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At the helm of an international global initiative, the members serving on the GFSI Board themselves hail from diverse backgrounds, spanning the food industry and representing both regional and multinational operations.
GFSI benefits from a passionate Board made up of members drawn from major retailer, manufacturer and food service operators. In constant liaison with the GFSI Director and Team, they come together with GFSI to achieve collaboratively what no one company could do alone under the conviction that food safety is a non-competitive issue and that everyone has a right to safe food.
Since its creation, GFSI has relentlessly focused on evolving along with the industry landscape and serving to help the food industry meet new challenges. The role of the Board is to define the strategic direction for GFSI in line with key industry needs, setting mandates for the GFSI Technical Working Groups and laying out priorities for the GFSI Local Groups.
Roy Kirby is Director of Global Food Safety for Mondelēz International. He is a member of Mondelez International’s Global Quality leadership team. Roy’s current responsibilities cover all Food Safety relevant disciplines including Microbiology, Toxicology, Allergens and Packaging right across the Product Lifecycle. He leads a high performing team across the world to ensure that Mondelez International’s Quality policies and expectations are applied and validated on a consistent basis.
Prior to joining Mondelez, Roy was a member of the European Food Safety Authorities Executive Office responsible for Quality Management.
Throughout his 30 year career, Roy has worked in roles spanning academia, public service and industry but always focused on consumer safety.
Roy completed his B.Sc. in Microbiology at the University of Surrey in 1986 and his PhD in the Survival of Salmonella during Chocolate Mass production at the University of Reading in 1990. Roy is also a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technology. Outside of work, Roy is married with 3 children and has many hobbies, with wine tasting being the principle one.
Craig Wilson is the Vice President, General Merchandising Manager of Quality Assurance/ Food Safety, Non-Foods Quality Assurance, Environmental Services/Haz Mat and Merchandise Services for Costco Wholesale Corporation. Costco Wholesale Corporation operates membership warehouses world-wide, that offer a selection of branded and private label products in a range of merchandise categories.
Costco is a global leader when it comes to food safety, and all suppliers must meet their strict compliance requirements. Costco’s food safety audit systems, STEC testing of fresh foods, x-ray product inspection, and unique positions on the Global Food Safety Initiative and the global regulatory environment, is well known industry wide.
Prior to joining Costco Wholesale, Craig worked as a Special Projects Director for Frigoscandia Equipment Food Safety Systems for over 24 years.
During his time with Frigoscandia, Craig published numerous research papers in the areas of food safety and food processing and holds many patents, the most notable for steam pasteurisation of food. Craig is the recipient of the Gia/Matek, Global Excellence in Food Safety Award and serves on the Steering Committee for the National Food Safety Consortium.
Carletta Ooton is Amazon’s Vice President for Safety, Sustainability, Security & Compliance. She oversees the company’s EHS, Food Safety, Trade Services, Product Safety & Recalls, Customer Packaging Experience, Social Responsibility, Energy & Environment, Sustainability Science and Global Security teams worldwide.
Her responsibilities include establishing global standards and policies, managing emerging issues, developing and deploying global programs and ensuring effective risk identification and mitigation worldwide. Carletta has been actively involved with industry and government collaboration across many of her areas of responsibility.
Before joining Amazon, Carletta worked at The Coca-Cola Company where she served as the company’s Chief Quality, Safety & Sustainable Operations Officer and the VP of Technical Operations & Capability Development. Prior to that she worked for Cott Beverages, Bath & Body Works, Unilever, and Tate & Lyle.
Carletta received dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Biological Sciences and Chemistry, and a Master of Science degree in Microbiology from Southern Illinois University.
Monique Pellegrino is a French citizen, graduated from ENSAT (National School in Agronomy) with a five years engineering degree specialised in Food Science and processing.
She has 25 years of experience in driving sustainable growth and competitiveness by leading diverse functions in international environments: Quality & Food Safety, Environment, Regulatory Affairs, R&D, Innovation and strategic programs. In parallel to an extensive experience in industry, she conducted AFAQ/AFNOR certification audits for 10 years, developing knowledge of manufacturing and retail processes across all food sectors. She has been involved in different international organisations, as member of boards or scientific committees.
After a first experience in research in Molecular Biology at the USDA of Berkeley in California, she joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1992 where she successively led Quality & Environment and Process Operations. In 1998, she entered Lesaffre Group as Quality, Environment & regulatory affairs Director before being appointed Group Performance Enhancement Program Officer in 2003. She moved to the position of Group Innovation Director in 2005 and became R&D and Innovation Director in 2008.
Monique joined Danone in 2010 as Functional brands / Innovation R&D Director and was then appointed Science & Technology Director in 2012. In May 2016, Monique was nominated Strategic Transformation Director, acting as the catalyst of strategic initiatives towards Danone 2020 ambition and leading the integration of White Wave for the R&D function. She was nominated Vice President Danone Food Safety Center in November 2017 and was then promoted Vice President, Chief Food safety Officer in March 2019. Her mission is to drive food safety culture and governance further up in all Danone businesses, ensuring a scientific backbone to policy and excellence in execution.
Vice President Product Integrity
Hugo Byrnes joined Ahold Delhaize’s predecessor Ahold in 2006 and was subsequently appointed to the position of Vice PresidentProduct Integrity. He is responsible for Ahold Delhaize’s food and non-food product policies, which cover product safety and responsible products. This includes social compliance, animal welfare and environmental issues.
Hugo Byrnes has a Dutch Law degree from the State University Leiden, the Netherlands. He is a food lawyer whose career has focused on the food business and in particular on quality management and standardisation. From 2000 to 2005 he was the Directorof The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). In addition to being a Boardmember for GFSI, Hugo is co-chair of SSCI (Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative)and serves on the Steering Board of the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative(GSSI).
Pierre de Ginestel is the Quality Director of Auchan. He is building the company Quality Policy based on strong commitments gathering food safety, quality products and sustainable development. He has been for a long period the Chairman of the French Retail Quality Committee (FCD) and a member of the GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) since 2000 and GSCP (Global Social Compliance Program). He has also participated in various other committees as the Food Policy Committee of EuroCommerce and certification bodies as AFAQ (French Association of Quality Insurance) and Ecocert (Organic Certification Body).
Graduate of the National Veterinary School in Lyon and the Lille Business School, specialist in the crisis management, he joined Auchan in 1988 and has held different positions within the Quality Department before being appointed as the Quality Director in 2001 and the Corporate Quality Director of Auchan in 2010.
Ms. Dyenson joined Dole in October 2016. Based out of the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory on the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, NC, Ms. Dyenson has responsibility for food safety and quality programs globally. Prior to Dole, she spent eight years in various senior director positions with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., most recently leading food safety across 6500 retail stores, 48 company owned manufacturing facilities and 220 fresh distribution centers in 26 countries for Walmart’s international division.
Prior to Walmart, Ms. Dyenson spent eight years with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, based out of Orlando, Florida, where she held various roles in food safety and public health supporting Walt Disney World, Disney Regional Entertainment, Disney Cruise Line and the Parks and Resorts business globally. Ms. Dyenson holds a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Iowa and a M.P.H. in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of South Florida.
Prior to embarking on a career in Quality Management Daniela received a solid grounding in Processing as Production Manager in a dairy plant for 4 years in Slovakia. She entered Metro in 2000 in a commercial role as Own Brand Manager, moving to Quality Manager and subsequently Head of Quality for Metro Czech Republic.
She was then promoted to Regional Quality Director where she looked after CEE and CIS countries* for 6 years before taking on the challenge of heading up the Corporate Quality Assurance department for Metro Cash and Carry at the headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany in February 2016.
Daniela is a Food Technologist by background having studied Food Technology and Processing at the University of Bratislava. She subsequently obtained her Masters in Food Microbiology.
Daniela’s experience of living and working in the food industry in Eastern Europe and CIS has driven her passion for food safety, particularly in improving conditions in small and developing country suppliers.
Daniela is a fan of nature and in her spare time likes to get closer to it through hiking and biking. She also loves cooking when she has the time. Her native language is Romanian, she is fluent in Czech and Slovak and is learning German.
*CEE – Central Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia,)
CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova).
Cindy is Senior Director, Global Food and Packaging Safety, Global Supply Chain & Sustainability for McDonald’s Corporation. Her responsibilities include leading global supplier quality management systems and programs, establishing science-based food safety standards and policies, managing food related emerging issues, and providing guidance on nutrition information accuracy and consistency. She has been the lead for the McDonald’s Food Safety Advisory Council since 2002, a forum for sharing food safety knowledge and best practices among leading suppliers and external experts. Cindy has been actively involved with industry and government collaboration on food safety. She has served on the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Board since 2008. Cindy is currently a member of the Board of Advisors at the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Cindy started her career with the McDonald’s Corporation after receiving a Master Degree in Food Science and Nutrition from the University of Wisconsin in 1990. She has held various positions at McDonald’s Corporation, from a Chemist to a Quality Assurance consultant, a Quality Assurance Manager, a senior Quality Assurance Manager, and a Director of Food Safety. Cindy has been actively engaged in leading the effort on harmonisation of food safety standards by working with the food suppliers and the food service industry since early 2007. Cindy is a senior member of the American Society for Quality. Cindy has been a member of the Institute of Food Technologists since 1989. She is also a current member of the International Association of Food Protection and AOAC International.
Gillian Kelleher is Vice President of Food Safety and Quality Assurance for Wegmans Food Markets, a major US regional supermarket chain and one of FORTUNE’s “Top 100 Companies to Work For” in America. Gillian started with Wegmans in 1997 and her scope of responsibility includes all aspects of food safety and quality for stores, self-manufacturing, distribution and Wegmans’ private label program. Under Gillian’s leadership, Wegmans has achieved almost 100% certification of their private label suppliers to GFSI recognized schemes and 100% adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) certification for produce growers. In 2003, Wegmans won the coveted “Black Pearl Award of Corporate Excellence in Food Safety and Quality”.
Prior to joining Wegmans, Gillian worked with Grand Metropolitan Foods Europe in the food manufacturing, retail and food service sectors including positions with Express Foods, Häagen Dazs and Burger King. Gillian earned her B.S degree in Dairy and Food Science from University College Cork in Ireland. She is a member of several professional organizations including the Institute of Food Technologists, the International Association of Food Protection and the American Society for Quality.
Sean Leighton is currently Vice President of Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory for Cargill based in Wayzata, Minnesota. Prior to joining Cargill, Sean worked for over 13 years at The Coca-Cola Company in various roles across Quality, Food Safety and Environmental Sustainability, working in the US, Canada and Europe. Sean has a BS in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MS in Food Science from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Emory University. Sean sits on the advisory board of many organisations including, but not limited to, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), IAFP’s Journal of Food Protection, The Center for Food Safety (UGA), GMA’s Science & Education Foundation and the Food Fraud Think Tank (MSU). In his spare time, Sean enjoys running, lifting weights, and spending time with his wife, Kelly, his 4-year old son Connor, and his 2-year old daughter, Parker.
www.cargill.com
After taking office in 2013, Angela, together with the management team, has done a series of organisational reforms, to push forward the transformation of New Hope Liuhe. The company ranked number 85 among Fortune 500 companies of China in 2015.
Led by the new leading group, New Hope Liuhe has accelerated its pace of internationalisation. It has set up overseas headquarters in Singapore, built a talent training platform in Indonesia and Australia, and multiplied its global trade and cooperation. So far, it has more than 500 branches in total, among which more than 50 branches are built in over 20 foreign countries.
Angela is also active in charity affairs. She once organised an initiative to help cataract patients in impoverished mountain areas. In June 2016, New Hope Liuhe cooperated with China Children and Teenagers’ Fund, setting up the “New Hope Liuhe Children’s Food Safety Education Fund,” to promote “National Children’s Food Safety Guard Action.”
Neil Marshall, Global Director Quality & Food Safety Strategy, Policy and Programs for The Coca-Cola Company. Neil’s responsibilities include defining global strategy, policy, programs, requirements and initiatives for quality and food safety to ensure product integrity, whilst reducing risks across the supply chain.
Neil joined the Coca-Cola system in June 1999 for Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd in the UK. Since then, he has held several Quality and Supply Chain technical lead roles within the UK and Europe before moving to a global position in Atlanta, USA in 2009.
Neil led a global Food Safety project team in 2007-08 to mitigate supply chain risks prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was the technical crisis management lead for the 2010 South Africa World Cup and for the 2012 London Olympics. Neil also led the development of a collaborative food and packaging industry steering group responsible for the development of PAS 223: Prerequisite Programs and Design Requirements for Food Safety for Food Packaging which was published in July 2011. Neil is a longstanding member of the GFSI Technical Working Groups, GFSI Board member and Board member of SSAFE.
Since 1st August 2019, Nataša Matyášová holds the position of Corporate Head of Quality Management for Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., based in Vevey, Switzerland, with strategic and functional leadership for the 9,500 Quality and Food Safety professionals in the Nestlé group.
Nataša Matyášová graduated from the Slovak Technical University in 1990, has an engineering degree for Food Chemistry and Analytics. She joined Nestlé in 1993. She has held a variety of cross-category and international positions in the areas of Manufacturing, Quality Management and Operations. She started in Austria, later moving to Bulgaria to lead manufacturing and product development, where she was appointed Head of Quality Management Central Eastern Europe (1999 to 2004, based in Prague). She continued as Factory Manager (2004 to 2010, based in Czech Republic), and moved to the Headquarters in Vevey as Zone Europe Quality Manager. She then returned to her home market in the role of Technical Manager Central Eastern Europe (2012 to 2016, based in Prague), and subsequently as Global Head of the Technical and Operations Food Category (2016-2019, based in our Headquarters in Vevey).
In her current role, she reports to Magdi Batato, Chief Operations Officer, on the Nestle Executive Board.
https://www.nestle.com/
Dr. Barbara Masters is the Vice President of Regulatory Policy, Food and Agriculture at Tyson Foods, Inc., where she provides regulatory vision and support for food safety and quality policies and procedures.
Prior to joining Tyson Foods, Dr. Masters served as the Global Vice President for Food Safety and Quality at Keystone Foods. She served as the key technical resource for the plant teams across the globe. Dr. Masters spent nine years as a Senior Policy Advisor at Olsson Frank Weeda, where she worked closely to advise with the meat and poultry industry to ensure regulatory compliance.
Dr. Masters served as Administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service where she established a solid infrastructure of science-based policies and data analysis to reduce foodborne illness and product recalls. She was responsible for re-energising the Agency’s training program and ensuring training reflected national policies.
Dr. Masters is a member of the International Association of Food Protection, American Veterinary Medical Association, National Chicken Council, North American Meat Institute and National Turkey Federation.
Dr. Masters holds her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Mississippi State University and a Food Animal Internship from Kansas State University.
Alex Mendes joined PepsiCo in the summer of 2013 as a Senior Director, responsible for quality systems across global beverages and foods. In February of 2017, Alex took the role of Vice President, Global Food Safety, implementing a risk-based approach strategy to 1,250 manufacturing sites. Alex has driven strong food safety assessments to enable innovation of 3,500 projects annually. Under Alex’s leadership, PepsiCo has elevated its food safety culture and delivered compliance to FSMA and is finalising requirements for the European Official Controls.
Alex has gained experience in the food industry ranging from development and manufacturing to quality and food safety. He started his career in Brazil and has been working in the US for the past 18 years. Prior to PepsiCo, Alex led multiple technical teams in DuPont, Mars and Keurig.
Alex seeks continual learning and holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Northeastern University, Masters in Statistics from Penn State, MBA from USC, Master in Food Engineering by State University of Campinas (Brazil) and undergraduates in Food Engineering and Chemistry. Alex is a member of the Board of Directors for the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).
Kazuaki Miyagishima studied medicine and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Tokyo. He also holds an international diploma of public administration from the Ecole nationale d’Administration, France, and a doctorate degree in medical sciences from Showa University. After having served in the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare as medical officer, he taught public health and health policy as an associate professor at Kyoto University.
From 2003, he was successively the Secretary of the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, the Deputy Director General and Head of Scientific and Technical Department of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the Director of Food Safety and Zoonoses at the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2020, he left WHO and joined AEON Co., Ltd. as an Advisor.
Sara Mortimore is a Food Scientist with over 30 years of practical experience and in May 2019 was appointed Vice President, Global Food Safety Compliance at Walmart.
From 2008 to 2019, Sara held the position of Vice President of Product Safety, Quality and Regulatory Affairs with enterprise-wide responsibility at Land O’Lakes, Inc. covering both human and animal foods as well as supporting the not-for-profit international development work.
Sara started her career with Glaxo SmithKline, working as a Research Technologist in R&D. In 1989 she joined Grand Metropolitan Foods which later became Pillsbury and subsequently was incorporated by General Mills Inc.
Sara is also the co-author of many successful books on HACCP and food safety management. She has served both on the board of trustees of the Royal Society of Public Health and the BRC International Advisory Board. Sara has been a member of the GFSI Conference committees several times and was actively engaged in GFSI’s Technical Working Group Food Safety Culture.
https://www.walmart.com/
In his role as the Vice President of Corporate Food Technology and Regulatory Compliance for The Kroger Company, Cincinnati, OH. Howard has the overall strategic responsibility and direction for food safety, quality assurance and product development for the entire company, this includes approximately 2800 retail stores (serving over 9 million customers every day) and Kroger’s 36 own manufacturing facilities – Dairy, Bakery, Pet Food and Grocery plants and over 5000 supplier partners.
Prior to joining Kroger, he led product integrity and regulatory compliance functions as Vice President at Topco Associates – a private label procurement company in Elk Grove Village, IL.
With over 25 years of experience in the food industry, he has had the opportunity to work at several food companies and in progressive food safety and quality roles including US Foods, Nestle, Kraft Foods, Darigold and the United Nations Food Program, Howard holds a bachelors and master’s degree in food and Industrial microbiology and has advanced certificates in Integrated supply chain management from Michigan State University.
Howard is very passionate about safe foods and accessibility to clean air and water, he looks forward to the day planet earth and its inhabitants will be free from food borne illnesses.
Alain Turenne is currently Vice President Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Walgreen Co., a member of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA). Turenne joined Walgreens in 2010 to lead the product quality and product safety platforms for the company’s retail operations. He works with the WBA teams across markets to champion the retail Food Safety programmes and has worked globally on the full suite of Quality services for the company’s US Own Brands and Global Sourcing portfolio, including Ethical Sourcing programs. As part of his CSR role, he is also responsible for the U.S. Sustainability agenda.
Turenne was previously with Kraft Foods for more than 20 years in multiple international roles spanning Quality, R&D, Operations and Procurement. He holds an MBA from New York University Stern Business School and a Chemical Engineering degree from Université de Montréal. He was elected to the GFSI Board in 2019. Since 2016, he is also a Director-at-Large with ANSI, the American National Standards Institute.
A native of Canada, Turenne has worked in Europe and the U.S.A. and currently resides in the Chicago area with his family.
Tom Wiester joined the Starbucks Coffee Company early in 2018 as the Vice President of Global Food Safety & Science Affairs. He is driving a science-based food safety system that anticipates risk in a rapidly changing global supply chain and takes a behavior-based approach to deliver food safety; with the objective to create an industry-leading culture of food safety and prevention across Starbucks more than 29,000 retail locations and 330,000 employees.
For the past 15 years, Tom was a global food safety executive for WhiteWave Foods (now Danone) and Campbell Soup Company. Throughout his career, Tom built and led teams that continue to protect some of the world’s most recognised consumer food brands across the manufacturing, retail and packaged foods industries.
Tom earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University and studied manufacturing technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds a Six Sigma Black Belt certification.
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