Jeffrey (Jeff) has 26 years of experience in the baking industry. His first position was with Bestfoods Baking in their Management Development Program.

In 2007 Jeff joined Pepperidge Farm as Project Engineer, managing projects across Cookie and Bread operations. Jeff has worked up to Associate Director of Engineering and has project and capital management responsibilities. The bakery division grew with the acquisition of the Snyder Lance Company and formation of Campbell Snacks, for which Jeff also represents engineering for all new product development projects.

A Graduate of Penn State with BS-Industrial Engineering, Jeff holds an MBA from UConn and completed the resident Master Baker course at AIB.

Session Information
Engineering Ask-the-Expert Lunch and Learn Session 1: Ingredient Handling/Mixing
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
12:15 pm CT – 12:50 pm CT

Andrew has over 30 years of experience in the bakery industry.

He joined the bakery industry in Australia in 1987 working for Quality Bakers – the largest baking company in Australia and part of the Goodman Fielder Group. He worked in many bakery positions and at Quality Bakers corporate office in Sydney.

When Andrew arrived in the US he joined Northeast Foods in Baltimore working for the Paterakis family in the bakeries supplying McDonald’s restaurants. Andrew has extensive experience with McDonald’s working for 5 years representing the McDonald’s bakers of North America at McDonald’s Corporate Office. Subsequently he joined McDonald’s Corporate Office and worked in the Product Development Group and Procurement Group and also worked for McDonald’s Europe – all focused on bakery products.

Andrew then worked for EyePro System, Inspection systems for bakery products, for 10 years heading up the North American operations before joining Shaffer Mixers, part of the Bundy Group, in 2017 where he now heads up the sales team.

\Andrew has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

Session Information
Engineering Ask-the-Expert Lunch and Learn Session 1: Ingredient Handling/Mixing
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
12:15 pm CT – 12:50 pm CT

Being in the baking industry for 30 years – most of them in the Engineering and Maintenance areas, started as maintenance supervisor and moved on to Sr. Director of Engineering. Worked engineering projects in 3 continents and several countries.

Currently in charge of National Maintenance Strategy and Engineering Project for SBG division.

Session Information
Engineering Ask-the-Expert Lunch and Learn Session 1: Ingredient Handling/Mixing
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
12:15 pm CT – 12:50 pm CT

Baker Braindates Session 2
Thursday, February 18, 2021
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm CT

Jason Stricker has been in the field of ingredient automation for over 20 years, during this period he has developed a wealth of knowledge in the fields of ingredient automation and process solutions. He specializes in guiding customers from the start of a new plant design to helping customers increase their capabilities in existing facilities. Prior experience includes field engineering, project management, and sales. Jason has been called upon by producers and industry affiliates as a subject matter expert in the areas of ingredient automation/process design, explosion mitigation, and regulatory compliance. For the last 13 years he has worked in Regional and Executive Account management for Shick Esteve. In the past 5 years he has served as the Director of Sales & Marketing.

Session Information
Engineering Ask-the-Expert Lunch and Learn Session 1: Ingredient Handling/Mixing
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
12:15 pm CT – 12:50 pm CT

Dave Watson is a highly experienced engineering executive, with over 38 years of rapidly increasing responsibility in the food and beverage industry. He currently serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) consultant with the Austin Company for a wide variety of food and bakery products and processes. Prior to that he served as Vice-President, Engineering for Pepperidge Farm, and later as Vice-President, Engineering for Campbell Soup Company – International and Filling & Packaging. Dave also managed the design and construction of 3 greenfield bakeries for Pepperidge Farm, as well as leading the engineering integration of Snyder’s Lance into the Campbell Snacks division. He has comprehensive expertise in engineering, operations, food safety, due diligence, mergers & acquisitions, supply chain, and operational excellence.

Session Information
Engineering Ask-the-Expert Lunch and Learn Session 1: Ingredient Handling/Mixing
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
12:15 pm CT – 12:50 pm CT

ROSS SHAFER grew up in the Pacific Northwest and graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington where he studied business management and played varsity football (linebacker). After college, he took a job as a training manager for a department store (Yard Birds) and was able to save $10,000. He launched his life as an entrepreneur and became the owner/manager of America’s only Stereo and Pet Shop in the small town of Puyallup, Washington (population 5,000 at the time).

Cleaning pet cages wasn’t as appealing as it sounded, so after 3 years he closed the store and took a job as an advertising manager for the 28 store Squire Shops retail clothing chain in Seattle, Washington. Writing ad copy and concocting radio and TV campaigns paid the bills, but at night Ross haunted local comedy clubs in search of a career in joke-telling. After years of slogging around the comedy circuit, he won the Seattle International Comedy Competition and immediately became an opening act for performers like Crystal Gayle, Eddie Rabbitt, Nel Carter, Neil Sedaka, and Dionne Warwick.

In l985, Ross pitched a TV show idea to the NBC affiliate in Seattle (KING). Serendipitously, KING-TV had a hole in their broadcast schedule. So, ALMOST LIVE was born and for the next 5 seasons Ross hosted the comedy talk show while he and his team collected 36 Emmys. ALMOST LIVE even won the Esquire Magazine dubious Achievement Award one year for attempting to change the Washington State song to “Louie, Louie.” During those years Ross also hosted an afternoon drive radio show on the 50,000 watt KJR-AM.

In l988, Ross was wooed by the Fox network to take over The Late Show. The Late Show was a nightly talk show that competed with The Tonight Show and David Letterman. The show lasted a year and Ross next found himself in New York co-hosting Days End on the ABC network. It was here that he sat beside Matt Lauer and Spencer Christian as they interviewed the movers and shakers of New York and the world. Dick Clark told Ross, “Always have a backup plan, my boy, TV is terminal” and predictably Days End was finally cancelled. Ross always wondered what happened to Matt Lauer ☺. The next stop for Ross was hosting the revised Match Game on the ABC network. Another game show (this time on the USA network) Love Me, Love Me Not and numerous TV pilot projects followed.

By this time, Ross was headlining all of the leading night clubs and casinos in North America. He produced a highly acclaimed comedy album about the Clinton administration titled Inside the First Family. He also wrote a comedy cookbook that became a best seller; Cook Like A Stud – 38 recipes men can prepare in the garage with their own tools.

In 1994, Ross heard Bill Gates give a speech where he said, “Someday you will all be watching television on your telephones.” Ross took that message to heart and he made the decision to leave TV and get back to his corporate training roots. Human nature and the human condition were always fascinating to Ross because that’s what comedians do; they study the laughter and tears business. To date Ross has produced (14) Human Resource training films on Customer Service, Motivation, Leadership, and Peer Pressure. He has authored the business books, Nobody Moved Your Cheese, Customer Empathy, The Customer Shouts Back, Are You Relevant? 12 Reasons Smart Organizations Thrive in Any Economy, Grab More Market Share: How to Wrangle Business Away from Lazy Competitors, Absolutely Necessary: Bulletproof Tactics That Will Put You in High Demand, Behave Like a Startup, Success: It’s on You and No More Customer Friction: A Bold Blueprint for Raising Customer Scores.

Today, Ross is one of the most sought after keynote speakers and seminar leaders on the subjects of Customer Urgency and Empathy, Personal Motivation, Reinvention, and Market Relevance. The father of Adam, Ryan and Lauren, Ross lives in Denver, Colorado.

Alex De Los Reyes is an associate product manager for Puratos and leads the Health & Well-Being category in the US. In 2019 she spent a year working at Puratos’ Headquarters in Belgium, where she joined the Puratos Health & Well-Being team and helped drive the approach globally. Prior to that, she worked in Puratos’ Patisserie category, launching products such as the Vivafil Preservative Free fruit filling and the Cacao-Trace Clean(er) Label Brownie Mix. She is an advocate of healthy living and is committed to finding way to help people around the world eat and live healthier and happier. She graduated from Drexel University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Culinary Arts.

Presentation
Health & Well-Being: The Power of Food
Tuesday, February 16
11:00 am – 11:35 am CT

6 years National Development Manager Bakery, Reiser & Co. Inc. Canton, MA
28 years Pilot Plant Manager, American Institute of Baking International Manhattan, KS
3 years Supervisor & Purchasing Agent, Woodmans Bakery Madison, WI
3 years Baker, Oakwood Nursing Home Madison, WI.

Susana Socolovsky, Ph.D., CFS is a Doctor in Chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires. Susana has devoted 20 years to full time to scientific research and teaching at the University of Buenos Aires. She was awarded the Argentine National Biannual Prize on Organic Chemistry in 1985. In 2018, she was honored as an elected Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology. Dr. Socolovsky is a Certified Food Scientist by the Certification Institute of the Institute of Food Technologists.

Susana has lectured in more than 200 Conferences in 20 countries, and dictated courses in 14 Latin American countries. She has authored multiple scientific papers, reviews, book chapters and magazine articles.

Dr. Socolovsky is the immediate past President of the Argentine Association of Food Technologists as well the President of the 2019 Latin American and the Caribbean Congress of Food Science and Technology.

She is a member of the Argentine Nutrition Society and has served as a member of the International Scientific Committee of the 21^st International Congress of Nutrition 2017. She is a member of the Editorial Council of the Journal  Actualización en Nutrición, published by SAN.

Professional Member of the Institute of Food Technologists, an IFT Food Science Communicator , active collaborator of ALACCTA and IUFoST. She has served on the IFT Jury for the Food Innovation Awards for Latinamerican FS&T associations.

Dr. Socolovsky has worked as an International Technical Consultant in Regulatory and Scientific Affairs and Food Innovation for the last 30 years.

Since 1992, she acts as a non-governmental representative at Mercosur regulatory meetings and is member of the expert panel of the Argentine National Program for Healthy Eating and Prevention of Obesity since 2016.

Sally Lyons Wyatt is a recognized food and beverage thought leader in the CPG and retail industries and is a frequent keynote speaker and an authority on consumer eating and shopping trends. She is regularly quoted in national business and trade media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Supermarket News and Candy and Snack Today. With more than 25 years of industry experience, Sally partners with clients to leverage big data, technology, omnichannel media and cutting-edge ideas to help achieve better results and drive growth. She is an executive and practice leader for IRI’s Client Insights division and is responsible for driving integrated initiatives as well as measuring their success within consumer strategy, consumer/customer insights, media and personalization practice areas. Sally’s vast experience includes managing and developing global account teams that service Fortune 500 companies.