Nuno Soares is an author, consultant, and trainer in food safety with more than 21 years of background in the food industry as a food safety/quality and plant manager. He works exclusively to help food safety professionals achieve a more fulfilled career based on improving knowledge, improving competencies, and a growth mindset.

He is also the founder of the initiative "The Why of Food Safety—I'm an SLO (Saving Lives Officer)" and he’s the author of several books and articles on food safety namely Food Safety in the Seafood Industry.

Bill Potter is a poultry industry veteran, who has spent 28 years solving food safety problems in the poultry industry. Currently, Bill is the Food Safety Technical Advisor at Elanco Animal Health where he helps clients optimize their pre-harvest and plant interventions. Previously, Bill held senior food safety roles at numerous poultry processors including, George’s, ConAgra Poultry and Advance Food Company.

He has served as Chairman of the National Chicken Council Technical and Regulatory Committee and is an active member of both the Arkansas Association of Food Protection and IAFP.

Bill has an undergraduate degree in Animal Science and an MBA from Texas A&M University and a master’s and Ph.D. in Poultry Science from the University of Arkansas.

Dr. Jeff Kornacki is an industrial forensic food microbiologist. He has assisted and continues to assist many companies during environmental and product contamination concerns including FDA and USDA recalls and has made well over 850 troubleshooting related plant visits across a vast assortment of food processing industries in his career. He is an active member of IAFP. He received the IAFP Sanitarian award in 2010. He also became an IAFP Fellow in 2017.

Catharine Young was named executive director of the New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture in March 2019. A longtime champion of agricultural and economic development, Catharine served for 20 years in the New York State Legislature representing western New York. During that time, she chaired the Senate Agriculture Committee, founded the Legislative Wine and Grape Caucus, sponsored legislation to create the New York State Council on Food Policy, and chaired the Legislative Commission on Rural Resources. She was the first woman in state history to chair the influential Senate Finance Committee. Catharine is passionate about her new role and feels that “To grow New York’s food, beverage, and agriculture economy, and to help businesses expand and flourish by linking them with the incredible innovation, expertise, and resources at Cornell, is a natural extension of the work that I have done as a senator.”

Donna F. Schaffner, M.Sc., is the associate director for food safety, quality assurance, and training at the Rutgers University Food Innovation Center. Donna has more than 20 years of experience as a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) specialist.

She teaches FDA certificate programs in Preventive Controls for Human Foods (PCHF), Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP), general HACCP, Seafood HACCP, Better Process Control School, Food Defense, Intentional Adulteration – Vulnerability Assessments (IA-VA), and teaches microbiology and food safety classes in the U.S. and abroad. Donna holds Train the Trainer certificates for PCHF, FSVP, FSIS, and FDA HACCP, and Seafood HACCP, and Lead Instructor certificates for PCHF, FSVP, IA-VA, Seafood HACCP, and Meat & Poultry HACCP.

Dr. Noel Anderson is a managing partner of Mosaic Food Advisors LLC which helps start-up companies in the food and beverage arena succeed in the marketplace. Previously, Noel spent 19 years in Research & Development at PepsiCo and 18 years at General Foods/Kraft.

After receiving his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Massachusetts in Food Science and Nutrition Noel stayed actively engaged with the Food Science Department. Noel served on its Industrial Advisory Board for more than 20 years, with 16 years as its Chairperson. During this time the department raised over $12 million and its Graduate Program achieved the #1 ranking in the US. He received the UMass Amherst Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Award in 2011.

Dr. John W. Spink is an assistant professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management in the Eli Broad Business College at Michigan State University (MSU). Previously, he was an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice in the College of Social Science at MSU and in the College of Veterinary Medicine. His leadership positions include product fraud-related activities with ISO 22000, GFSI, and the U.S. Pharmacopeia. Global activities include engagements with the European Commission, INTERPOL, Codex Alimentarius, and WHO/FAO, and he served as an advisor on food fraud to the Chinese National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. He also spent 11 years at the Chevron Corporation, and was an independent consultant, before earning a Ph.D. in packaging/anti-counterfeit strategies at MSU in 2009.