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Impact of Regulations: How They Affect People on the Ground
3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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John Kelly
Dr. John Kelly is the Executive Director of MaRS Landing, a joint project partnered by the University of Guelph, the City of Guelph, Ontario Agri-Food Technologies (OAFT), Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the MaRS Discovery District.
He has a wealth of experience in the private and public sector and has held various positions with start-ups and multinational companies, including KeliRo Company Inc., Land O' Lakes, Ralston Purina, Rhone-Poulenc Canada Inc. and Aventis CropSciences Inc., as well as the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
John works towards removing barriers to growth and improve access to tools and information in the agriculture and food, life science and biotechnology sectors. His primary focus is to foster the rural Ontario connection to the MaRS Discovery District, foster the link of agriculture, food and health, and to work with new, innovative technologies with application in this space. John also builds on the fact that there is more synergy than ever among traditional agriculture, food, medical sciences and manufacturing.
Funding for MaRS Landing has been provided in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs under the Agricultural Policy Framework, an agreement among federal, provincial and territorial governments to make Canada's agricultural sector a world leader in science and innovation.
Valerie Bell
Valerie Bell is President of Bell Alliances International Inc., a Canadian company that specializes in building alliances, joint ventures, or a wide range of other types of business partnerships between Asian and North American businesses in the food, natural products, dietary supplement and health and beauty aids markets.
Mrs. Bell is the immediate past President and CEO of the Canadian Health Food Association, Canada's largest not for profit trade association for natural health products, whole foods and organic products.
Earlier, as a consultant, she specialized in conducting confidential due diligence reviews and providing strategic advice and counsel to clients on the management, operations, and global sales and marketing potential of new biotechnologies, functional foods and nutraceuticals to clients around the world.
As one of these projects, she launched H.J. Heinz's prepared baby foods nationally in China to the number one market position against 13 major domestic and international competitors. While working full time in the Asia Pacific region, she also consulted on a wide range of marketing issues and other joint venture projects with Heinz' area, regional and local teams in China, Taiwan and Thailand.
Previous to this, she led Heinz Canada's infant feeding business to 100% market share, managed the successful acquisitions of Earth's Best baby food and Pablum infant cereals for them, and won a very successful dumping case against Gerber Canada. She also chaired H.J. Heinz's global nutraceutical and functional food committee and was a member of their global infant feeding steering committee at the same time.
She also previously led marketing and business development teams of Canada's largest ingredient company supplying over 4,500 individual and custom made products to dairy, foodservice, bakery and confectionery industries around the world. While there, she created and launched a wide range of new product innovations to consumer product company customers including the world's first asceptic fruit processing technology for dairy and bakery industries and the revolutionary use of plastic film pouch pack packaging technology for foodservice salad dressings, ice cream syrups and toppings, pie fillings and peanut butter. Mrs. Bell has received or been nominated for more Canadian Grand Prix New Product Awards from the Canadian grocery industry than any other individual Canadian marketer in the history of those awards.
She also has extensive experience in strategic and market planning, market research, public relations, nutritional communications, international trade, and managing sales and marketing teams both domestically and internationally for several other Fortune 500 firms including Kellogg's, Coca-Cola Ltd., and Mars Inc. Her work has been featured in the new Principles of Marketing textbook by Philip Kottler, Gary Armstrong and Peggy Cunningham.
Mrs. Bell is currently a member of the national Board of Directors of AFMNet, Canada's National Center for Excellence in Advanced Food Materials and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the US based Dietary Supplement Education Association (DSEA), the Belgian based International Association of Dietary Supplement Associations (IADSA), Cevena Bioproducts Inc. an agricultural bioscience ingredient company in Edmonton, Alberta, the Canadian Dietetic Association and the ALS Society of Canada. She has also served as a board member and executive committee member of numerous other national and international health professional, trade and not for profit associations.
Mrs. Bell studied dietetics and biology at Acadia University and the University of Manitoba.
Ashley Roberts
Dr. Roberts, joined Cantox in 2001 as an accomplished Regulatory Toxicologist with extensive knowledge in both European and international regulatory affairs. As Director of the Food & Nutrition Group, his considerable experience in designing, conducting and reporting pre-clinical and clinical research studies for food ingredients, additives and contaminants allows clients to be reassured they are in good hands.
He advises and assists our international clients with issues that are scientific, regulatory and toxicological in nature. In addition, he is able to assist in designing and developing scientific research programs, as well as developing regulatory strategies for food additives, foods that are generally recognized as safe (GRAS), and novel foods.
During his time in industry and academia, he has published a number of papers in peer-reviewed journals, primarily in the area related to mechanisms of toxicity and pre-clinical/clinical pharmacokinetics.
Prior to joining Cantox, Dr. Roberts worked in the area of scientific and regulatory affairs for a multi-national food company for more than 10 years. He previously worked in two leading European contract research organizations conducting drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics studies and phase I clinical trials.
Dr. Roberts received his B.Sc. with honours in biochemistry from the University of London and a Ph.D. in clinical pharmacology /toxicology under the guidance of Professor A. Renwick OBE from the University of Southampton. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in metabolism and pharmacokinetics, also from the University of Southampton. During his time in the food industry he was an active member of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) and was chairman-elect of the International Sweeteners Association's Safety and Regulatory Committee.
Xuefeng Yu
Dr. Yu is a microbiologist by training. He received his BSc and MSc from Nankai University in China. He obtained his PhD from McGill University in 1997. From 1996 to 1998, Dr. Yu worked for IBEX Technologies inc. in Montreal as a research scientist. In this role, he was responsible for therapeutic enzymes products development. Dr. Yu joined Process Development, sanofi pasteur in 1998. Since 2001 he has held director and corporate platform leader position in Bacterial Upstream platform. In this role, he is responsible for bacterial vaccine upstream process development locally and coordination of global activities across three R&D sites. He has played key roles in multiple new vaccines process development, GMP production as well as regulatory submission. Dr. Yu also has played leadership role in new GMP facility validation and technology transfer. Since 2004 Dr. Yu has served as Sanofi Pasteur's Representative to Cell-Factory Bioprocessing Network (Cell-Net), a nation wide research network funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NESRC) and industrial partners.
