FEMA 2011 Annual Convention

General Session Speakers

David Hemmings
President, PRA Global
"Maximizing Business Opportunities in East Asia: a Comparison of the Business Opportunities in China, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam"
David Hemmings
David Hemmings is the President and founder of PRA Global Business Development (PRA), an international business development company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with its principal offices in Michigan, China, India, Brazil, and Argentina, and experience working in Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea and Vietnam.  PRA  provides business development services to Western companies that want to move into the emerging markets in Southeast Asia, India and Brazil.  PRA was originally founded in Taipei, Taiwan in 1992.

Born in England, Mr. Hemmings moved with his family to Hong Kong at the age of three, and was raised in East Asia. During his career as a Royal Air Force pilot, Mr. Hemmings lived in many places throughout the world, including five years in Indonesia where he learned to speak fluent Indonesian.

Peter Hempstead
Non-Executive Director, World Kitchen LLC
"The Consumer of the Future is in Asia. Win There, Win Big......... or Die"

Peter Hempstead

Peter Hempstead is the former Senior Vice-President of Worldwide Strategy and New Business at the Wm Wrigley Jr Company prior to its acquisition by Mars, where he was a member of an executive leadership team that drove revenues from $1.9B in 1999 to $6.4B in 2008. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President, International, and was responsible for approximately two-thirds of total revenue and 70% of operating profit, with operations on the ground in over 180 countries.

From 1977-1999, Mr. Hempstead held numerous positions at Proctor & Gamble, including being the first on-the-ground General Manager for P&G in China from 1988-1993.

Mr. Hempstead is bilingual in English and French, and currently resides in Chicago and Charleston.

Donald Wilkes
President/CEO, Blue Pacific Flavors & Fragrances Inc.
"An American Odyssey...Doing Business in Asia; Observations of Unlimited Opportunity and Unthinkable Reality."
Donald Wilkes
Donald Wilkes has over 35 years experience in the food and beverage industry through his work in food flavor development in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Mr. Wilkes founded Blue Pacific Flavors in 1993 after starting his strategic business development and food technology consulting company, Wilkes and Associates, Inc. Wilkes' consulting business focused primarily on Asia starting in Korea and later worked in the Philippines, China, Singapore and Malaysia as a strategic consultant and advisor to some of the largest Asian food companies.

His early entry into both Korea and China provided a rare glimpse into the epic potential he saw in Asia, doing business as a young American entrepreneur in the early 1990s. He will also share his current views and future vision for the region and how this dynamic and challenging landscape can create extraordinary success or devastating failures with potentially huge liabilities for western food, beverage and flavor manufacturers.

Hot Topics & Guest Speakers

Tuesday Hot Topic Speaker: 7:30AM-8:30AM
William Kingsley
Managing Director UHY Advisors MI, Inc.; Partner, UHY LLP
William Kingsley
Prior to working with UHY, William Kingsley spent 25 years with BDO Seidman, LLP and Grant Thornton, LLP as a lead client service partner.  There he had held various leadership positions within the firms and the tax department, and developed several key initiatives for the firms, including a China tax desk and service program for privately-held business.

Wednesday Hot Topic Speaker: 8:30AM-9:45AM
Lawrence J. Marnett, PhD
Chair, FEMA Expert Panel
Director, Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology
University Professor
Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research
Professor of Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Pharmacology
"Update on FEMA Expert Panel Activities"
Dr. Lawrence Marnett
Dr. Lawrence Marnett has been a member of the FEMA Expert Panel for over ten years. He currently runs the Marnett Laboratory at Vanderbilt University's A.B. Hancock Jr. Memorial Laboratory for Cancer Rearch, where he focuses on the application of chemistry and chemical technologies ot toxicology and carinogensis.

ATT Committee Meeting: Sunday, May 1, 2:00PM-3:30PM
Janet Scalese
Chief of the Non-Beverage Products Laboratory of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau