Speaker Information

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	Paul Barron CEO Foodable Network Paul Barron has been building foodservice media and consumer science companies for 25 years. As CEO of Foodable Network, the next era in Food Media for professionals and foodies alike, he is forging a new model of how consumer insights and the restaurant industry are intersecting. As an award winning author on consumer science in his book, the Chipotle Effect, he has identified a new consumer psyche that is changing food today. Armed with his decade of research he launched Foodable Labs as a data incubator in 2009, the first food industry social media index that identifies food trends, consumer trends, emerging restaurant brands, operators and chefs. Foodable Labs now boasts the largest index in foodservice at 172K brands, 2.5 Million foodservice decision makers and over 300 million global food consumers. His accolades: Founded Fastcasual.com in 1993, Founder of the Fast Casual Executive Summit and the Fast Casual Industry Council in 2005, Forbes Top 50 Most Influential, 2012 Author of the year, 2012 Trendsetter of the Year, Executive Producer & Writer of Fast Casual Nation (The Documentary), James Beard Nominee, Top 35 Restaurant Leaders to follow in 2017.

	Stephanie Earleywine Director Business Strategy RealTime Solutions® Stephanie Earleywine has been in the role of Business Intelligence at RealTime Solutions for the past 8 years as a Director of Business Strategy. Since she began her career in foodservice 18 years ago, she has developed a wealth of industry knowledge from her experiences in foodservice marketing, brand management, manufacturing and distribution. Earleywine is a self-professed data geek with a passion for numbers and intelligence. She is constantly searching for insights and identifying trends that help drive growth in the foodservice industry. She has earned an MBA and a Bachelor of Business Marketing from the University of Phoenix.

	Angela Fernandez Vice President, Retail Grocery and Foodservice GS1 US Angela is the vice president of retail grocery and foodservice at GS1 US and is responsible for leading the industry engagement strategy to drive broader adoption of GS1 Standards and solutions for the food industry. She is an authority on the food supply chain and food traceability, including minimizing the impact of food recalls via GS1 Standards. With more than 15 years of experience with GS1 US, Ms. Fernandez has worked closely with food industry stakeholders including manufacturers, retailers, distributors, educators and solution providers to help improve supply chain operations and business processes. She leads two industry initiatives: the Retail Grocery Initiative—which she helped found and establish in 2014—and the Foodservice GS1 US Standards Initiative. Ms. Fernandez regularly collaborates with members from top grocery and foodservice brands as well as key trade associations to identify current and emerging supply chain challenges and address how the use of GS1 Standards, the most widely used supply chain standards in the world, can help solve for those challenges. Through Ms. Fernandez’ strong leadership and drive to make innovation possible, the food industry has been able to realize the numerous benefits associated with supply chain traceability, including operational efficiencies and improved food safety. Mrs. Fernandez earned her bachelor of science in business administration from Drexel University. She is a frequent guest speaker at industry events and conferences for numerous organizations, including the Produce Marketing Association, National Restaurant Association and the Institute of Food Technologists. She has been a food traceability and recall resource for media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Food Manufacturing, Food Processing, Food Safety News and Packaging Digest magazines.

	Scott Finlow VP Innovation & Insights PepsiCo Foodservice Scott Finlow is the VP of Innovation & Insights for the PepsiCo Foodservice Division. Scott’s team is responsible for building deep consumer and industry insight and translating that to develop a portfolio of transformative products, equipment and experiences to meet the emerging needs of consumers and operators. Scott has been with PepsiCo for 22 years in a variety of Marketing and Insights roles in the US and Asia. Among his favorite PepsiCo experiences were launching a ground-up Salty Snacks business in Vietnam and launching Gatorade in Japan and Korea. Scott is a graduate of Tufts University and lives in New York City with his wife Pam, son Tai and daughter Rei.

	LeAnne Garoutte Partner Kinetic12 LeAnne brings over 25 years of marketing and communications expertise within the foodservice industry. LeAnne managed and directed the food division of Noble Communications, the foodservice industries largest marketing agency. LeAnne has created go-to-market strategies, marketing and sales plans, brand architecture models, brand positioning, innovation pipelines and advertising and promotional programs for many of the top 100 food companies, including Tyson Foods, the J.M. Smucker Company, Heinz, Kraft, M&M Mars, Ventura Foods and many more. LeAnne has also been instrumental in helping start-up companies launch in foodservice such as Handy Crab and Plugra European Butter. In addition to marketing and communication, LeAnne led a team of chefs and food scientists that created new products and menu ideas for the top 100 foodservice chain accounts

	Mackenzie Gibson Senior Director of Culinary Concept Innovation SONIC® Mackenzie Gibson serves as the senior director of culinary concept innovation for the Oklahoma City-based national headquarters of SONIC®, America’s Drive-In®. In this position since 2013, she creates & leads the strategic product vision for the SONIC® menu and leads the culinary innovation team. Mackenzie is industry recognized for her continued vision, creativity and expertise in menu development. She came to SONIC in 2008 as a Manager of Product Innovation where she developed SONIC’s signature beverages, ice cream treats, snacks, sides and breakfast items. Most recently, she has served as Sr. Manager-Innovation. During her time at SONIC, Mackenzie has had a long list of impressive accomplishments. She has developed items in the breakfast platform such as Burritos and Toasters in addition to Coffee and Tea drinks, Real Ice Cream, Molten Cakes, Blasts, Slushes and Cheese Cake Bites just to mention a few. She came to SONIC from Jack in the Box, where she held the title of senior research and development manager. Previous to that she worked in food manufacturing and held multiple positions at Gardenburger Authentic Foods, Inc. While studying at Oklahoma State University, Gibson earned a bachelor’s degree in food product development with an additional focus in meat science and speech. She is certified as both a culinary arts fundamentals for food technologist and advanced culinary arts for food technologist. Born in Enid, Oklahoma, Gibson currently resides in Edmond, Oklahoma with her husband and two children.

	Corky Hall CEO Stellus Consulting Corky has applied his entrepreneurial spirit to building businesses and brands for over 40 years. He began his career at General Mills working on the Cheerios, Wheaties and Betty Crocker brands. Corky’s role at Stellus is to guide leadership teams to create the Strategic Vision for their organization, and the Brand Strategies that will build strong relationships with their customers/consumers/stakeholders. And, because great strategies are worthless without great implementation, he is committed to building inspired leadership teams who “own” their strategies and feel empowered to accelerate and sustain growth in the marketplace.

	Tim Hand Partner Kinetic12 Tim brings expertise in strategic planning, marketing, market research and category management, P&L management, innovation and Foodservice. For the last 6 years Tim has consulted and led engagements with a variety of B2B and B2C clients to tackle a broad range of strategy, portfolio, innovation and research challenges - from developing insight libraries and business strategies, to training on strategic planning and marketing, to building long range innovation pipelines. Tim’s experience crosses multiple channels including Foodservice, Retail, C-store, Club and Vending. Tim has more than 25 years’ experience in marketing and strategy. He worked at Kraft Foods for 17 years across a number of categories and brands. He managed the Canadian Kraft Foodservice business and was also head of strategy and business development for the $2B North American Foodservice division. Tim has an MBA from McMaster University in Ontario, and a Bachelor of Commerce degree in marketing.

	Donna Hood Crecca Principal Technomic Donna Hood Crecca is Principal at Technomic Inc., where she leads the firm’s Convenience Store Practice and its Adult Beverage Practice. As Principal, Donna develops research-based insights and recommendations for leading and emerging supplier and operator companies to enhance their go-to-market and product development programs and strategies. She is a veteran of the foodservice and drinks industries, having covered and consulted for the restaurant, foodservice, convenience store, beverage and beverage alcohol markets for nearly two decades.

	Kris Kinney Associate Media Director Sterling-Rice Group B2C & B2B global, national and local media planning and buying. Specializing in foodservice and food professional media plans

	Jack Li Haiku Master Datassential Jack Li spearheads Datassential's custom insights and new products initiatives. Jack has led hundreds of research studies for foodservice manufacturers and distributors across a broad array of topics. Jack holds an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and is a 2003 recipient of the IFMA Sparkplug award.

	Kat Martin Sr. Editor Progressive Grocer Kat Martin, a 20-year business media veteran, has covered the supermarket industry, specializing in independent and specialty grocers, for the last four years.

	Erin Murray Director, Client Solutions Datassential Erin Murray has 20+ years of experience in market research and consulting with a focus on food/drink trends and innovation. During her career to date, she has provided strategic guidance and new product inspiration to numerous companies in consumables including PepsiCo, Wrigley, Beam Suntory and Dole. At Datassential, Erin applies her food enthusiasm, research expertise and client-centric mindset as a Director in Client Solutions. Dedicated to her clients’ growth, Erin leverages data and a future-forward vision to find the overlap of consumer desires and trend evolution. In addition to her role at Datassential, Erin is on faculty at Robert Morris University’s Graduate School of Management where she teaches a course she authored titled Consumer Surveys for Marketing. Erin has a BS in Psychology from The College of William and Mary and a MS in Marketing Communications from Northwestern University.

	Amy Shipley Managing Director & Partner Sterling-Rice Group With more than 25+ years of industry experience, Amy is a global food-marketing specialist with a flair and passion for developing dynamic communication programs and culinary experiences for some of the nation’s most prestigious brands, restaurant chains, and U.S. commodities. She joined SRG in 2015 as a managing director to help further develop the extensive B2C and B2B food practice. Her relationships in the close-knit food community run deep, including media, agricultural and culinary thought leaders, chefs, food scientists, and retailers. Amy also developed SRG STREETDive, a proprietary culinary immersion and ideation think tank for food professionals and their customers, designed to identify new trends from a street view and stimulate fresh thinking in R&D. . A strong believer of integrated marketing solutions, Amy’s expertise spans both CPG, foodservice brands and agricultural commodities, including award-winning work with Potatoes USA, Avocados From Mexico; Campbell’s; Land O’ Lakes; Ardent Mills; Subway International; On the Border, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association; Perdue; Dreyer’s/Häagen-Dazs; ConAgra Foods and others. Prior to SRG, Amy was a Senior Vice President with Ketchum/San Francisco, a global communications firm. Amy currently serves on the Women’s Council at the Leeds School of Business at University of Colorado, was named a Fellow at the Culinary Institute of America, serves on the Board of the Ann Cooper Foundation, and was past President of the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC).