Steve Philpott
With nearly 20 years of experience in the baking industry, Steve began his career as a design engineer with a Master’s Degree in engineering and quickly found his passion while running performance trials of newly designed bakery equipment. He has always enjoyed understanding customers’ unique process needs and helping them find a customized solution. And this time spent trouble-shooting and optimizing bread lines proved to be a great spring-board into sales for Steve, as he is now the Sales Team Manager for Bakery & Biscuit at Baker Perkins Ltd. in the UK helping to find bespoke solutions for bakeries all around the world.
Presentation
Dough Development as a Function of Energy
Thursday, March 3, 2022
11:30 am – 12:05 pm
Nikki Lang
As Head of Diversity, Equity and Belonging at Bimbo Bakeries USA, Nikki leads the company’s strategic goal to build an environment and workplace with BBU’s leaders and associates that advance programs, enact policies and promotes mindsets and behaviors that appreciate and value diversity, equity and belonging.
Nikki began her career as a sales and marketing professional with The Kellogg Company. She has also held roles with Frito-Lay, Inc. and Sara Lee and has been recognized by executive leadership teams for her contributions to the Team of the Year and Sales Leader of the Year. Most recently, she received Who’s Who in eCommerce distinction from Path to Purchase IQ.
Away from BBU, Nikki enjoys volunteering her time with local civic organizations including Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., The Bookworm Foundation of Westchester, IL, and Pacific Garden Mission, a Chicago shelter for the homeless.
Nikki holds a bachelor’s degree from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA, where she is also an active member and Scholarship Chair in the local Alumni Association. She is based in Chicago and appreciates fellowship with her family and friends and is a brunch and NBA enthusiast.
Presentation
Society of Bakery Women Breakfast
Tuesday, March 1
8:30 am – 10:30 am
Ken Newsome
In 1988, Ken Newsome penned these words: “I want to build a company that is special – special in the way it treats its employees, special in the way it treats its customers, special in the way it works to improve its community, and special in the way it competes in the marketplace. It will be loved by those who are a part of it and respected by those who compete against it.”
With a customer focused mindset, Ken leveraged both his forward-thinking vision and business acumen to become a trailblazer in the bakery equipment world.
The relentless pursuit of excellence is the driving force behind Ken’s success. His dream was to build a world-class manufacturing company in his home state of Virginia. In 1996, he put together a team of local investors to acquire AMF Bakery Systems, headquartered in Richmond. Through a series of strategic acquisitions, as well as an alliance with Markel Corporation, AMF has become the world’s largest manufacturer of wholesale bread and bun baking equipment.
The acquisition of Tromp Bakery Equipment moved AMF into specialty items like pastry, pizza, and artisan breads. The combination with Reading Bakery Systems expanded the company into equipment for cookies, crackers, and other baked snacks. The addition of Solbern expanded the company’s offerings into other processed foods.
Ken acknowledges that this success could not have been accomplished without the support of his loving family – wife, Linda, sons David and Alex, and daughters Jennifer and Sarah. They and the 900 teammates who come to work every day to help customers make and ship their products share this honor.
Presentation
Trends in Baking Automation Panel Discussion
Thursday, March 3
9:15 am – 10:15 am
Craig Souser
Craig Souser is Chairman/CEO of JLS. He develops the primary goals, operating plans, policies, and short and long range objectives for JLS. While leading the organization toward its objectives and heading company oversight and business operations, Craig employs his industry expertise in sales and new business considerations.
Presentation
Trends in Baking Automation Panel Discussion
Thursday, March 3
9:15 am – 10:15 am
Mark Salman
A graduate of MIT 3-year executive program, with over 35 years of Food Processing experience, Mark Salman is an experienced entrepreneur having started six businesses in the industrial Bakery manufacturing, retailing, consultancy, sales and marketing fields, served on a number of company advisory boards. Joined Middleby Corporation in 2015, a NASDAC publicly traded company, and President of Middleby Food Processing, a 500 Million Dollar platform, with a total of 20 equipment manufacturing brands, focused on Bakery as well as Protein processing solutions. An innovative and passionate leader who has succeeded in building high growth companies with multicultural cohesive teams globally.
Presentation
Trends in Baking Automation Panel Discussion
Thursday, March 3
9:15 am – 10:15 am
Peter Rasmussen
Peter Rasmussen is an Industry Segment Specialist, specializing in the baking industry, at Festo Corporation. Since joining Festo in 2017, Peter’s main role has been to develop and grow relationships within the baking industry, where Festo can help OEM machine builders and end-users increase productivity, while also increasing overall food safety. Prior to making the transition to Festo, he worked for 5 years working at Bimbo Bakeries USA in various engineering roles at various facilities. Peter earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Kansas State University and currently pursuing a MBA from Colorado University – Denver.
Presentation
Trends in Baking Automation Panel Discussion
Thursday, March 3
9:15 am – 10:15 am
Eymard Freire
Eymard Freire is the Product Manager at Lallemand Baking NA, with 12 years of experience in the Brewing and Food industries. He is a World Brewing Academy graduate from Siebel Institute and certified Diploma Bier Sommelier from Doemens. He studied Brewing Microbiology and Microscopy at the University of Wisconsin, Sales at Northwestern’s Kellogg, and Business at Universidade de Fortaleza, Brazil. Eymard has also 5 years of experience instructing Sensory analysis, Taste Panel management, Quality Control as a faculty member at the Siebel Institute.
Presentation
Clean Label Solutions for Freezer-to-Oven Baked Goods
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
10:25 am – 11:00 am
Chris Dodd
Chris Dodd is a mechanical engineer with a background in the oil and gas industry, having focused primarily on energy systems. Since joining Baker Perkins 3 years ago, Chris has been heavily involved in bakery equipment design, and the commissioning of high throughput plants worldwide. Chris’s perspective, having been shaped by an alternate industry, has been invaluable in challenging conventional views on dough development, forcing us to take a deeper look at what really occurs at each phase of the dough forming process.
Presentation
Dough Development as a Function of Energy
Thursday, March 3, 2022
11:25 am – 12:00 pm
Xochitl Cruz
Xochitl Cruz began her career with Bimbo Bakeries Co. in 2004 where she gained experience in areas of operations, logistics, strategic planning, process controls, productivity and efficiency improvement, quality and lean systems.
Currently, Xochitl leads the supply chain for the sweet baked good operations in USA, where she is responsible for driving brand growth while maximizing operational excellence and quality, and delivering financial performance.
Xochitl holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Carson College of Business in Washington State and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Tecnologico de Monterrey.
Presentation
Young Professionals Educational Session – Women in Baking Panel
Tuesday, March 1
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm