Leadership Panel Discussion: The Future of Food Supply Chains Registration

Duration:60 minutes

Your supply chain is critical to your food safety program. Having full control and traceability of your raw materials and end products is no longer an option – but a requirement. Furthermore, in the past two years, we’ve watched as the pandemic has exposed new weaknesses and made visible the business risks you face from an unstable supply chain.

Tune in as Bob Ferguson, President of Strategic Consulting leads an in-depth discussion of these issues with two food safety leaders at the forefront of this change, Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner, Food Policy and Response, FDA and Sean Leighton, Global Vice President, Food Safety, Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Cargill.

Join us as we discuss:

The future of supply chain control and what the “New Era of Smarter Food Safety” will mean for you and traceability.
Why supply chain control is a critical business risk management imperative and why “Just-in-Time’ is giving way to “Just-in-Case.”
Insights from leaders who each have broad responsibility and a unique vantage point on these issues – and find out what they see as critical in this transition and where you can expect to see change in the next 3-5 years.

Speakers

Frank Yiannas

Food Safety Culture Expert and former FDA Deputy Commissioner of Food Policy and Response

Frank Yiannas is a renowned food safety leader and executive, food system futurist, author, professor, past president of the International Association of Food Protection, and advocate for consumers. Most recently, he served under two different administrations as the Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a position he held from 2018 to 2023, after spending 30 years in leadership roles with two industry giants: Walmart and the Walt Disney Company. Through his career, Frank has been recognized for his role in strengthening food safety standards in new and innovative ways, author of the very first book and course on food safety culture, as well as building effective food safety management systems based on modern, science-based, and tech-enable prevention principles.

Sean Leighton

Global Vice President, Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory

Cargill

Sean Leighton is currently Vice President of Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory for Cargill based in Wayzata, Minnesota. Prior to joining Cargill, Sean worked for over 13 years at The Coca-Cola Company in various roles across Quality, Food Safety and Environmental Sustainability, working in the US, Canada and Europe. Sean has a BS in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MS in Food Science from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Emory University. Sean sits on the advisory board of many organizations including, but not limited to, IAFP’s Journal of Food Protection, The Center for Food Safety (UGA), GMA’s Science & Education Foundation and the Food Fraud Think Tank (MSU).

Bob Ferguson

President

Strategic Consulting International Inc.

Bob Ferguson is President of Strategic Consulting, Inc., a company that since 1996 has been the leading resource for market information in industrial diagnostics, focused on global microbiology markets in food and beverage safety. Bob has more than 30 years of experience in microbiology and laboratory businesses. Prior to joining Strategic Consulting, Bob was Vice President and General Manager for Becton Dickinson’s (BD) Industrial Microbiology and Microbiological Media Business. Bob serves as a member of the Food Safety Magazine editorial advisory board and is the contributing author of the Food Safety Insights column.

Stacy Atchison

Publisher

Food Safety Magazine

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