Mario Guadalupe-Daqui, is a Food Science PhD candidate at the University of Florida (UF) studying about yeast fermentation and working under Dr. Andrew MacIntosh supervision. Mario is from Ecuador, where got his bachelor’s degree in Food Engineering. His career had been defined by a constant work in the food industry and academia. He is researching on the barometric modification of yeast fermentation and currently, he is advocated to explain the mechanism of vacuum fermentation while fulfilling his duties as the lead Teaching Assistant of food processing and engineering. Mario the team captain of UF at the American Society of Baking Product Development competition 2020 along with other graduate students, getting the second place. He also serves as a student representative of the IFT Education, Extension and Outreach division and the IFT Florida section. Mario will join General Mills as a R&D Scientist II in the Summer of 2021.

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Pokara Wafel

Victor Cedeño was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, where he grew up before moving to Colombia to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad de La Sabana, obtained in 2017. After graduation, Victor worked in chocolate maker and was later awarded a scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Food Science at the University of Florida (UF), graduating in December 2020. Victor worked under Dr. Andrew MacIntosh in the Food Processing laboratory, studying the thermomechanical characteristics of High Oleic Palm Oil (HOPO) and how this can be used as a novel ingredient in food products.  Victor has volunteered for the FSHN Department activities and IFT Florida Suppliers Night. Beside this, he has a strong interest in sustainability, participating in the Future of Food Forum at UF, and in food innovation as a member of the team that represented UF in the American Baking Society’s national product development competition in Chicago, IL.

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Pokara Wafel

Vicnie Léandre completed her bachelor’s in food science and Engineering at Tianjin University in China. Upon returning to her country, Haiti, she worked as lead food scientist in aflatoxins decontaminating of peanuts, corn, and sorghum. She recently graduated from the food science master program at University of Florida, where her research focused on the development of a gluten‑free sorghum pasta while improving cooking time, nutrition, and sensory attributes. Inspired by her experience in the U.S, she wants to start a food incubator in her country that will help food entrepreneurs to create and launch successful and healthy products. Vicnie and her teammates placed second in the Product Development Competition at the ASB BakingTech 2020 with their Luwa Cracker product. Vicnie’s passion for baking tarted baking at a young age from watching her mom and enjoys baking in her free time

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Pokara Wafel

Devanshu Mehta is a 3rd year food science PhD student under the guidance of Dr. Andrew MacIntosh at University of Florida, Gainesville. In 2014, he graduated as a Master’s in Food Processing from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. After graduation, he worked in the food packaging industry at Bemis Company (now Amcor) in Neenah, WI as a Sr. Product Development Engineer for three years before joining University of Florida in 2018. He is currently examining the fundamentals on yeast behavior (flocculation) in an ongoing fermentation process. Apart from academics, Devanshu is passionate about cooking. He is fond of traveling to new places and experimenting various local delicacies of the world. He also likes to play and watch soccer, cricket, and chess.

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Pokara Wafel

Alan has been providing workshops and economic analysis seminars for thousands of business owners and executives in various countries for the last 30 years.  He is one of the country’s most sought-after economists.

As the chief economist for numerous US and international trade associations, it has been remarked that Alan’s “insight into our business, a track record of accurate forecasting, and unparalleled knowledge of global markets has earned him the respect and appreciation of key business leaders in our industry.”

Alan and ITR Economics™ have shared their insights through various media outlets, including: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Knight Ridder News Services, Business Week, the Associated Press, The Washington Times, CBS Radio, CNN Radio, Sirius talk radio, and numerous other outlets.

Keynote Presentation
Wednesday, February 17
10:10 am – 11:10 am CT

Tom Rees is an Industry Manager at Euromonitor International with a focus on food and nutrition. Based in London, he has more than 15 years of experience in the industry. Tom is responsible for the direction and quality of Euromonitor’s content covering Fresh Food and Staple Foods and provides global expertise, forward-thinking insights, and identifies key market trends. Tom advises clients across Fresh Foods and Staple Foods and is an in-demand speaker at high-profile events. He provides wide-scope analysis and is the author of reports, including The Future of Meat and The Impact of COVID-19 on Fresh and Packaged Food.

Presentation
Strategic Themes in Food and Nutrition: Coronavirus Update
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
1:00 pm – 1:35 pm CT

Julie McGill is the Vice President of Supply Chain and Insights at FoodLogiQ, a leading SaaS provider of food safety compliance, traceability, and supply chain transparency solutions. Their solutions help foodservice and grocery trading partners achieve end-to-end traceability while supporting safe and high quality food products across the supply chain.

In her role, Julie works with FoodLogiQ leadership to advise on industry, customer, and product insights to improve market adoption and penetration, customer satisfaction and value generation. She supports FoodLogiQ teams on evolving industry activity including regulatory, standards, traceability and food safety.

Before joining the FoodLogiQ team in May of 2017, Julie spent over 16 years at GS1 US. She led the Foodservice GS1 US Standards Initiative, and on the PCATS initiative with NACS, working with industry stakeholders in the convenience retail space. Julie also worked for Transora, which was one of the first GDSN data pools.

She also worked for Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado, supporting their Store Level Data program, engaging their distributor network to implement EDI with convenience and grocery retailers.

Julie serves as co-chair of the PTI Technology Workgroup, and sits on other various industry workgroups covering topics from AIDC, food safety, traceability, transparency, and supply chain efficiencies.

Presentation
Technology/Food Safety: Food Safety, Traceability Record-keeping and Digitized Supply Chains:  Preparing for a New Era in Baking
Wednesday, February 17
1:40 pm – 2:15 pm CT

Kimberly Becker is a Senior Research Director in Gartner’s Supply Chain organization focused on Consumer Products. Ms. Becker focuses her research on key trends and innovations as well as best practices, specific strategies and capabilities needed for supply chains to succeed in the consumer products industry. She also helps clients build their overall supply chain maturity through Gartner’s DDVN maturity assessment process as well as identify areas of performance improvement through metric and cost benchmarking. Prior to joining Gartner in 2018, Ms. Becker was the Director of Global Customer Service and Collaboration for Colgate Palmolive and led their center of expertise in the areas of order-to-cash, customer engagement, cost-to-service, on-shelf availability and e-commerce. During her 25 year career at Colgate Palmolive, Ms. Becker had numerous roles across the supply chain including: supply chain system integration; customer supply chain engagement; continuous improvement; replenishment management and demand planning.

Rowdy Brixey
Brixey Engineering, Inc.

Rowdy Brixey is a certified professional baker engineer (ASBPBE) with over 39 years of industry experience.  Rowdy started as a bakery mechanic in 1981 at age 16 and advanced to vice-president of engineering through his 28-year tenure at Interstate Brands Corp (IBC).  After IBC, Rowdy became vice-president of manufacturing for George Weston Bakeries (GWB). After Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU) purchased GWB, Rowdy became the director of engineering and maintenance optimization, leading both maintenance and engineering for over 55 plants, but also project engineering for two-thirds of the US.  During the last three years at BBU, Rowdy developed and taught maintenance management teams and worked to develop future bench.  In 2017 Rowdy started his own company, BEST: Brixey Engineering Strategies & Training, providing OSHA oven inspection services, maintenance training, and maintenance labor to help keep your bakery running.

Rowdy has been responsible for countless bakery interventions where remediation plans had to be developed and executed to transform the bakery performance and stabilize the leadership strategy.  Rowdy has vast experience in building new bakeries, start-ups, as well as deep knowledge of several leading maintenance management systems. Rowdy’s Associate Degree in business, combined with his strong technical hands-on experience makes him uniquely one of the best in the business.  Rowdy has taught many classes during his lengthy career and is now available to share his knowledge with others.

Rowdy served as the Chairman of the American Society of Baking (ASB) from 2010/2011 and is currently the chairman of the ASB Hall of Fame Evaluation Committee and the vice-chairman of the ANZI Z50 Safety and Sanitation Committee.

Session Information
Engineering Ask-the-Expert Lunch and Learn Session 2: Ovens & Spraying Technology
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
12:00 pm – 12:35 pm CT