Jonathan Johnson is the Walton College Professor of Sustainability in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, where he has been on the faculty since 1996. He graduated with a BS in zoology and an MBA from the University of Arkansas before earning a Ph.D. from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His research?which has appeared in numerous academic journals?focuses on corporate governance, social networks theory, and corporate sustainability, and he has served on the editorial review board of the Academy of Management Journal. Jon teaches strategy, organization theory, sustainability and ethics. Jon has led several sustainability initiatives at the University of Arkansas, including establishing the Applied Sustainability Center in 2007, and co-founding The Sustainability Consortium in 2009.

Kaysen Brett
Brett Kaysen
National Pork Board
Brett Kaysen
National Pork Board

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Kester John
John Kester
Zoned Properties
John Kester
Zoned Properties

Mr. Kester is the Division Manager of Zoned Advisory Services at Zoned Properties, a strategic real estate development firm whose primary mission is to provide real estate and sustainability services for the regulated cannabis industry. Kester has extensive academic and professional experience advising companies and organizations on social, economic, and environmental challenges. He is a proficient researcher with publications in the public policy field and has also served in roles overseeing direct engagement of clients, primarily in the supply chain field assisting in tracking data and creating action plans for innovation in sustainability. Kester holds a Bachelors of Arts in Biology and Economics from Denison University, a Masters of Sustainable Development from Northern Arizona University, and a PhD in Environmental Dynamics from the University of Arkansas. During his graduate education, Kester balanced time volunteering in community engagement positions and earning a number of honors and awards including a Distinguished Doctoral Fellowship fully funding his PhD education and research. Mr. Kester is also certified as a LEED Green Associated and is a licensed REALTOR. Prior to his role at Zoned Properties, Kester worked as a Sustainability Advisor for MAPEI Americas where he managed sustainable certifications and advised on retail strategy for product lines marketing for sustainability. Kester has worked as a Research Associate at The Sustainability Consortium where he was responsible for leading research in the forestry, packaging, and textile sectors and managed the supplier help desk that assisted Walmart suppliers in responding to key performance indicators for sustainability. Conservation and sustainable development are areas where Kester sees significant potential for Zoned Properties to make a difference in the emerging regulated cannabis industry.

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Knox Andrew
Andrew Knox
Church & Dwight
Andrew Knox
Church & Dwight

Andrew is a Senior Product Stewardship and Sustainability Analyst with Church & Dwight. His work spans Church & Dwight’s sustainability efforts, with a particular focus on product formulation and ingredient disclosure. He is responsible for much of Church & Dwight’s communication to its retail partners in the areas of stewardship and sustainability.

Prior to joining Church & Dwight, Andrew served as a research chemist in GlaxoSmithKline’s antibacterial research operation. He holds a Masters degree in chemistry from MIT, and an M.Sci from the University of Glasgow in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry.

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Kosak Jessica
Jessica Kosak
The Sustainability Consortium
Manager, Technical Development
Jessica Kosak
Manager, Technical Development
The Sustainability Consortium

Jessica Kosak joined The Sustainability Consortium in 2018 as Manager, Technical Development. She is a principle researcher, and responsible for the Sustainability Measurements and Reporting system for the Clothing, Footwear, and Textiles sector. Previously, she worked in the fashion industry as an apparel and textiles designer focusing on knitwear and zero waste design. As an independent designer, her work has been shown in print and online in publications including Vogue, i-D, Nylon, 1Granary, and Vogue Italia. Jessica received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Fashion Design and Society from Parsons, The New School for Design in New York, where she focused on zero waste design and recycled textiles. She also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Fashion design with a focus on sustainability from Parsons.

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+1 480 965 4485
Scottsdale, Arizona
Langan Tom
Tom Langan
Unilever
North America Director – Communications, Corporate Affairs & Sustainable Business
Tom Langan
North America Director – Communications, Corporate Affairs & Sustainable Business
Unilever

Tom Langan is head of North America Communications, Corporate Affairs and Sustainable Business for Unilever. Tom joined Unilever in 1995. He is a member of the Unilever Global Communications Leadership Team and an adjunct member of the Unilever U.S. Leadership Team, supporting the President of Unilever North America. In his role, Tom leads the North America Communications group to drive delivery of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan in North America, including external affairs, advocacy, partnerships, corporate media relations, and internal communications.

Tom is a public spokesman and leader of the company’s engagement with industry associations, customers, external stakeholders and key opinion formers. He serves on the board of directors of The Sustainability Coalition (TSC) and the advisory board of Sustainable Brands. He is a member of the board of directors of the Sustainable Food Policy Alliance (SFPA), which he helped create and launch in 2018, has held several committee leadership positions in the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), and served on the board of directors for the Organization for International Investment (OFII).

Prior to joining Unilever, Tom held positions in state government affairs and communications at the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). He served six years in the United States Naval Reserve. Tom earned a master's degree in public administration from George Mason University in 1993 and a B.A. from Old Dominion University in 1990.

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Leonas Karen
Karen Leonas
North Carolina State University
Karen Leonas
North Carolina State University

Dr. Karen K. Leonas is a Professor in the Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management Department. Dr. Leonas has her B.S. in Textile Chemistry from NC State, a M.S. and PhD from the University of Tennessee in Textile Chemistry/Textile Physics with an emphasis in Polymer Engineering. She enjoys working with industry as was employed by Burlington Industries, Industrial Fabrics Division where she was the Product Assurance Manager for the Aerospace Program prior to joining academia. Her research interests include product development and evaluation, decision making through the supply chain and currently research focuses on sustainability through the Fashion, Textile, Apparel and Retail supply chain – from concept to consumer. Previous significant areas of research include Barrier Effectiveness of Textiles to Challenge Agents (bacteria, pesticides, chemical, and liquids) and Degradation and Weathering Mechanisms of Polymeric Materials in laboratory and field environments. Dr. Leonas has received numerous recognitions for excellence in research, teaching and student advising. She current serves as co-chair of the Clothing, Footwear and Textile Committee of TSC.

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Levine Eli
Eli Levine
Department of Energy
Eli Levine
Department of Energy

Eli Levine leads the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI) to develop and leverage strategic partnerships to advance U.S. manufacturing. In this role, he is spearheading the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's (EERE) effort to increase U.S. competitiveness in manufacturing clean energy technologies by boosting energy productivity and leveraging low-cost domestic energy resources and feedstocks.
Since being promoted from serving as the CEMI Deputy Director, Eli has assumed new leadership responsibilities to implement the CEMI strategy, including the Technologist-In-Residence program and the Clean Energy Manufacturing Assessment Center. He is also developing high-profile engagements with strategic partners, including the Department of Commerce and the White House, to support the launch of the new Energy Materials Network.

Prior to joining EERE and CEMI, he worked on energy issues at the White House, at the Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Management and Budget. Eli joined the Energy Department to help stand up the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy in 2010. At ARPA-E, he worked on legal, budgetary, and Congressional affairs matters. He is a graduate of Washington University School of Law and Cornell University.

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Lewis Sarah
Sarah Lewis
The Sustainability Consiortium
Senior Director, Innovation
Sarah Lewis
Senior Director, Innovation
The Sustainability Consiortium

Dr. Sarah E. Lewis is passionate about working through challenges at the interface of humans and the environment. A leader in the field of sustainability, Sarah is a certified Sustainability Associate (ISSP-SA), an author on topics related to ecological integrity, water resources, and improving supply chain sustainability. Sarah is Senior Director of Innovation with The Sustainability Consortium (TSC). Through her work at TSC, she has led the development of supply chain sustainability metrics across the consumer goods industry, led the creation of TSC’s stakeholder engagement methodology, founded TSC implementation program, launched the first ever TSC Innovation Program, and founded TSC Idea Forum, TSC’s first leadership development program. Sarah holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Dynamics, a Master of Arts in French, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology and French Secondary Education. An award-winning educator, Sarah has taught Earth Science, French, and Environmental Sociology. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arkansas, serving on several graduate student research committees. She is active in her community, serving on the boards of organizations, such as the Walton Arts Center, the Illinois River Watershed Partnership, and Arkansas United. In 2008, the Arkansas Sierra Club recognized Sarah as Activist of the Year. She served a 4-year term as an elected official on the Fayetteville, Arkansas City Council where she founded the Environmental Action Committee, chaired the Solid Waste, Recycling, and Water Utilities committee, wrote and sponsored the Low Impact Development ordinance, and led the development and adoption of Fayetteville’s Streamside Protection Ordinance, the first in the State of Arkansas. Her highest honor, however, is that she is the mom of, Isaac, a beautiful little boy who inspires her every day.

Luchte Jennifer
Jennifer Luchte
International Ingredient Corporation
Jennifer Luchte
International Ingredient Corporation

In her role of Sustainable Solutions Manager, Jennifer enjoys the opportunity to lead the sustainability program at IIC to benefit our customers, vendors, employees and the planet. She develops and manages strategic relationships with food manufacturers at corporate and plant levels to repurpose food waste into high-value ingredients for pet food and animal feed. She implements a unique suite of metrics to help companies tell a sustainability story about upcycling byproducts and better meet their sustainability goals. She represents IIC at the Sustainability Oversight Committee at the American Feed Association and TSC’s Food Waste and Hunger Task Force. A sustainability professional with more than 20 years of broad-based experience in public and private sectors, Jennifer has expertise related to food policy, sustainable agriculture, and development of comprehensive sustainability metrics. Jennifer holds a BS in Social Policy from Northwestern University, a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Washington University.

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Lung Bruce
Bruce Lung
US Department of Energy
Bruce Lung
US Department of Energy

Bio coming soon

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Malin Daniella
Daniella Malin
Cool Farm Alliance
Daniella Malin
Cool Farm Alliance

Daniella serves as Deputy General Manager for the Cool Farm Alliance - a global industry platform for sustainable agricultural and carbon quantification providing the Cool Farm Tool for free to farmers everywhere. Since 2010 Daniella has been leading work to develop and use harmonized agricultural GHG quantification methods to encourage, motivate and rewards good practice in supply chains. Daniella has a background in project management, cultural communications, journalism, environmental education, software engineering and farming.

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Martin Eric
Eric Martin
Adaptive Change Advisors
Senior Leadership Advisor and Founder
Eric Martin
Senior Leadership Advisor and Founder
Adaptive Change Advisors

Eric Martin specializes in leadership development and systems change. His recent work draws on the Adaptive Leadership framework developed by Harvard faculty Drs. Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky. Eric helped establish the New York office of their leadership consulting firm. Eric has served in an advisor/guest speaker/leadership trainer role at places such as: White House Presidential Personnel Office, Clinton Global Initiative, Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities, Google, Microsoft, Verizon, US Business Council for Sustainable Development, United Nations Innovation Network, World Bank, Harvard Medical School, Cornell University, New York University, Government of Abu Dhabi, Acumen, Public Utility Research Center, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Previously, he served in a governmental liaison capacity in Japan and in various strategic roles at The Synergos Institute, a Rockefeller-affiliated international development organization. Eric holds an MS in Organizational Change Management and BS in Systems Analysis and Operations Research.

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May Tina
Tina May
Land O'Lakes
Tina May
Land O'Lakes

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Meaker Ben
Ben Meaker
Nice and Serious
Ben Meaker
Nice and Serious

After getting fully fed up with how uncreatively environmental and social issues were being communicated, Ben co-founded Nice and Serious in 2008 (in his eyes, he’s the Nicer half in case you were wondering). And if you measure success in scenes shot during torrential rain or toy factory farm sets built, it’s gone smashingly! Those aside, he’s overseen the making of hundreds of films, animations, websites, social media campaigns, and branding projects all built around a simple idea: good causes need brilliant creative.

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Merolla Vance
Vance Merolla
Colgate-Palmolive
Worldwide Director, Global Sustainability
Vance Merolla
Worldwide Director, Global Sustainability
Colgate-Palmolive

Vance Merolla is the Worldwide Director, Global Sustainability for Colgate-Palmolive Company, a consumer products company based in New York City, responsible for providing leadership on Colgate’s global sustainability strategy, and identifying technical and commercial integration opportunities throughout the company’s business. He also leads Colgate’s supply chain sustainability programs including climate, energy efficiency, water stewardship, zero waste and environmental risk management. Prior to his current 21 years with Colgate, he was an environmental consulting group manager for the URS Corporation. Vance holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University and a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Rutgers University. He is a licensed professional engineer (PE) in the states of New York, New Jersey and Washington, and is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED-Accredited Professional, and a Member of the USGBC NJ Chapter Board of Directors. Mr. Merolla currently teaches a graduate level course on Sustainable Operations at Columbia University in NYC.

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Minzes Melanie
Melanie Minzes, CARE
CARE
Melanie Minzes, CARE
CARE

Bio coming soon

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Monast Maggie
Maggie Monast
Environmental Defense Fund
Maggie Monast
Environmental Defense Fund

Maggie Monast is a Senior Manager on Environmental Defense Fund’s Agricultural Sustainability team, contributing expertise in conservation finance and the agriculture supply chain. Maggie works to quantify the farm financial impacts of conservation practice adoption, collaborates with major corporations to develop sustainability initiatives, and develops innovative financial incentives to advance sustainable agriculture. She has led EDF’s collaboration with Smithfield Foods since its beginning in 2013.

Maggie began working with EDF in 2011. She holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management from Duke University and a Bachelors in Economics and Political Science from Tufts University.

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Muellerweiss Adam
Adam Muellerweiss
Clarios, formerly Johnson Controls Power Solutions
Adam Muellerweiss
Clarios, formerly Johnson Controls Power Solutions

Adam Muellerweiss is Executive Director of Sustainability for Johnson Controls Power Solutions – the world’s largest manufacturer and recycler of automotive batteries. Muellerweiss is responsible for driving life-cycle material and energy management efforts including the company’s circular supply chain for conventional vehicle batteries. This model has been globally recognized as a successful large-scale example of a circular economy. His charge includes working with automakers, aftermarket retailers, suppliers, NGOs and policymakers to optimize sustainable product design, expand product use benefits, increase use of reverse logistics and grow end-of-life reuse and recycling.

Muellerweiss was the driving force behind the formation the Responsible Battery Coalition, a coalition of companies, academics and NGOs committed to the responsible management of the batteries of today and tomorrow. He chairs the Landscape Assessment of End-of-Life Management of Lithium Ion Batteries for the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment and is a subject matter expert supporting the development of the World Economic Forum’s Global Battery Alliance.

Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Muellerweiss was Commercial Director for Climate Change at Dow Chemical where he also led the formation of the Independent Advisory Panel on Chemical Security as well as managed the company’s Sustainability External Advisory Council. He led development of start-up companies focused on resource efficiency at Accenture, and served as a staff assistant for the US Senate and the Michigan House of Representatives. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music and political science from Kalamazoo College and a master’s in sustainability and environmental management from Harvard University.

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Murray Euan
Euan Murray
The Sustainability Consortium
Chief Executive Officer
Euan Murray
Chief Executive Officer
The Sustainability Consortium

Euan Murray became Chief Executive of The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) in December 2016 with a focus on driving implementation of TSC tools by retailers and large purchasers, and working with TSC members on innovative solutions to supply chain sustainability problems. Murray joined TSC in 2012 and has held a number of leadership positions, most recently COO. Prior to joining TSC, Murray was Director of Footprinting at The Carbon Trust. There, he led projects with PepsiCo, Unilever, M&S, CDP and many other TSC members, focusing on product and supply chain carbon footprinting. He has held a number of other roles in sustainability, financial services and strategy consulting. Murray has a BA in Natural Sciences and an MSc. in Materials Science & Metallurgy from Cambridge University, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. He is married to Emily and has two sons, Oscar and Zac.

Musa Shireen
Shireen Musa
FIT
Shireen Musa
FIT

Dr. Shireen Musa is a tenured full-time faculty member at the Fashion Institute of Technology – State University of New York. Shireen is the lead professor for the Global Sourcing and Import/Export Regulations courses. She is active in various sustainability initiatives on campus including organizing FIT’s Sustainable Global Sourcing Forums and serving for 10 years on FIT's Sustainability Council. Dr. Musa’s current research focuses on consumer behavior and Fair Trade fashion consumption. Prior to joining academia, she worked as an International Trade Manager for The Donna Karan Company, Lucent Technologies, and Deloitte. Shireen holds a Doctor of Professional Studies in Business from Pace University, an MBA in International Business from Saint Peters University, and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from FIT.

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Mustafa Dina
Dina Mustafa
Expo 2020 Dubai
Dina Mustafa
Expo 2020 Dubai

Dina’s current focus includes sustainable development planning for event and legacy, stakeholder and market engagement, communications and awareness campaigns designed to extend Expo 2020’s sustainability impact beyond the boundaries of its physical site.

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Osterhues Denise
Denise Osterhues
The Kroger Co.
Denise Osterhues
The Kroger Co.

Denise Osterhues leads Kroger’s sustainability, philanthropy and community engagement efforts as part of the Corporate Affairs leadership team.
Denise joined Kroger in 2007 in the Associate Communications Department at General Office in Cincinnati. She was promoted to director of Associate Communications & Engagement in 2011, and promoted to senior director in 2014. She took on her current role in 2017. Before joining Kroger, she led community development communications at First Union National Bank in Charlotte and served in various roles at The Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Mich., including financial communications and environment, health and safety communications.

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Pasterczyk JP
JP Pasterczyk
Aqua-Serobic Systems, Inc.
JP Pasterczyk
Aqua-Serobic Systems, Inc.

JP Pasterczyk has over 25 years of experience in industrial water and wastewater quality, including chemical and biological treatment, filtration, membranes, disinfection and instrumentation. He has worked for Polybac Corporation (later acquired by Novozymes), Capital Controls (now part of De Nora), and GE Water (now part of Suez). He has experience with a broad range of process streams, from ultrapure water for biotechnology and pharmaceutical production, and clean utilities for steam generation and cooling towers, to complex, organic and inorganic, industrial effluents. JP received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. At the University of Colorado- Boulder, he earned a Master of Engineering degree in Engineering Management. This program for Business Performance Excellence specialized in Applied Statistics, Process Optimization, and Advanced Quality Management Systems. Through the university and the ROI Alliance, JP is a certified Black Belt in Six Sigma methodology. He is currently the Industrial Business Manager for Aqua-Aerobic Systems, Inc., headquartered in Rockford, Illinois, a process engineering company with a portfolio including biological wastewater treatment, aerators, mixers, cloth media filtration, membrane systems and ozone generators for oxidation and disinfection. JP works directly with customers and engineering firms to develop projects for sustainable applications to reduce footprint and operational costs, including reuse and compliance.

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Peters Jeff
Jeff Peters
Agrible
Jeff Peters
Agrible

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Phillips Laura
Laura Phillips
Walmart Stores, Inc.
Walmart, SVP Corp. Affairs / Sustainability
Laura Phillips
Walmart, SVP Corp. Affairs / Sustainability
Walmart Stores, Inc.

Laura Phillips is Senior Vice President, Global Sustainability for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Laura began her Walmart career 20 years ago as a store intern and has served across a variety of departments and in roles of increasing responsibility. In 2010, she was promoted to senior vice president and general merchandise manager, and most recently, Laura has been leading the company?s work in omni channel. Laura has been a strong advocate for sustainability, education and women?s empowerment during her tenure, and her accomplishments with Walmart include:

Member of the original group of key leaders that our former CEO Lee Scott assembled in 2004 to help develop Walmart?s sustainability strategy, initial goals and principles.

Helped launch Walmart?s "Sustainability Value Networks (SVN)," engaging stakeholders in industry, academia and NGOs to partner with Walmart to develop solutions to sustainable value chain creation.

Partnered with suppliers to reduce packaging content, increase recyclable content and exceed industry standards by implementing and executing the children?s product guidelines to test all toys for hazardous chemicals, well ahead of the government legislation.

Chair of the Walmart President?s Global Council for Women?s Leaders (2012-2013)

Board of advisors member, Bentonville Film Festival

Board of advisors for the University of Arkansas Walton MBA Alumni

She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Florida in Gainesville, an MBA from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and is a graduate of the Global 2020 program at the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth.

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Pool Greg
Greg Pool
Edison Energy
Greg Pool
Edison Energy

Greg leads the Edison Energy Account Management Team.  This team is responsible for the client engagement across all service lines and connecting with individuals and stakeholders to identify needs and opportunities.  This includes guiding and introducing the Edison Energy subject matter expert, where appropriate, evaluating and monitoring the client’s energy needs, and working with the Business Development team to build new services and solutions to serve those needs.

The team coordinates cross-functional internal teams to improve the entire client experience and collaborates with the Edison Energy businesses to keep the client satisfied with our solutions and services.

Prior to Altenex, Greg led renewable energy procurement for Walmart, where he developed and executed one of the world's most comprehensive renewable energy strategies. He has extensive transaction experience ranging from on-site wind, solar, fuel cell, and waste-to-energy deployments through to utility-scale wind purchases.

Prior to Walmart, Greg gained significant experience trading Renewable Energy Credits and other environmental commodities for BP Energy in Houston, TX.

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Postma Elger
Elger Postma
APL Logistics
Elger Postma
APL Logistics

Bio coming soon

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Powell Emily
Emily Powell
The Sustainability Consortium
Solutions Manager, THESIS Impact Team
Emily Powell
Solutions Manager, THESIS Impact Team
The Sustainability Consortium

Emily graduated with her bachelor’s in Sustainability with a concentration in business in May 2019 from Arizona State University. In her studies and through her internships, she has learned how businesses can gain transparency in their supply chain and operations, uncover risks created by environmental and social impact, and take initiative to improve their sustainability in anticipation of an uncertain future. Emily believes that global changes, including climate change and an evolving middle class, create a pivotal opportunity for businesses to become drivers of profitable, sustainable development. With experience assisting in program management on the sustainability team at Sprouts Farmers Market and in sustainability communication at various green-minded magazines and websites, Emily joins the Implementation team to help industry members put TSC’s sustainability measurement and reporting tools to good use in their supply chain transparency efforts.

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1 480 884 0138
Scottsdale, Arizona
Quiros Nolan
Nolan Quiros
GlobalG.A.P.
Nolan Quiros
GlobalG.A.P.

Nolan Quiros is a lawyer who studied Agricultural Economics. He completed his PhD at Oklahoma State University, USA, focusing on Natural Resources Management, and also completed a master’s degree in Comparative Law at American University, Washington D.C, USA.
Nolan is based in a small rural town called Atenas, which is located around 30 km from San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. He is Costa Rican and was born into a big family with an affinity for studying and learning. Both his parents were high school teachers.
He has worked as a researcher for the USDA and as a market analyst for a US fertilizer company. Furthermore, he has also served as a field scientist for Boston University, a university professor in the USA and Costa Rica, and as an international consultant on carbon and water foot print calculations. During the last five years, Nolan worked for a banana producing company, where he managed third-party certifications, social and labor issues, and retailer relations with 72 farms in seven different countries in Latin America.
He enjoys teaching, academic pursuits, and exploring the outdoors .
Nolan is married to Jahel and has two teenage children, Samantha and Matthew.

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Rees Trevor
Trevor Rees
Enso Impact
Trevor Rees
Enso Impact

Trevor Rees is the Founder and Director of EnSo Impact, a project development company with a focus on clean energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.  EnSo works to develop and implement projects that respond to complex problems in ways that are sustainable over the long term. EnSo aim to make a positive social impact through initiatives that bring together technology and capital to create opportunities for employment and enterprise.

Trevor has worked with issues of leadership and sustainability for more than 20 years, including in senior positions in international organisations in the role of strategic partnerships and business development.  Trevor established his consultancy after 8 years as the Head of Development for the Rockefeller Foundation Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Programme.  Trevor is an associate of Adaptive Change Advisors – delivering leadership programmes for clients including Microsoft – using the Adaptive Leadership framework developed by Ron Heifetz at Harvard University.

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Resler Cathy
Cathy Resler
Independent Consultant
Cathy Resler
Independent Consultant

Cathy Resler is the Head of Global Sustainability for Ocean Spray Cranberries - a Farmer-Owned Cooperative - where she leads sustainability strategy across the Cooperative, with Ocean Spray farmers and business partners. Her work on environmental and social responsibility initiatives focuses on building value across sustainable agriculture, operations, supply chain, sales, marketing, and customer and employee engagement,   She led the expansion and first publication of Ocean Spray’s Farm Sustainability Assessment a comprehensive  report of 700+ cranberry farmers performance on Integrated Pest Management, soil health, water, energy, ecosystem conservation, business stewardship, worker well-being and community impact.

Prior to joining Ocean Spray Cranberries, Cathy worked in the fashion, jewelry, and publishing industries contributing to the first industry adopted Restricted Substance List (RSL), Responsible Down and Wool Standards, Environmental Paper Assessment Tool (EPAT), sustainable textiles and leather, sustainable forestry management, packaging design, green store design guidelines, and community giving program development.  She also has worked at the U.S. EPA, Columbia University and holds an MS in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and a BS from The George Washington University in Environmental Studies.

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Reynolds Charles
Charles Reynolds
NicePak
Charles Reynolds
NicePak

Charles Reynolds is Associate Director, Corporate Environmental Health & Safety for Nice-Pak Products, Inc. and PDI, Inc. where Safety and Sustainability exist as a corporate value. Charles has worked for more than 25 years as an EHS Professional. Charles earned his Master’s Degree in Education with a concentration in Workforce Development from the University of Arkansas. Charles is a Registered Environmental Manager and a Certified Environmental Auditor with the National Registry of Environmental Professionals.

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Rigby Rachel
Rachel Rigby
Rainforest Alliance
Rachel Rigby
Rainforest Alliance

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Roach Jim
Jim Roach
Natixis
Jim Roach
Natixis

Jim Roach is Senior Vice President of Retirement Strategies for Natixis Investment Managers. In this role, he represents Natixis Sustainable Future FundsSM, the first and only open-ended mutual fund target date offerings that are broadly ESG in the marketplace.

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Rubenstein Georgia
Georgia Rubenstein
Forum for the Future
Georgia Rubenstein
Forum for the Future

Georgia Rubenstein is Lead System Change Designer in Forum for the Future’s New York office. Her work at Forum focuses on process and strategy design and stakeholder engagement to drive system-level change for a sustainable future. She is an expert in system change methodologies and leads Forum’s School of System Change in the United States, equipping leaders from across sectors to drive deeper, more long-term change in their sectors. She is also one of Forum’s foremost facilitators and is currently expanding her expertise by exploring transformative facilitation techniques that are inclusive and challenge traditional power structures. She recently led the Beauty & Personal Care Sustainability Project, a multi-stakeholder collaboration of organizations including Target, Walmart, Unilever, Burt’s Bees, and Environmental Defense Fund, designed to tackle systemic sustainability challenges in the beauty and personal care sector. The group developed a publicly available product sustainability assessment tool, now being stewarded by The Sustainability Consortium.

Prior to joining Forum, Georgia worked at Minneapolis-based nonprofit Environmental Initiative, convening cross-sector leaders to advance sustainability in the Twin Cities region. She holds a BA in International Development and Russian Studies from McGill University, and a Master in Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

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Sabourin Daryl
Daryl Sabourin
ASR Group International Inc
Daryl Sabourin
ASR Group International Inc

Upon receipt of his Masters degree, Capt Sabourin applied for and received a secondary job tile as an 8831, Environmental Engineer. Upon receipt of orders in March of 2012, he proceeded to the Marine Corps Combat Development Command (MCCDC), Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs (NREA). Within NREA, Major Sabourin acted as the department’s Deputy Director and Lead Environmental Auditor before retiring in July of 2014. During this time, he provided leadership in safety, natural resource and wildlife management, sustainability programing, and environmental regulatory compliance for the base and all entrained subcommands in a manner consistent with federal regulation, state regulation, Marine Corps and Department of Defense policy, and the base commander’s environmental objectives and targets.

Since retiring, Mr. Sabourin has continued to work in environmental field, accepting progressively advancing positons within ASR Group. In early 2014, he took the title of Environmental & Sustainability Manager, American Sugar Refineries Inc., Domino Sugar Baltimore. Then, in Feb 2016, he advanced to

the position of Global Director of Sustainability, ASR Group International Inc.

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Scholz Matt
Matt Scholz
Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance
Matt Scholz
Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance

Bio coming soon

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Severino Steven
Steven Severino
Veramaris
Director New Business Development
Steven Severino
Director New Business Development
Veramaris

Steven Severino is a new business development expert with deep experience across consumer insights, fact based selling, and win-win partnerships for growth.   As the North America lead for Veramaris business development, Steven is working across all aspects of the value chain to educate our stakeholders in the tremendous value of Veramaris algal oil with EPA and DHA to improve sustainability, nutrition, and safety in aquaculture.   Steven has degrees from the University of Delaware (BSBA), Indiana University, Kelley School of Business (MS-Strategic Management) and Seton Hall University (MBA).

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Shaw Jennifer
Jennifer Shaw
Syngenta
Jennifer Shaw
Syngenta

Jennifer currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Syngenta on the integration of sustainability into Syngenta’s commercial programs and developing solutions for sustainability in agriculture.  In 2007, Jennifer established a new Sustainability function in Syngenta where she developed a strategy to integrate Sustainability into the business. Since she has been a leader in sustainability in industry initiatives as well as establishing the Syngenta Sustainable Solutions program.  Other previous roles with Syngenta and legacy companies include Pesticide Regulatory Policy, Issues Management, Environmental Stewardship, Sustainable Agriculture and Ecological Risk Assessment. She has had several leadership and expert roles in industry and government multi-stakeholder initiatives focused on major environmental challenges for U.S. agriculture including endangered species and water quality.

Jennifer was raised on family farm in Scotland where she gained first-hand experience working in various cropping and animal systems. She has a B.Sc. with First Class Honors in Agricultural Zoology from the University of Glasgow and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Aberdeen and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology.

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Silberman Julia
Julia Silberman
CDP
Manager, Supply Chain
Julia Silberman
Manager, Supply Chain
CDP

Julia Silberman is a Manager on CDP’s Supply Chain Team. She works closely with supply chain members in the consumer goods, information technology and telecom sectors to engage suppliers, reduce the environmental impacts of their supply chain, and achieve their supply chain sustainability goals.  Previously, she worked as a Sector Lead on CDP’s Disclosure Services Team. In this role, she worked with companies to support first time responses to CDP programs, share best practices in environmental management and disclosure, and highlight leadership opportunities.  Prior to joining CDP, Julia worked as the Marketing Director for a sustainability software startup and earned her B.A. from Tufts University.

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Singh Priyamvada
Priyamvada Singh
HSBC
Priyamvada Singh
HSBC

Priyamvada Singh is Head of Product and Propositions, Global Trade and Receivables Finance, North America for HSBC Bank USA N.A. In her role as Product Head, she is responsible for strengthening GTRF’s product capabilities and sector propositions in trade including supply chain and receivables finance as well as building on the strong foundation of traditional trade in adapting to technological change. As the leading trade bank in the world, HSBC has also led the way in embracing technological developments with digitalization of trade, automation and key ‘fintech’ partnerships. GTRF in North America has successfully established partnerships with external supply chain platforms to deliver end-to-end structured solutions and launched digital tools to enhance client on-boarding and access to trade transaction information.

Priyamvada has 20+ years of experience as a trade finance professional with global banks as well as leading trade and supply chain finance in emerging markets with the World Bank Group. Prior to joining HSBC in 2014, Priyamvada was Global Program Head for Supplier Finance at International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank. She joined IFC in June 2005 as Regional Head, Asia and Middle East in Trade and Supply Chain. As Principal, Trade Finance, she was involved in developing the multi-donor funded Global Trade Liquidity program in 2009 as a crisis response to supporting trade finance delivered through global banks. At IFC, Priyamvada established the Global Trade Supplier Finance program in 2010 under which IFC provides financing solutions for emerging market supply chains in partnership with global banks and alternative independent platform providers that includes sustainability metrics for improved supplier compliance with sustainability standards. Priyamvada has also been a regular speaker at trade finance and industry events on emerging markets trade and supply chain finance.

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Sirolli Ryan
Ryan Sirolli
Cargill
Ryan Sirolli
Cargill

Ryan is the Global Row Crop Sustainability Director for Cargill.  In his role, he is responsible for leading strategy development and implementation of row crop sustainability programs and initiatives across Cargill’s enterprises. Focus areas include optimizing farmer productivity and prosperity while lessening impact on water and climate through scalable adoption of soil health best practices and supply chain alignment.  Ryan has spent his entire career working along the food and agriculture value chain.  His experiences range from managing a row crop and beef operation in Maryland to creating integrated supply chain solutions between dairy producers, growers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.  More recently, he has led the launch of Danone North America’s soil health program before returning to Cargill to lead row crop sustainability within Cargill’s Sustainability Hub.  Ryan holds a B.S. in Animal Science from Virginia Tech and a M.S. in Economics from the University of Delaware.

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Slay Christy
Christy Slay
The Sustainability Consortium
Senior Director, Science and Research Applications
Christy Slay
Senior Director, Science and Research Applications
The Sustainability Consortium

Christy Slay directs the science and research application activities for The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) to develop a global, transparent, scientifically based measurement and reporting system for product sustainability. She leads efforts with strategic partners to ensure TSC’s metrics, tools, and reporting systems are harmonized and interoperable with existing initiatives. Christy leads projects in agricultural supply chains including data mobility solutions as well as the development of spatial tools for visualizing the environmental and social impacts of global supply chains for TSC’s Commodity Mapping platform. Most recently she published research on the drivers of global forest loss in the journal Science. She has also published on population ecology, conservation management, sustainable agricultural metrics, and climate change resilience in supply chains. She co-leads cave ecology research for the HICAVES Project on the island of Hawaii documenting new species during her vacation time. Christy has been with TSC since its inception in 2009. She received her doctorate in biology from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville in 2010. Christy has 22 years of experience as an educator in both collegiate and environmental education settings. She serves on the board of the Ozark Natural Science Center, a residential nature education center for school children and teaches Sustainability for Business courses in the Walton College Graduate School of Business. Prior to her graduate research she led curriculum development and strategic planning with the National Audubon Society where she also authored articles for Audubon Magazine in New York. She received her B.A. in biology with a minor in religion from Hendrix College attending courses at Birkbeck College at the University of London.

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+1 479 575 4638
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Smith Nathan
Nathan Smith
SureHarvest
Nathan Smith
SureHarvest

Nathan is the Senior Vice President of Client Solutions at SureHarvest. He and his team collaborate with clients to support grower- and data-driven sustainability program implementation in US specialty and row crop value chains. More broadly, his twelve years of industry engagement has focused on development of both domestic and international sustainable sourcing initiatives designed to meet procurement department goals, while also delivering value back to growers and processors, and food manufacturers. He is passionate about supporting trade associations and industry groups with targeted communications highlighting the achievements of growers related to their work on on-farm sustainability data collection and measurement, as well as their ongoing efforts to report out on continuous improvement. Nathan enjoys gardening and playing with his fun-loving daughter, outdoor activities, and spending time with family and friends over responsibly raised and thoughtfully prepared food. He holds a BA degree from the University of Washington and a MA degree from the University of Arizona.

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Sonke Dan
Dan Sonke
Campbell’s Soup Company
Dan Sonke
Campbell’s Soup Company

Bio coming soon

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Spangenbergur Jeff
Jeff Spangenbergur
Jeff Spangenbergur

Jeff Spangenberger is the Materials Recycling R&D Program Lead in the Applied Materials Division at Argonne National Laboratory. His program works to solve material separation, recovery and recycling challenges resulting in cost effective and environmentally sustainable processes that are then transferrable to commercial installation.

Through close collaboration with industry, Spangenberger and his team have demonstrated the recovery of plastics, metals and materials from numerous waste streams such as auto shredder residue and electronic waste from bench to commercial scales.  He has received four patents related to this effort.

In recent years, his research has focused on lithium-ion battery recycling and is leading Argonne’s advanced battery recycling program to evaluate and advance the cost effective and sustainable recycling of end-of-life advanced batteries.

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Spears Mark
Mark Spears
Common+Value
Mark Spears
Common+Value

Mark Spears is an eternal optimist who believes meaningful progress results from inclusive collaborative engagement. Having retired from The Walt Disney Company after nearly thirty years, he devotes his current efforts to promoting positive environmental and social change. In his spare time, he scours the world for emerging artisan coffee roasts and craft beer styles. His current focus areas include serving as an Advisory Board Member for Sustainable Brands, supporting the social entrepreneurship and innovation & technology programs at his alma mater as an advisor and mentor and contributing as a member of the Los Angeles Chief Sustainability Officer Strategic Taskforce. During his Disney career, Mark served in a number of senior business roles ranging from accounting, finance and strategic planning to corporate responsibility and sustainability. He served as Disney Consumer Products’ inaugural chief sustainability executive and led Disney’s involvement with The Sustainability Consortium as its first corporate Lead Director. Mark also directed Disney’s International Labor Standards program for 10 years addressing labor standards and human rights in the Company’s licensing and vendor supply chains and serving as the Company’s primary spokesperson. Before joining Disney, Mark was a senior consultant and audit professional at Arthur Young & Co. in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills specializing in the Firm’s media and entertainment, engineering and construction and litigation consulting practices. Mark holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He is also a certified public accountant and a former member of the American Arbitration Association.

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Stautz Jane
Jane Stautz
Corteva, DowDuPont
Jane Stautz
Corteva, DowDuPont

Jane Stautz, Esq. (Dow AgroSciences LLC), is the Global Product Stewardship & Sustainability Leader at Dow AgroSciences and served as the first industry chair for Excellence Through Stewardship. She provides global leadership for Dow AgroSciences in product stewardship, including developing Global Product Stewardship Policies and Management Plans for the various Seeds, Traits & Oils and Crop Protection businesses. Ms. Stautz chaired BIO’s Stewardship Task Force which was the catalyst for the Excellence Through Stewardship initiative and development of the plant biotechnology stewardship program and quality management guides. She also serves on CropLife International’s Biotech Stewardship Committee. Ms. Stautz has a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Business and Public Service & Administration in Agriculture from Iowa State University and a Juris Doctorate from The University of Michigan Law School. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Indiana Natural Resources Commission.

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Tetrick Kristen
Kristen Tetrick
Lucky's Market
Kristen Tetrick
Lucky's Market

Kristen Tetrick is the Director of Sustainability for Lucky’s Market, where she leads the sustainability strategy and programming across the company. Her programs focus on food waste reduction, recycling, in-house packaging improvements, sourcing policies, increased efficiencies to water and energy usage, and building the culture of sustainability awareness among their team members. She has been with Lucky’s since 2013 and was previously their Director of Marketing and Community Impact, where she developed the company’s social impact strategy. In her spare time, she volunteers for the nonprofit Slow Food USA, where she serves as the Slow Food State Governor for Colorado and serves on the Board of Directors for Slow Food Denver. She holds an MBA in marketing and a BFA in graphic design. She is passionate about food that is good, clean, and fair while achieving a shared well-being of the planet through meaningful connections and actions.

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Teunissen Sebastian
Sebastian Teunissen
Solidaridad
Sebastian Teunissen
Solidaridad

Sebastian Teunissen is the Managing Director of Solidaridad North America.Solidaridad invented fair trade coffee and the concept of Fair Trade labeling. It alsochanged the banana market by introducing the first sustainable banana brand in theworld. Solidaridad, with a network of regional affiliate offices, is an international NGOwith more than 45 years of experience creating sustainable supply chains fromproducer to consumer, based on the belief that fair and sustainable trade can be apowerful catalyst to reduce poverty, build communities, and protect the environment.For more than 13 years Sebastian ran the international programs at the Haas Schoolof Business, University of California, Berkeley. He has managed an importing anddistributing company in Japan, served in the Department of Finance of theGovernment of Papua New Guinea, and was responsible for corporate partnershipsfor a major conservation organization. He is a member of the Board of Directors ofVinhos Barbeito (Madeira) Lda., a Portuguese winery.

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Trianosky Paul
Paul Trianosky
SFI
Paul Trianosky
SFI

Paul provides leadership for SFI’s conservation programs, principal liaison with conservation organizations, and guidance toward the development of standards and programs that ensure the attainment of conservation objectives. He works to maintain partnerships, grow the network of conservation organizations involved in the SFI Program, and to ensure relevance of SFI’s work in promoting sustainable supply chains and responsible sourcing. Paul oversees SFI’s Conservation Impact initiative and its Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program. He monitors conservation research developments and advancements in sustainable forestry to identify opportunities to further the SFI Program and activities of SFI Program Participants. Paul brings nearly 30 years of experience in forestry, non-profit management, forest certification, collaborative partnerships, and landscape-scale conservation. Before joining SFI, Paul was Director of Southern Forest Conservation for the American Forest Foundation. Prior to AFF, Paul held numerous positions with The Nature Conservancy for almost 20 years, including roles in executive management, and nearly 10 years directing forest conservation strategies in the southeastern United States. Paul has a B.S. in Forest Resource Management from Virginia Tech, and a Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University.

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Wade Adam
Adam Wade
Fruit of the Loom
Adam Wade
Fruit of the Loom

Fruit of the Loom, Inc. is a leading global company specializing in the design, manufacture, and marketing of products that bring comfort, performance, and fun to everyday moments. We are backed by a family of brands that has been enriching lives for over a century, including Fruit of the Loom, Vanity Fair Lingerie, Vassarette, Curvation, Spalding, and Russell Athletic.
Fruit of the Loom, Inc. is proactively involved in activities targeting the preservation of our environment and conservation of the world’s natural resources. We operate our worldwide facilities in compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations, and design products, processes, equipment and packaging that are environmentally friendly and economically viable. In addition, we are dedicated to educating and encouraging our employees in environmental responsibilities and activities that are required for the preservation of natural resources.

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Wade Susan
Susan Wade
Vinyl Business and Sustainability Council
Susan Wade
Vinyl Business and Sustainability Council

Bio coming soon

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Wald Michelle
Michelle Wald
Tony's Chocolonely
Michelle Wald
Tony's Chocolonely

Michelle’s career spans 15 years in business strategy, sales, and various other operational functions in the CPG space. While living in Amsterdam for many years she discovered the leading Dutch chocolate brand with everything going for it – a social mission to feel good about, a company culture that most people only dream of, and irresistibly delicious chocolate! So she approached Tony’s Chocolonely with the aim of landing a cool role in the Netherlands and seeing where it might lead, but ended up scoring big time in the newly created position of US Country Manager. So she packed up and moved to Portland, OR in early 2018 to join the rest of the amazing US Tony’s Team. Here she is focused on expanding Tony’s in the largest chocolate market in the world, with the aim to create awareness of the inequality in the cocoa industry and drive positive social impact toward the vision of 100% slave-free chocolate. Tony's is a household name in the Netherlands but just getting started in the US, so Michelle is excited to kick-start an entrepreneurial trail and ensure Americans get on board with this fabulous product and mission.

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Walker Madison
Madison Walker
Grodan
Senior Manager Public Affairs
Madison Walker
Senior Manager Public Affairs
Grodan

Bio coming soon

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Wallace Chrysann
Chrysann Wallace
KAO
Sustainability Manager
Chrysann Wallace
Sustainability Manager
KAO

Chrysann Wallace is the Sustainability leader in the Americas region for Kao, developing environmental strategies that include implementing the newly announced company vision of The Kirei Lifestyle Plan and ambitious 2030 commitments.  Chrysann's experience in product development, supply chain, and packaging processes for consumer personal care products allowed her to bring market-relevant experience to establish and align the company’s regional approach to the global ESG Vison and Strategy. In 2014, Chrysann joined with other employees to create Kao Zero, Kao USA’s volunteer group focused on reducing the environmental impact of the company with a vision to reach zero waste at Kao USA’s largest manufacturing, R&D, and administration location.

Chrysann feels her biggest impact is instilling sustainability into the culture at Kao, empowering each employee to incorporate mindfulness into every decision, project, and product which will, in turn, enable consumers to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

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Weilenmann Justin
Justin Weilenmann
Henkel
Justin Weilenmann
Henkel

Justin is responsible for leading the private brand sales for Henkel at Walmart. He plays a key role in the strategy development, innovation, and sustainability programs for Henkel/Walmart private brands.  He has spent the last 13 years at Henkel in sales, customer supply chain, and product development roles.

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Weir Ben
Ben Weir
TerraCycle
Ben Weir
TerraCycle

Ben is part of the Global Business Development team at TerraCycle, responsible for the new Loop platform.  TerraCycle is 16 year old company with the simple mission of Eliminating the Idea of Waste®. Loop is TerraCycle’s newest platform, which shifts manufacturer’s and retailer’s supply chains from single use to reusable products. Ben will earn a Master's in Business Administration from Villanova University in June 2019 and earned a B.S. from Saint Joseph’s University in 2014.

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Westerbeek Kraig
Kraig Westerbeek
Smithfield
Kraig Westerbeek
Smithfield

Kraig Westerbeek is Smithfield Foods senior director of Smithfield Renewables and hog production division environmental affairs. Smithfield Renewables is a new platform within the organization that will unify, lead and accelerate the company's industry-leading carbon reduction and renewable energy efforts. He will also lead an advisory committee that will evaluate projects and help direct a company-wide strategy for renewable energy projects across both farms and facilities.

Previously, Kraig served as vice president for environment, engineering, and support services for Smithfield’s Hog Production Division in Warsaw, N.C.  He was responsible for ensuring that the company is compliant with all state and federal environmental rules and regulations, in addition to providing oversight on engineering, feed manufacturing, and transportation activities.

Kraig began working for Murphy-Brown, now Smithfield Foods in 1993 as an environmental technician.

He is certified by the Irrigation Association as a spray irrigation designer and is certified by the Natural Resources and Conservation Service as a technical service provider to develop nutrient utilization plans for animal producers. He is also the chairman of the Duplin County Health Board.

A native of Clinton, N.C., Kraig earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1993 from North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

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Zwack Lisa
Lisa Zwack
The Kroger Co.
Lisa Zwack
The Kroger Co.

Lisa is the Head of Sustainability at The Kroger Co., the country’s largest grocery retailer, headquartered in Cincinnati, OH. In this role, she leads and executes on Kroger’s sustainability strategy, including the company’s progress towards its 2020 sustainability goals and zero waste commitments. Previously, Lisa served as Sustainability Manager for Staples, Inc. for nearly five years, where she played a key role in implementing and communicating the company’s global sustainability vision. She earned her MBA from the Ross School of Business and her MS and BS degrees from the School for Environment and Sustainability, all at the University of Michigan, during which time she worked with several leading companies on sustainability-related projects.

Presenting at
From Farm to Fork: Keeping Food as Food in a World of Food Waste

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If you are interested in speaking opportunities, please contact Erika Ferrin.

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