Dr. Jen graduated in 2000 from UC Davis and spent 4 years in private practice on California dairies before earning her PhD at Ohio State (2010). Realizing that the greatest opportunity to drive meaningful improvement in animal welfare was through the supply chain, Dr. Jen made the leap from the barn yard to the board room and joined Dean Foods leading the development of their animal welfare program as Director of Dairy Stewardship. Dr. Jen joined Danone North America as Director of Milk quality in 2018 and was responsible for managing milk quality from farm to factory gate as well as the development and management of Danone North America’s industry leading animal welfare program, Quality and Care. Dr. Jen also completed her Masters in Animal Welfare Ethics, Policy and Law through the University of Edinburgh in 2018. In 2019 Dr. Jen’s efforts, passion, and results in shaping national best practices in dairy animal welfare were recognized by her alma matter, UC Davis, as one of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Award of Distinction recipients. In 2022 Dr. Jen became the co-founder and Chief Animal Welfare Officer of Kinder Ground, a non-profit dedicated to supporting the farming community to elevate the welfare of animals in food production. 

Harold is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago.  He has been the president of a company with 1,000 employees and 14 stores and was a franchisee of a 3-unit, award-winning family restaurant group. 

For the last 34 years, Harold has been the featured speaker at the food industry’s most popular events.  He has created 30 top rated seminars and written 4 books.  He has also created and currently facilitates nine industry related share groups.

Harold is a proud father of three, grandfather of two, and lives in Virginia Beach, VA with his wife, Deanna.

Harold says, “I’d rather see the audience taking notes than to hear their applause.”  This remark speaks to his intense desire to make a meaningful connection with his audience, which is his ultimate objective.

Dr. Volpe was born and raised near Boston, Massachusetts. After finishing his Ph.D., he spent four years working as an economist at the USDA Economic Research Service in Washington DC. While there he researched a variety of topics, including food price formation, competitiveness in the food industry, and the healthiness of grocery purchases in the U.S. Ricky was also responsible for forecasting retail food price inflation at the national level.

Now at Cal Poly, Ricky teaches courses on food retail and supply chain management, transportation and logistics, and data analysis. He also maintains an active research agenda using a variety of large scanner data sets to study issues related to market structure, firm performance, food prices, consumers’ food choices, and health outcomes. He also works closely with industry leaders in food retailing, wholesaling, and distribution to facilitate collaboration on public-private partnerships, student internships, and scholarships.

Rick Stein joined FMI in 2014, and is responsible for developing a portfolio of services and activities to assist members in formulating and executing their fresh food strategies.  These categories include everything from  – dairy, frozen, meat, poultry, seafood, and produce to service departments – deli, bakery and fresh prepared meals and related solutions for take-out or in-store dining.

Prior to joining FMI, Rick spent 35 + years in a wide range of retail grocery merchandising and marketing responsibilities.  Most recently Stein was the Vice President of retail marketing & merchandising execution for Safeway Stores, Inc.  Previously he held both divisional and corporate responsibilities in his tenure at Safeway in retail/store operations, category management, sales, marketing/merchandising, and strategy development. He has experience in virtually every facet of the retail food business and helped lead Safeway to achieve operational excellence and increased market share and revenues.Stein graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor of Arts in Behavioral and Social Sciences.  He has earned continuing educations credits in marketing, merchandising and management, most recently with the Disney Institute. Rick serves on numerous nonprofit boards such as the MDA, Children’s Cancer Foundation and Easter Seals of DC/VA/MD. 

Steve Markenson leads FMI’s research & insights practice. Markenson is a market research executive with 30 years of progressive experience in his field – from research assistant to president of a full-service national market research firm – and his diverse experience includes research design, information/data collection and analysis and strategic planning.

In his role at FMI, Markenson oversees the research & insights practice at FMI, specifically the study design, survey fielding and efforts with outside knowledge partners and FMI subject matter experts. He leads the discovery process on the latest industry trends and operational insights that champion FMI as a credible voice of the food retail industry. 

Pam Ofri, Own Brands Director of Product Development and Operations, is responsible for managing a team of 25+ employees, covering New Product Development, Innovation, Category Support, and Analytics. Pam was the recipient of the 2021 Store Brands Operations Women of the Year award for spearheading over 208 category line reviews which facilitated the launch of over 2400 private label items, leading the Own Brands Innovation pillar to increase millennial consumers, and championing a partnership with GAP to develop cost savings tactics across her category management team. Pam began her career at Wakefern developing the Own Brands Sourcing team, responsible for launching an electronic RFP system to foster 15%+ savings, and accomplishing over 100 bids. Pam directed the launch of Wakefern Engage, our Own Brands supplier portal to bring live scorecards to all our vendor partners.

Mark is the Senior Vice President of Sales at Catania Oils which is located in Ayer, MA.  He has been with the company for over 28 years, helping the company expand to become a national player in the food business.  Catania Oils is a processor and packer of plant-based oils servicing the Retail, Foodservice and Bulk classes of trade.

 Mark has spent his entire career in the food business, first working in retail with the Market Basket grocery store chain.  He also worked for the retail food broker Toomey-Delong as well as the distributor for Wise Potato Chips. 

 Mark and his wife have four children and reside in Windham, NH.  

David Orgel is a food industry expert, business journalist and speaker who was the longtime chief editor of Supermarket News. He is principal of David Orgel Consulting LLC, focused on enhancing content and thought leadership for organizations in the food, retail and consumer packaged goods industries. 

Steve Markenson leads FMI’s research & insights practice. Markenson is a market research executive with 30 years of progressive experience in his field – from research assistant to president of a full-service national market research firm – and his diverse experience includes research design, information/data collection and analysis and strategic planning.

In his role at FMI, Markenson oversees the research & insights practice at FMI, specifically the study design, survey fielding and efforts with outside knowledge partners and FMI subject matter experts. He leads the discovery process on the latest industry trends and operational insights that champion FMI as a credible voice of the food retail industry. 

About the Tent Partnership for Refugees 

With more and more refugees displaced for longer periods of time, businesses have a critical role to play in helping refugees integrate economically in their new host communities. The Tent Partnership for Refugees mobilizes the global business community to improve the lives and livelihoods of 36 million refugees who have been forcibly displaced from their home countries. Founded by Chobani’s founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya in 2016, we are a network of over 300 major companies committed to including refugees. Tent believes that companies can most sustainably support refugees by leveraging their core business operations – by engaging refugees as potential employees, entrepreneurs, and consumers. Find out more at www.tent.org

Andrew S. Harig currently serves as Vice President, Tax, Trade, Sustainability & Policy Development.  In this position, he is responsible for lobbying Congress and the Administration on behalf of FMI’s members, with a primary focus on sustainability, agriculture, taxes, trade and pensions.

Prior to joining FMI, Harig was an associate trade advisor and speechwriter for the Senate Finance Committee under its Chairman, Max Baucus (D-MT).  From 1999-2001, he was the senior research associate for the Global Economic Policy Project at the New America Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank.

Harig holds a B.A. from the College of William and Mary and an M.A. from DePaul University in Chicago, IL.

Harold is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago.  He has been the president of a company with 1,000 employees and 14 stores and was a franchisee of a 3-unit, award-winning family restaurant group. 

For the last 34 years, Harold has been the featured speaker at the food industry’s most popular events.  He has created 30 top rated seminars and written 4 books.  He has also created and currently facilitates nine industry related share groups.

Harold is a proud father of three, grandfather of two, and lives in Virginia Beach, VA with his wife, Deanna.

Harold says, “I’d rather see the audience taking notes than to hear their applause.”  This remark speaks to his intense desire to make a meaningful connection with his audience, which is his ultimate objective.

Rick Stein joined FMI in 2014, and is responsible for developing a portfolio of services and activities to assist members in formulating and executing their fresh food strategies.  These categories include everything from  – dairy, frozen, meat, poultry, seafood, and produce to service departments – deli, bakery and fresh prepared meals and related solutions for take-out or in-store dining.

Prior to joining FMI, Rick spent 35 + years in a wide range of retail grocery merchandising and marketing responsibilities.  Most recently Stein was the Vice President of retail marketing & merchandising execution for Safeway Stores, Inc.  Previously he held both divisional and corporate responsibilities in his tenure at Safeway in retail/store operations, category management, sales, marketing/merchandising, and strategy development. He has experience in virtually every facet of the retail food business and helped lead Safeway to achieve operational excellence and increased market share and revenues.Stein graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor of Arts in Behavioral and Social Sciences.  He has earned continuing educations credits in marketing, merchandising and management, most recently with the Disney Institute. Rick serves on numerous nonprofit boards such as the MDA, Children’s Cancer Foundation and Easter Seals of DC/VA/MD. 

Sally Lyons Wyatt is a recognized thought leader in CPG and Retail, a frequent keynote speaker and an authority on consumer eating and shopping trends. She is published often in periodicals spanning trade and national business media. She brings more than 25 years of industry experience to provide innovative and results-driven insights combined with proven leadership success. 

As an executive and practice leader for Circana’s Client Insights division, Lyons Wyatt is responsible for driving integrated initiatives as well as measuring their success within the practice areas of consumer strategy, consumer/customer insights, and personalization. Sally’s experience includes the management and development of global account teams that provide service to top CPG companies around the world. 

Jonna has been an innovator in the fresh foods space for nearly two decades driving the evolution of consumer-centric decision making and big data analytics throughout the perimeter. She has worked extensively in each perimeter department: Meat, Bakery, Deli, Produce, Seafood, Dairy and Floral with both suppliers and retailers. Jonna joined IRI in 2016 and leads IRI’s Fresh COE focusing on solution enhancement, thought leadership and client consultation across both suppliers and retailers. Jonna graduated with highest honors from Bradley University with a degree in public relations and marketing and lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Liz Sertl is Sr. Director, Community Engagement, at GS1 US, the not-for-profit information standards organization, and has more than 20 years of experience in the CPG industry. Working closely with supply chain partners in the retail grocery and foodservice industries, Liz facilitates collaboration best practices and guidelines that help companies improve product traceability and supply chain visibility through the adoption of GS1 Standards.