Speakers

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).

Roian Atwood is the Director of Sustainability for Wrangler, Lee jeans, and several other brands and geographic regions. Atwood leads brand sustainability strategy, engages suppliers globally to drive greater social and environmental performance, and works cross functionally with product development and marketing to create more sustainable products and share brand relevant stories.

With fifteen years’ experience in footwear & apparel sustainability, his diverse project management experience includes implementing renewables and discovering energy efficiency measures to project managing materials innovation pilots and leading teams into an action-oriented, results driven approach to corporate sustainability.

Atwood’s undergraduate work was in Complex Systems with Naropa University, and he holds a Master’s of Environmental Management from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.

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.

Cristian Barcan joined The Vinyl Institute (VI) in 2015 as the VP of Sustainability and Industry Affairs. Cristian serves also as the Executive Director of the Vinyl Business & Sustainability Council.

Cristian brings with him two decades of experience in the chemical industry, with proven success in developing sustainability related business models for a wide range of products.
Prior to VI, he served as Vice President of Business Development at UL's Information and Insights division (UL).
Cristian also spent 18 years with BASF in a number of senior level positions, most recently as Head of Applied Sustainability for BASF Nutrition and Health North America, South America, and Asia Pacific. During that time, he developed a sustainability service package that helps consumer brands create and market more sustainable goods. Cristian introduced BASF as a core member of The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) and continues to engage with TSC on behalf of VI and VBSC. He is also a speaker and panel participant at a number of global events including Sustainable Brands.

In his current role at The Vinyl Institute, Cristian Barcan is responsible for leading the organization’s overall campaign to advance the vinyl industry's sustainability commitment and progress, build positive relationships with key influencers, and manage the industry wide Vinyl Business & Sustainability Council (VBSC).

Fred Bedore is the senior director of business strategy and sustainability for Walmart Stores, Inc..  He is responsible for the integration of sustainability into Walmart’s business strategies, the collaboration with the company's sustainable value networks on key sustainability goals and the incorporation of sustainability into the brand and culture of the company.

Fred joined Walmart in 2004 as a buyer in general merchandise.  In 2006 he was promoted to a senior strategy manager with the Innovation team where he held multiple roles with a special emphasis on merchandising and supply chain.  In 2010, Fred was named a senior director on the corporate sustainability team.  During his time at Walmart, Fred has been a part of teams who have won buyer of the year honors and been nominated for the Sam M. Walton Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Fred has an undergraduate degree in Economics from Michigan State University and an MBA with a concentration in Supply Chain from Pennsylvania State University.

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.

Nick has significant experience delivering market development activities, environmental programs and facilitating success directly with farmers on sustainability challenges of the agricultural value chain at the local, regional, and international-level. He has experienced the sector from the perspective of industry, grassroots agricultural organization, environmental not-for-profit and government.

Nick is a trained ecologist with an MBA in Leadership and Sustainability and holds multiple certifications, including in Sustainability Reporting and as a Change Management Specialist and Farm Transition Coordinator.

Based in Ontario, Canada, Nick is the Programme Manager for SAI Platform’s Arable & Vegetable Working Group, the Horizon Committee and associated activities and projects.

Tim Carey is the Senior Director for Sustainability and Recycling at PepsiCo Beverages in North America. He is responsible for developing and implementing the sustainability vision and strategy for the beverages businesses and reducing their environmental and social impacts. Tim co-founded and launched PepsiCo?s US consumer recycling program and sustainable fertilizer initiatives. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Keep America Beautiful. Tim work previously at Hewlett-Packard and in Berkshire Hathaway at Johns Manville before PepsiCo.

Sonia Cordera is Program Manager at IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative, where she is responsible for the development and management of the Fruit and Vegetables program, as well as of the Flowers and Ornamentals one. Her role includes organizing retailers, traders and producers to mainstream sustainable production and trade, and implementing projects in Africa and Latin America. Prior to joining IDH, Sonia worked at SIM Supply Chain as data analyst, mapping and monitoring customers’ supply chains for social compliance and food safety. Sonia also contributed to the revision of the Royal Ahold list of accepted social standards in 2014. Deeply interested in international politics and economics, Sonia holds a PhD in History of International Relations from the University of Florence and a Master of Science in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London.

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.

Stephen Donofrio is Principal & Founder of Greenpoint Innovations LLC, and has more than 10 years of experience working with companies, communities, governments and not-for-profit organizations. He was formerly Vice President of CDP North America, where he served as the Canada Manager and directed the region’s investor disclosure program for climate, energy, water and forest risk commodities.

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.

Leveraging over 10 years of experience in sustainable agriculture and an extensive background in supply chain management in other industries, Chisara is responsible for the design and implementation of Field to Market’s verification processes. Prior to Field to Market, Chisara was the Vice President of Certification at Fair Trade USA where she created and implemented certification strategies for agricultural supply chains to improve farmer and worker livelihoods, improve environmental outcomes, and increase transparency in sourcing and claims. Chisara was also a consultant, designing procurement and supply chain management strategies across multiple industries. Chisara holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Duke University.

Chris’s background in farming, physics, and supply chain integration inform his no-nonsense approach to sustainability. His passion for helping business leaders find genuine opportunities to convert field-level sustainability data into new business value is a driving force. In any interaction, Chris’s contribution may range from discussing strategic alternatives, to defining technical implementation details. Chris realized his dream of founding a technology company in 2010. MyFarms is a cloud-based software development firm that operationalizes sustainability. By extending supply chain systems to the field level and empowering farmers with new insight in an age of increasing environmental scrutiny, MyFarms aligns the economics of sustainability, which is a precursor to large scale impact. MyFarms delivers sophisticated turnkey solutions that automatically combine field data owned by farmers with the IT infrastructure used by the world’s biggest brands. MyFarms appeals to the full sophistication range among farmers, while enabling seamless sustainability data collection and interactive reporting for downstream trading partners. The MyFarms data exchange is used by thousands of farmers and dozens of enterprises across the US and Australia. Fennig was honored to receive the Outstanding Achievement in RFID Technology Award in 2009 and the Precision Ag Institute’s Crop Advisor of the Year award in 2014. His undergraduate work focused on nanosatellite communications, earning a BS from the Taylor University Physics Department, and his MS focused on the Physics of RFID in global supply chains at Case Western Reserve University. Chris enjoys long walks on his family’s fourth generation corn and soybean farm in Jay County, Indiana.

With over 8 years’ experience in Retail,  Alexandra is a Sustainability Delivery Manager in Marks & Spencer. She has been managing Shwopping, M&S’s award-winning garment recycling scheme since 2013, on both a strategic and operational level, as well as the relationship with Oxfam, the charity partner. In addition, she is working within the Clothing & Home business unit, undertaking the governance and delivery of the new Plan A 2025 commitments (Marks & Spencer’s sustainability strategy). She specialises in circular economy, textile recycling and circular design.

Her background includes change management for large transformation programmes (in M&S, but also in other industries, such as Oil & Gas and IT), project management, internal communications and training.

Emma Fuller is a data scientist with Granular where she uses large, high dimensional, unstructured data sets to derive novel insights for farmers. Prior to joining Granular, Emma received her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton where her work combined both theoretical and empirical approaches to try to better quantify social and ecological sustainability in US West Coast commercial fisheries.

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.

Alex Gershenson is the CEO and Co-founder of SupplyShift. His expertise is in the fields of climate change, enterprise sustainability, supply chain responsibility, as well as U.S. and international environmental law and climate change policy implementation. For the last five years, Alex has been building SupplyShift, the next generation supply chain visibility and responsibility platform. Alex is passionate about solving global social and environmental problems, and ensuring that his children inherit a better planet.

Daniele Giovannucci is the President of the Committee on Sustainability Assessment and leads the network of global partnerships that are a hallmark of its participatory learning process for improving sustainability practices.

His enthusiasm for a pragmatic approach to research and development stems from15 years as a business executive in food-related firms. Later, as Senior Consultant to the World Bank (Markets and Agribusiness Thematic Team), he helped evolve the design of sustainability components for many rural development and agribusiness projects for nearly a decade. He has developed or managed projects in more than 30 countries since he began working on the sustainability issues of developing nations in 1992.

Over the last 15 years, Daniele has led or contributed to the strategies of a number of major development institutions and several governments. In 2011-12, he led the global teams formulating the strategic input on Food and Agriculture for the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development and for the landmark Rio+20 Earth Summit launch of the UN’s SD-21 Report.

Downloads of his published work rank him in the top 1% of the more than 240,000 professional authors tracked by the Social Science Research Network (including translations) and his newest major works (co-authored) are Sustainable Development in the 21st Century (United Nations DESA) and Measuring Sustainability: COSA findings in 12 countries for coffee and cocoa.

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.

Pat Hayes joined the newly formed Responsible Battery Coalition in January 2017 as its Executive Director. Pat brings 25 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies including over 21 years with Procter & Gamble, first as an environmental engineer, then leading P&G’s State Government Relations organization. He has extensive experience working with coalitions, associations, governmental and non-governmental organizations to advance public policy and promote public/private partnerships. Pat has a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.

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.

Nancy Himmelfarb (himmelfarb.com) helps companies leverage sustainability to build trust and competitive advantage. She specializes in sustainability positioning, strategy development and corporate communications, and is particularly skilled at managing complexity and engaging stakeholders. She brings a unique combination of business, legal and sustainability expertise and experience, including 15 years as corporate attorney, general counsel and board advisor for public and private companies. Nancy holds degrees from Stanford University and UCLA School of Law, and a graduate certificate in sustainability management from University of Chicago.
She develops sustainability solutions for businesses in multiple industries, with an emphasis on food and healthcare. Her clients include Fortune 500 companies, major PR firms and smaller organizations struggling to connect the dots on sustainability.

Judith Hochhauser Schneider is Director, Private Sector Engagement at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) where she manages some of WWF’s largest global transformational partnerships with multinational organizations, including The Coca-Cola Company and Walmart. Her work focuses on water stewardship, sustainably sourced agricultural commodities, and deforestation strategies including jurisdictional approach. Her geographic focus areas include China and the MesoAmerican Reef in Central America.

Prior to WWF, Judith worked at PwC in the Sustainable Business Solutions advisory practice, advising clients on sustainability strategies in a variety of sectors including private equity, manufacturing, and consumer package goods.

Before joining PwC, Judith worked for DuPont, driving the integration of sustainability into growth strategies and functional areas including Marketing, Supply Chain, and Finance. Judith spent her 8 years at DuPont working within business units, as well as at the corporate level on the Sustainable Growth Excellence team, focusing on carbon markets, sustainability strategy, green marketing, sustainable packaging, and emerging markets.

Judith is a LEED® Accredited Professional and Six Sigma Green Belt Certified. She holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a BA from Binghamton University in Environmental Science. She currently lives with her family in Washington, DC.

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.

Sara is a first year graduate student in Textile Engineering at NC State University. She is currently doing research on ultra-high aspect ratio carbon nanotubes as resistive heaters. She is also exploring sustainability in the FTAR supply chain through class and industry projects, such as managing RSL lists and developing an air filtration solar shade. Sara recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a B.S. in Materials Science with a focus in composites. During her time there, she completed two internships for Boeing in Charleston and Seattle as a Design Engineer on the 787 automation build and on textile interior flammability certifications and testing. She was president of Engineers Without Borders, overseeing the implementation of a project to reuse plastic bottles as building material. In her free time, Sara uses her materials knowledge to metalsmith and make jewelry!

Erin Killeen is the Technical Development Coordinator at The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) where she supports the planning, coordination, and implementation of research and technical projects related to supply chain sustainability. Erin has also contributed to TSC as a Research Associate for TSC’s Food Beverage, and Agriculture sector, developing content for TSC Toolkits. Prior to her role with The Consortium, Erin was a Project Manager for Entegrity, a sustainability and energy services company specializing in the implementation of energy conservation and renewable energy projects. Furthermore, she holds expert knowledge regarding the topic of food waste across the supply chain. Erin holds a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics degree from the University of Arkansas, USA and a Master of Science in International Rural Development degree from the University of Gent, Belgium. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, with a minor in Anthropology and Environmental Soil and Water Science.

lizabeth Kinney was born and raised in Muncie, Indiana -- college town of David Letterman, home of Ball canning jars. She graduated from DePauw and the Media Fellows Program in 2011 with a major in communications and a minor in anthropology. During her time in Greencastle she was a News Director at WGRE, interned in Rome at the UN World Food Programme, and spent a lot of time running in the Nature Park.

Today, Elizabeth leads PR for Procter & Gamble's Global Olympics Sponsorship. Prior to that she managed global sustainability communications for the company.

Ashley Kuhn, PhD, is Director of Responsible Sourcing for Global Beauty Purchases at P&G. A plant biologist by training, she leverages a decade of sustainability insights and experience across Regulatory, Environmental Safety, Sustainability, and Procurement to guide P&G business teams toward sustainable solutions.

Steve is the Vice President of Sustainability with global responsibilities for Sustainability Programs at Perdue Farms. Steve reports directly to the CEO, and his duties are focused on strategic direction of the sustainability program at Perdue Farms – both Foods and Agribusiness. Steve is continuing Perdue Farms’ journey of becoming a sustainable company. This is defined in our Stewardship Value – We protect our environment, ensure the well being of our associates, provide for the welfare of the animals in our care, live up to our civic responsibilities, and generate earnings for the future of our company. Prior to his joining Perdue Farms, Steve worked in the environmental and sustainability field for 24+ years. He held several positions at environmental and sustainability consulting firms and most recently was the Director of Global Sustainability for American Sugar Refining, Inc. He is currently on the board of the Alliance for Chesapeake Bay, the Dean’s Global Leadership Council for the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources of the University of Maryland, and is on the Maryland State Commission of Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities. He also built the Sustainability Professionals group on LinkedIn with over 167,000 sustainability professional members. He grew up in Pennsylvania and attended Pennsylvania State University, where he obtained a BS in Environmental Resource Management, an MBA, and completed graduate level courses in Soil Science.

Suzanne Lindsay-Walker is the Director of Sustainability for Brambles, a supply-chain logistics company operating primarily through the CHEP and IFCO brands. Brambles enhances performance for customers by helping them transport goods through their supply chains more efficiently, sustainably and safely. She engages with external customers and internal cross-business regional teams to develop and implement the Sustainability strategy and vision across the North America region. Suzanne works to successfully incorporate Sustainability as part of value proposition to customers, determine the strategies to reach 2020 Global Sustainability goals across the region and develop the tools to further demonstrate the environmental advantages of CHEP and IFCO’s circular share and reuse model.

Suzanne brings a wealth of experience to Brambles, having spent total of 10+ years driving sustainability into the retail and consumers goods industry. Mostly recently, Suzanne spent 5 years at The Kroger Co. as their first Director of Sustainability, having successfully built and launched Kroger's 2020 Sustainability Goals, one being the strategic Zero Waste program. During her time, Kroger was listed for the first time on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and has been for the fifth consecutive year.  Suzanne currently sits on the Corporate Advisory Board of Wharton’s Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) and is as a strategic partner with Retail Industry Leaders Association.  Suzanne was a former chairperson of the Food Marketing Institute’s Sustainability Executive Committee and an environmental steering committee member of the Consumer Goods Forum. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree, with honors, civil engineering from Lawrence Technological University.

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.

Caitlin is a graduate student of the College of Textiles at NC State. She is earning a MSc in Textile and Apparel Technology and Management, and pursuing a deep interest in sustainability in the fashion apparel sector.
Caitlin obtained her BSc in Fashion Design at DAAP (University of Cincinnati) in 2015. Since beginning her studies at NC State, her research has branched out from a foundation in sustainable apparel design to focus on critical points of impact along the apparel production pipeline.
Her curricular studies include coursework in Marketing Research, Textile Market Research, and Consumer Behaviour. In her extracurricular studies, she has explored the fundamentals of Remote Sensing with Erdas Imagine and map making with QGIS.

Aaron is Account Director at Trucost, part of S&P Dow Jones Indices, where he works with corporates understanding their sustainability and ESG challenges and impacts and identifying science-based and data-driven solutions to help them inform business decisions. Prior to joining Trucost, Aaron worked as a Business Development Manager and Solutions Consultant at UL EHS Sustainability. Before that, Aaron was as sustainability consultant working with companies in Mexico. He has extensive experience working with companies in the US and Latin America. Aaron holds a BS in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Environmental Systems from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MS in Environmental Management and Sustainability from IIT Stuart School of Business.

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.

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.

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.

Jeff Peters is the Vice President of Sustainability for Agrible and has worked in the Ag Industry for the past 24 years. His role requires a working knowledge of a broad range of scientific areas of relevance to Stewardship and Sustainability including Environmental Fate and Digital Farming. His career has interfaced with a number of sectors including regulatory, science, communication/media relations, marketing and with external stakeholders (CPGs, government, NGO’s/conservation groups and trade associations).

His current role is to develop and implement Sustainability Programs to support the needs of downstream clients. The goals of these Programs are to measure and promote continual improvement on the farm that focus on several key areas: productivity, profitability and natural resource management.

Hobby/Passion: Jeff really enjoys carpentry. He has taken a lot of pride moving and restoring a 150 year old tobacco barn into a log cabin.

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.

Raja is a the co-founder of ripe.io; a technology company creating the blockchain of food to help the food supply chain achieve transparency, efficiency and improved value to solve problems around traceability, food safety, quality assurance, regulatory compliance. Raja, a serial entrepreneur, was most recently on the founding team and headed product development at R3CEV, the world’s largest financial institutions consortium for blockchain deployment. Raja has had a 20-year career working at Bank of America, Citi, Silicon Valley Bank and Wells Fargo. Raja is passionate about connected technologies and how they can be utilized to revolutionize ways to create a more sustainable and healthier food business.

Kai Robertson is a senior corporate sustainability advisor. In this role, she works closely with companies and nonprofits to provide practical guidance on effective sustainability strategies, stakeholder engagement, and tailored insights on key issues. Her projects include developing a report for Ceres on sustainable agriculture and serving as lead advisor for World Resources Institute (WRI), Secretariat of the Food Loss & Waste Protocol, a multi-stakeholder effort to create the global standard for accounting and reporting on food loss and waste.

Kai has over 25 years of experience working with the food, beverage and agriculture sector. Prior to her current role, she led BSR's global food, beverage and agriculture advisory practice and previously directed the development of corporate partnerships at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Conservation International (CI) working with companies such as Walmart, Kroger, General Mills and Kraft Foods. Earlier in her career, Kai worked for nearly a decade at the leading supermarket trade association, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), researching and speaking about food and retail industry trends. She has an MBA from Northwestern University and undergraduate degree from Cornell University.

Georgia Rubenstein is a Principal Change Designer in Forum for the Future’s Brooklyn office, working with internal and external partners to experiment and explore how to drive the system-level change needed for a sustainable future. Her work focuses on process design and facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and system change practice. Georgia recently led Forum’s multi-year Beauty & Personal Care Sustainability Project, working with retailers, brands, suppliers, and NGOs in the beauty and personal care sector to collaboratively tackle barriers to bringing more sustainable products to consumers.

Prior to joining Forum, Georgia led the development of the sustainability program at Environmental Initiative, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that convenes stakeholders to collaboratively solve environmental challenges. Georgia holds a BA in International Development from McGill University and a Master in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Mike Schade is the Mind the Store Campaign Director with Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families (a national coalition of 450 organizations), which aims to work with the nation's leading retailers on creating comprehensive chemicals policies. Mike was previously the Markets Campaign Coordinator with the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ), a national environmental health organization where he led national campaigns to phase out toxic chemicals and materials such as PVC plastic, phthalates, and bisphenol A (BPA). Prior to CHEJ, he was the Director of the Buffalo office of Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, a NY statewide environmental organization. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and received a BS in Environmental Studies from the University at Buffalo.

Bambi Semroc is the senior strategic advisor for Conservation International's Center for Environmental Leadership in Business. In this role she leads CI’s work with the coffee sector, including CI’s collaborations with Starbucks, S&D Coffee and Tea, ECOM and McDonald’s. Ms. Semroc leads CI’s current efforts on the Sustainable Coffee Challenge, a coalition of businesses and organizations from across the coffee sector working to make coffee the first sustainable agricultural product.  Ms Semroc has been at CI for over 13 years always focusing on the food and agriculture sector and ensuring companies have the information and tools necessary to integrate natural capital and ecosystem service considerations into decision-making processes.

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.

Dr. Timothy M. Smith is professor of sustainable systems management and International Business, and founding director of the NorthStar Initiative for Sustainable Enterprise, at the University of Minnesota. Throughout his career, he has developed integrative approaches to sustainable systems performance measurement and decision-making within the contexts of supply chain management, product/process design, marketing and public policy. Smith's research has been published in a broad array of scholarly journals and popular press, including the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, Environmental Science & Technology, Journal of Industrial Ecology, International Journal of Life-Cycle Assessment, and Journal of Marketing Research. His work has also appeared in The Conversation, Bloomberg News, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and other trade and local press. He teaches undergraduate students, graduate students and executives in courses on sustainability management systems and strategy, systems thinking and analysis, and corporate sustainability and social responsibility – earning him numerous awards for teaching excellence and community engagement. Dr. Smith brings insights from appointments at premier Universities in Europe and Latin America, and as an AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellow. He has advised federal and state agencies on energy, product and sourcing policies, and consults numerous companies and organizations advancing sustainability.

Mr. Stanislaus is serving as Circular Economy Fellow at the World Resources Institute and Senior Advisor on the Platform for Accelerating Circular Economic Policy in partnership with the World Economic Forum.

He served as a senior political official for the Obama Administration, serving as the Assistant Administrator of the USEPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, a US Senate confirmed position.  At USEPA, Mr. Stanislaus led programs that revitalize communities through the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated, hazardous and solid waste materials management, chemical plant safety, oil spill prevention, and emergency response.  He led the effort to advance the transition to a circular economy through a life-cycle based sustainable materials management approach as a key effort to advance climate change mitigation.  He represented the U.S. at G7 deliberations that led to the formation of the G7 Alliance for Resources Efficiency  and the of G7 countries plus Netherlands and Korea with representatives of their manufacturers to identify best practices to advance resource efficiency and circular economy in the supply chain. He advanced President Obama’s Climate Action Plan by climate change strategies into the Office’s programs.

Mr. Stanislaus is an environmental lawyer and chemical engineer with over 15 plus years of experience in the environmental field in the private, and public sectors.

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.

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.

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.

Jason Weller joined Land O’Lakes, Inc., in 2017 where he leads the team providing conservation solutions for the farm cooperative’s members and owners.  He previously served as Chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the nation’s largest working lands conservation organization, where he led a staff of 10,500 employees that partner with farmers and ranchers to deliver assistance to protect and improve the quality of their operations’ natural resources.  Prior to serving as Chief, Jason served on the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, the U.S. House Budget Committee, and in the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Jay’s research centres on issues of sustainability, focusing on sustainable development indicators, benchmarking/target setting systems, and communicating sustainability performance. He is based at the Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU) at Lincoln University where he is heavily involved with the development of the New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard, a project to develop nationwide sustainability assessment systems across primary industry sectors. In addition to providing analysis for multiple research projects, Jay is also currently researching moral and ethical challenges in sustainability assessment, particularly around distributive justice issues in setting sustainability targets. Jay has been extensively engaged with indigenous communities and resource management issues in a consultative capacity through his role as regional development planner, and through ongoing research into agricultural sustainability.

Martin Wolf is responsible for ensuring the design of sustainable products at Seventh Generation, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of ecological household and personal care products.

Mr. Wolf brings over 40 years of experience in industrial and environmental chemistry to his work, starting with environmental fate and metabolism studies for agricultural chemicals, followed by studies of the occurrence of hazardous chemicals in the environment, conducting life cycle studies of product systems, and designing more sustainable household cleaning products.

In addition to his work for Seventh Generation, Mr. Wolf serves as the Co-Chair of the Research, Technology, and Regulatory Committee of the American Cleaning Institute (formerly the Soap & Detergent Association), and has served as the Vice Chair and Chair of the Sustainability Committee (2010-2015), and as the Vice Chair and Chair of the Strategic Advisory Committee (2007-2011).

Mr. Wolf was appointed a Fellow of the Aspen Institute, Environmental Forum in 2006, and received an EPA Region 1 Environmental Merit Award in 2011. In 2013 Mr. Wolf was appointed by the National Academy of Science to the Committee on Design and Evaluation of Safer Chemical Substitutions. In 2015 he won the Elva Walker Spillane Distinguished Service Award of the American Cleaning Institute, and in 2016 was appointed to the Working Group On Toxic Chemical Use In Vermont by the State’s Agency Of Natural Resources.

Mr. Wolf holds an M.A. in Chemistry from Yeshiva University (New York) and a B.S. in Chemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Massachusetts).

Joseph Wozniak has over 15 years experience in international trade and development. He heads the Trade for Sustainable Development programme (T4SD) at ITC where he is responsible for the development and implementation of the Standards Map website and its related tools. Prior to this he worked for KPMG LLP and as a Senior Economist with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in Washington, D.C. He was responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the Agency’s portfolio and the development of analytical tools for the impact assessment of OPIC’s emerging markets investment projects in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and consumer products.

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.