Safety and Quality Culture Excellence Live online seminar

Bertrand Emond, Campden BRI

Bertrand has a wealth of knowledge, experience and connectivity from working here at Campden BRI since 1988. Bertrand has a Master's in Food Science & Technology (Dijon, France) and a Master's of Business Administration (Bath, UK).

Bertrand is passionate about supporting the industry in the areas of skills, knowledge, training, learning and development, competency and achieving culture excellence through behaviour change. He won the 2020 BRCGS CEO Europe Award recognising his commitment and contribution to food safety and the 2014 Heinz Award for Excellence for Leadership in Collaborative CPD for the Industry (in particular for his role in supporting competency and CPD, promoting the food industry as a career of choice, and providing collaboration between all stakeholders).

Dr Joanne Taylor, TSI

BSc Psychology, PgCert Education and Research, PgCert HACCP, PhD Risk Management and Behaviour Change

Joanne is a qualified psychologist, educator and researcher, with a PhD in risk management and behaviour change. Over the past 20 years she has taken a multi-disciplinary, innovative approach to a diverse range of academic, government and industry programs across multiple countries.

1. Academia: Joanne has led University MSc modules in Organisational Culture, International Business, Research Methods (Survey Design), Food Safety and HACCP, in the UK and UAE. She has authored a large number of peer-reviewed journal articles, including highly commended articles on organisational culture.

2. Government: Joanne has consulted to governments of the UK, Thailand, Brunei, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Qatar, as well as working on projects for the World Health Organisation / Food Agriculture Organisation (WHO/FAO). She has led large scale government programs to bring about improvements in safety and quality on a national scale.

3. Industry: Joanne has worked with a diverse range of companies as a trainer, auditor, researcher and culture assessor. She has led the development of innovative industry systems and tools to support organisations with their culture that are used in over 85 countries around the world.

Ringaile Bulatović, Culture Excellence/TSI

Ringaile is a global citizen who speaks 5 languages fluently and has lived and worked in 8 countries so far. Her experience ranges from work with big multinational corporations to government entities. With a Masters in International Studies, she specialises in national culture and its impact on organisational culture.

Ringaile project manages the Culture Excellence program for industry clients around the globe.

Nikki Gale, QA Manager, McCormick Peterborough

Nikki started her career in Quality with Kerry Ingredients as a Laboratory Technician, manufacturing breadcrumbs, extruded vegetable proteins, flour and dry powder blends in 2002. During her time with Kerry, she progressed to QA Manager and completed a HND in Food Science and Technology at the University of Lincoln Holbeach Campus.

Nikki went on to work in fresh produce as Group QA Manager. This was her first experience of retailers, supplying to Tesco and Waitrose, and of high care environments. During this time, she also graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a BSc in Food Management.

In 2009, Nikki went to work for Mars Food UK as their Quality & Food Safety Scientist, where they manufacture Uncle Ben’s rice and Dolmio sauces. She advised on all quality and food safety related issues for the site and implemented improvements in allergen management; complaint reduction programmes and data tracking and trending. During Nikki’s time with Mars, she worked on their Ideal Plant Programme and took over the site’s Continuous Improvement programme for three years as the CI coach.

Following this, Nikki moved to Princes in 2016, working as their QA Manager in a large cannery supplying all the retailers in the UK. The product portfolio was diverse and the technical aspects of canning were a great learning experience. Understanding all the different customer requirements and building systems to be compliant for all was an interesting challenge! Nikki was also the site’s PCQI for export products to the US.

In February 2020, Nikki obtained the role of QA Manager with McCormick at their new condiment facility in Peterborough. It is a state of the art facility with high aspirations to be a factory of the future. Recruiting and building the team remotely and onboarding new employees was an exciting opportunity to change our approach and ways of thinking for building culture and improving the training experience. The Power of People is at the heart of McCormick so getting this right from day one was critical to the site’s future success. Peterborough is part of McCormick’s growth strategy and therefore the recruitment and retention of experienced, knowledgeable people is key to building the foundations of the site for the future, with Quality and Food Safety as an integral part of our culture and at the heart of everything we do.

Alexandra Ralston, Global Lead for Culture, Kerry

Alexandra is the Global Lead for Culture at Kerry. She is responsible for leading the development and implementation of the Global culture strategic programmes and supporting with Regional deployment. Alexandra has 16 years of technical experience in the food industry. Prior to this role she has held various regional roles in Food Safety and Quality within Kerry, across different technologies. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Newcastle and then went on to complete a Master’s in Human Nutrition from the University of Glasgow.

Julia Ferrell, Director of Food Security & Regulatory Compliance, Bay State Milling Company

Julia L. Ferrell is the Director of Food Security & Regulatory Compliance with Bay State Milling Company headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts. Ms. Ferrell is a leader within her organization with Food Security including BRCGS Certification, Export/Import Regulations, FSMA Compliance, and State & Federal Regulations. Much of her work focuses on helping the Company prepare proactive policies, procedures, training, and education to prevent food safety incidents through creating a behavioral based food safety culture. Ms. Ferrell graduated from University of Green Bay Wisconsin with her undergraduate in Nutritional Science, minor Chemistry in 1996, and Associates in Culinary Arts in 1993, and received her Masters of Project Management through Keller Graduate School in 2013. Ms. Ferrell in her spare time enjoys gardening and cooking.

Prof Bizhan Pourkomailian, Director - Global Food Safety Restaurant & Distribution McDonald's

Bizhan holds an Hons. Degree in Biochemistry, PhD in Microbial Physiology from Aberdeen University, MBA from Warwick University and is visiting professor at Cranfield University.

In 1994 he joined Unilever conducting research in S. aureus, Bacilli and managing the botulinum laboratory. In 1997 he moved to Leatherhead Food International as Principal Scientist, engaged in developing, training and auditing food safety systems. He then moved to McDonald’s Europe in January 2000 as Food Safety Manager overseeing food safety systems across the European Supply Chain from farm to front counter. Since 2015, his role has changed to Global Restaurant and Distribution Food Safety Director. Bizhan is responsible for establishing, maintaining and driving for continuous improvement in food safety systems which include but no limited to standards and procedures. He is on various advisory boards and committees with professional bodies and academia, such BRCGS, EFSA, ISO and Cranfield University. Bizhan has over 30 external publication in the academia and industry sector.

Neil Marshall, Managing Director, Guv Consulting International LLC

Neil retired as the Global Director Quality & Food Safety, in Nov 2020 from The Coca-Cola Company after 21 years. Neil held a variety of supply chain roles in the UK & Europe before relocating to Atlanta, USA in 2009. Neil built the Corporate Quality & Food Safety team and led the introduction of GFSI compliance across >1,000 plants and 5,000 suppliers, with critical experience in Crisis Management, M&A, Risk Assessment, Supplier Management, Technical Governance and Public Private Partnerships. During his career, Neil worked in over 80 countries on every continent, acting as the global technical lead for Olympics and World Cups. Neil was Vice Chair of GFSI and President of SSAFE, engaging externally in many conferences, and industry forums with governments and regulators.

Alison Wright, Director FSQA APAC, ARYZTA

Alison has experience primarily with cereals, snacks & bakery items, both low and high care foods and customers from within the food service, retail and QSR categories.

Alison has a Bachelor of Applied Science, Food Science and Technology. She commenced her career working for the Goodman Fielder Group specifically The Uncle Tobies Company before working for the Atlantic & Buttercup Bakery brands, before moving into the role of National QA Manager for Fresh Start Bakeries and in 2010 expanded her role to Director of Quality Assurance - APAC, along with a change of business name to ARYZTA.

Alison’s expertise and experience is across various functional roles from food safety, technical, quality, new product development, project management, continuous improvement, operational excellence, supply chain, and people development and mentoring. In addition, in various forms Alison has touched most aspects and requirements of a product lifecycle throughout her career.

Peter Leong, Head of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs ANZ, Tip Top - A Division of George Weston Foods

Peter Leong is the Head of Quality & Regulatory Affairs, ANZ at George Weston Foods Tip Top Bakeries based in Sydney, Australia. Peter joined Tip Top in 2016. Peter has over 25 years of food safety, quality, and consumer affairs experience in various industries, working with manufacturing sites and markets in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and North America.

Before the baking industry, Peter had experiences in cereal, coffee, fats and oils, and confectionery industries, holding various responsibilities in food safety, quality, ingredient research, and application.

PPeter’s professional achievements include holding a joint patent on cocoa processing in 8 countries and embedding Food Safety & Quality Culture across multiple sites.

Pamela Raines, Director of Technical, Westmill

Pamela has worked at Westmill since 1997, building a successful career in the technical world. As the Director of Technical, Pamela has responsibility for all areas that touch food safety, authenticity, integrity legality and quality throughout our very diverse supply chains ensuring processes are in place to deliver our strategy, vision and values.

Throughout Pamela's years in Westmill, she has had the privilege to travel the world, gaining valuable knowledge about the food industry and experiencing amazing cultures. Culture is an area that Pamela finds fascinating and one that is close to her heart. Pamela loves to empower people to develop in their careers and have the freedom to be their authentic self at work.

Emma Dillon, Quality Systems and Compliance Lead, Cargill Protein - Asia & Europe

Emma has been with Cargill coming up to 4 years now and before joining Cargill her background was in dairy and cereals manufacturing.

Emma has 20+ years’ experience in various regional food safety and quality roles driving compliance, devising food safety strategies and implementing transformational food safety and quality initiatives.

In Emma's current role, she has responsibility in process standardisation, learning and development, quality culture and best practice and Incident sharing to name a few. Emma supports facilities in applying continuous and process improvement skills. Emma works collaboratively with all regions and businesses in Cargill, driving programme excellence and accomplishing business objectives as a team.

Campbell Mitchell, Group Quality and Food Safety Director, Tiger Brands

Campbell is Managing Director of QUEST 4 FOOD FZCO, a consulting business registered in Dubai Silicon Oasis. Quest 4 Food has been contracted to consult full time on a Group Quality and Food Safety project for Tiger Brands, the largest listed F&B company in Africa. Previously Campbell was Regional Quality and Food Safety Director with Kerry Group, based in Dubai, looking after the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa, since 2018. He has more than 30 years of experience implementing and improving world class quality and food safety management systems in multi-site food and beverage organizations. He has worked on Quality projects across Australasia, Middle East, Europe, Africa, and India, and has held various leadership positions including Group Compliance, QHSE and Laboratory roles with leading multi-national Fortune 500 companies such as Fonterra, Nestle, McCain Foods and Almarai. He was on the BSI Steering Committee drafting the new ‘PAS 320 Food Safety Culture’ guidance document. He has been a certified ISO 9001, 22000, 14001 and 17025 Lead Auditor. He has a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from University of Otago and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from Massey University. Campbell is currently pursuing his Global Executive MBA from HULT International Business School. Campbell is often invited to speak about Food Safety Culture and Sustainability at international summits and conferences.

Jan van Breukelen, Corporate Health, Safety and Environmental Manager, Ecotone

Jan is Corporate HSE manager for Ecotone, the leading company in Europe for organic, vegetarian, healthy and fair-trade food.

In Jan's overall 40+ years career, they have 25 years of experience in the Food and Beverage Manufacturing HSE field in various Local/European and Global roles.

A key dimension of all of those roles was and is to engage a cross-section of all layers of the organization to establish a unified objective, approach and end result for deployment across our network, to achieve the best possible with the means we have.

This mostly leads in to changing the current to something better, the how to make that change is key for making the change excepted and successful through all the layers of the organisation; Jan's passion is to make this work for all layers.

Sharon Birkett, Vice President, Global QA Operations, OSI Group, LLC

Sharon Birkett is Vice President, Global QA Operations for OSI Group, LLC a global organization leading in supplying value-added protein items and other food products to leading food service and retail brands. Sharon is a leader in the food industry with more than 30 years’ experience and expertise in food safety, quality assurance and operations globally. She leads the OSI team with the Food Safety Always campaign in raising the awareness and expectations of food safety. She benchmarks by participating on the Food Safety Culture technical working group with Global Food Safety Initiative, and International Association of Food Protection personal development group on Food Safety Culture.

She presented best practices in environmental pathogen control at the Europe and North America Listeria Workshops. Sharon is a member of professional organizations including the International Association of Food Protection, Campden BRI, and North American Meat Institute. She is a member of the International Advisory Board for BRC Global standards and was a member of the Educational Advisory Board for the Food Safety Summit.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry and an MBA.

Jennifer Weekes, Sr. Director Global Food Safety, Lamb Weston Inc.

Jennifer Weekes is the Sr. Director of Global Food Safety for Lamb Weston. Her responsibilities include developing, leading and directing Food Safety [Microbiology, Toxicology, Supplier Compliance, Internal FS Compliance, and Regulatory Affairs (labeling, special certifications and nutrition)] programs. Jennifer holds a Master’s degree in Food Science with an emphasis in Microbiology/biotechnology from the University of Idaho and a Master of Jurisprudence in Food Law from Michigan State University. Jennifer has worked in the Potato Processing Industry for 20+ years. She has held various positions in Food Safety, Regulatory, Quality Assurance and Research and Development. She is passionate about food safety. Jennifer and her husband live in Kennewick, Washington with their three kids, dog and cat. When not working she enjoys spending time with her family, running, skiing, mountain biking, gardening, quilting and baking.

Chris Masters, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

• GB QESH Route To Market Manager Coca Cola European Partners (CCEP)
  • Various quality and logistics roles within CCEP since 2003
  • Current priorities supporting projects / change management especially commercialisation of new product and packaging development

• Prior to CCEP 16 years working within Sainsbury Supermarkets
  • Trolley boy to Store Manager within retail ops and subsequently many national rollouts of new and enhanced retail systems
  • Towards the end of my JS career 2000-2003 my focus was on the operational delivery of new local convenience stores, later switching to site acquisition