SPEAKERS



ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL CHANGE….EVERYTHING!


Cognitive computing is the latest and most potent expression of artificial intelligence. Software and robots can now learn from experience and then reason and act upon information--often coming up with insights that humans might not reach. Because they are “cloud-based”, these powerful thinking tools will be accessible even to small organizations and individuals. The result will be new efficiencies and surprising new intelligent services that will change the very nature of work and challenge us to identify what skills are uniquely human.

Michael Rogers
Author, Technology Pioneer and Futurist

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Michael Rogers is a best-selling author, technology pioneer and futurist, who most recently served as futurist-in-residence for The New York Times. He has worked with companies ranging from FedEx, Boeing and NBCUniversal to Microsoft, Pfizer and Siemens, focusing on how companies can think about the future in useful ways. He speaks to audiences worldwide and is a regular guest on radio and television

Rogers began his career as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. He co-founded Outside magazine and then launched Newsweek’s technology column, winning numerous journalism awards. For ten years he was vice president of The Washington Post Company's new media division, leading both the newspaper and Newsweek into the new century and earning patents for multimedia technology. He is also a best-selling novelist whose books have been published worldwide, chosen for the Book-of-the-Month club and optioned for film.

Rogers studied physics and creative writing at Stanford University, with additional studies in finance and management at the Stanford Business School Executive Program. He lives in New York City and is currently working on book and television projects.

MEGA TRENDS AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR FLAVOR


Every day we hear news about sustainability, the aging population, the increasing mindfulness of consumers and how millennials prefer experiences over having things. These trends have a big impact on what we eat, but what about flavors? This presentation will take us on a journey through some of today’s mega trends and how they are driving flavors in food and beverages.

Lu Ann Williams
Co-founder & Director of Innovation
Innova Market Insights

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Lu Ann Williams is co-founder and Director of Innovation at Innova Market Insights, a global market research firm headquartered in The Netherlands’ Food Valley. She manages a network of industry professionals and trend scouts in 70+ countries that contribute to Innova’s proprietary market intelligence platform and an analyst team that works with food, beverage, ingredient and packaging companies on product development, marketing and strategy. She is originally from Augusta, GA and has lived in The Netherlands for the past 25 years.

INOCULATING THE PUBLIC AGAINST CHEMOPHOBIA


Chemophobia is an irrational fear of chemicals perceived as “artificial” or “synthetic.” Chemophobia includes the fear of ingredients in vaccines, cosmetics, skincare products, and artificial flavorings in foods. The perceived onslaught of “toxic” chemicals simply isn’t happening. James will examine chemophobia’s evolutionary roots, the factors that keep chemophobia alive today and how to fight chemophobia successfully so we can all have an evidence-based view of chemistry.

James Kennedy
Author, Fighting Chemophobia

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James Kennedy is a British chemistry teacher and passionate chemistry spokesperson. He founded the chemistry outreach initiative Sincerely, Chemicals in 2017 and published Fighting Chemophobia in 2018.
Since graduating from the University of Cambridge with a Master’s degree in Natural Sciences in 2010, he has pursued a passion for science communication and science outreach by using festivals, lectures, seminars, conferences, posters and T-shirts to make chemistry more open and accessible for the public. He is a vocal pro-chemistry advocate who writes articles online and speaks in radio and podcast interviews. James' first published book, Fighting Chemophobia, stemmed from a need for people to understand and cure chemophobia by seeing chemicals in a more rational light. He has been teaching for 8 years and researching chemophobia for 3 years. He lives with his wife and daughter in Melbourne, Australia.

GLOBAL TRADE WINDS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FLAVOR INDUSTRY


The flavor and food industries operate globally both in terms of raw material sourcing and finished product distribution. The current international trade environment is marked by uncertainty. In this session, learn about the basis of U.S. trade policy and the global framework, and how recent U.S. policies and tariff proposals impact the flavor and food industries.

Joanna Drake, JD
General Counsel, FEMA


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Joanna Drake serves as General Counsel to FEMA. With more than a decade of flavor industry experience, her work with the association has covered a variety of regulatory and legal issues, including flavor and finished product labeling. Ms. Drake has given presentations to FEMA and other organizations on the current labeling implications of flavor, anticipated federal administrative action regarding “natural” labeling and the litigation landscape involving ingredient and food labeling. Prior to joining FEMA, she served as Assistant Counsel to WILD Flavors, Inc., where she worked on a variety of transactional issues and provided strategic legal counsel on product labeling and compliance matters.

EXCELLENCE IN FLAVOR SCIENCE AWARD RECIPIENT


Thomas Hofmann, Ph.D
Senior Vice President, Research & Innovation
Technical University of Munich

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Dr. Thomas Hofmann currently serves as the director of the new Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) as well as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. His research, published in more than 300 papers, centers around odor and taste systems chemistry. A decorated scientist, Dr. Hofmann is a founding board member for the European Institute of Technology Knowledge & Innovation Community.

COMMITTEE SPEAKERS



Jason Grube
Manager, Global Regulatory Publishing Services
Extedo

Monday, October 22, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. Melville Room


eCTD and DMF Breakout Session

DMF holders are facing ever-changing regulations from the FDA, especially when it comes to electronic submissions. This presentation is intended to bring light to eCTD and everything you need to consider. During this session Jason Grube will go through FDA updates including an introduction to eCTD, as well as regulatory publishing and the FDA's Electronic Submission Gateway (ESG).

Hannah Doran Aneiros
Sustainability Services
PwC

Monday, October 22, 2:15-3:15 p.m.
Presentation during the Supply Chain & Sustainability Committee Meeting


Resilient and Transparent Supply Chains

Emerging Sustainability Issues Impacting the Future of Supply Chains

The supply chains for flavor and food ingredients are global, interconnected and complex and there are a growing number of issues impacting supply chain resiliency. Hannah Doran Aneiros from PwC’s Sustainability Practice will join the Supply Chain Sustainability Committee to discuss how global issues of ingredient traceability, climate change and modern slavery are impacting flavor and food ingredient supply chain.