Below you’ll find information about some of the speakers you’ll see at PSCC 2019. To see the full program, click here.
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The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau
The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau was elected as the Member of Parliament for Compton—Stanstead in October 2015. She has served as a minister since 2015, and is currently the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
Minister Bibeau began her career at the Canadian International Development Agency, and went on postings to Morocco and Benin. After settling down with her family in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, she became a successful businesswoman and was actively involved in her community.
In her formal role as Minister of International Development, she helped refocus Canada’s international assistance on helping the poorest and most vulnerable people and on supporting fragile states. In June 2017, after several months of consultations, Minister Bibeau launched Canada’s new Feminist International Assistance Policy. This innovative new vision will make Canada a leader in the fight against poverty by prioritizing gender equality in the country’s international assistance programming.
Supported by this new policy, Minister Bibeau advocated for actions and initiatives that empower women and girls, and she defended their rights. As well, she was at the heart of Canada’s strategy for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development objectives both at home and around the world.
Helping Canada exercise its leadership on global health issues, she played a key role in ensuring that Canada hosted the Fifth Replenishment Conference of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Montréal in September 2016, and that it will host the Women Deliver conference in Vancouver in 2019, which will bring together 6,000 people.
In her current role, Minister Bibeau’s overarching goal is to support the agricultural sector in a way that allows it to be a leader in job creation and innovation. Knowing that Canada’s farmers, ranchers and food processors are the foundation of our food sector, she will help Canada’s agriculture sector be more innovative, safer, and stronger.
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Marlene Boersch
Marlene has been actively involved the agriculture industry in Canada since obtaining her Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Saskatchewan in 1983. She traded and exported Canadian commodities (including pulses) internationally for 20 years. In 2003, Marlene co-founded Mercantile Consulting Venture, a professional services company specializing in private label market intelligence, risk management solutions, and project consulting. The company has grown to be active in Canada, Australia and the EU. More detail is accessible at www.mercantileventure.com.
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Cindy Brown
Cindy Brown, is co-owner and President of Chippewa Valley Bean & Doane, Ltd, a family-owned agribusiness that grows, processes and markets dark red, light red and white kidney beans. Chippewa Valley Bean is known globally as the premier supplier of kidney beans, providing their customers with unparalleled quality, service, and food safety.
Cindy has served as a member of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Board for the state of Wisconsin, as President of the US Dry Bean Council and is a founding member of the American Pulse Association. In June 2019, Cindy was unanimously elected President of the Global Pulse Confederation (GPC). The GPC is the sole international confederation for the pulses industry, facilitating free and fair trade and increasing production and consumption of pulse crops worldwide. As President of GPC, Cindy leads an Executive Committee of over 30 international members, 600+ private sector members and 25 national associations.
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Lisa Campbell
Lisa is the Program Specialist in Manitoba, where she works with Protein Industries Canada (PIC) members to help develop project proposals, provide program guidance, and manage and evaluate ongoing projects. Lisa is also the Senior Manager, Research & Nutrition at the Canola Council of Canada (CCC) where she is responsible for managing the research programs including the Canola Agri-Science Cluster, Canola Agronomic Research Program (CARP) and various oil and meal projects, as well as working to ensure that research results are effectively disseminated. Prior to her time at the CCC, Lisa was Director of Programs at Pulse Canada.
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Sylvain Charlebois
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. He is as well the former Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. While at the University of Guelph, he was also the Associate Dean of Research for the College of Business and Economics.
Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.
He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.
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Tanya Der
Tanya Der is Pulse Canada’s Director of Food Innovation and Marketing. Tanya’s role is to oversee the areas of pulse processing, functionality and food development through consultations with the scientific research community and food industries leading to the utilization of pulse ingredients in food products.
In previous positions, Tanya has worked in quality and product development roles for food companies manufacturing beverage, dairy, flax and natural health products distributed throughout North America, Asia and the EU.
In 2010, Tanya received a M.Sc. from the University of Saskatchewan in the Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences focusing on the incorporation of pulse ingredients in meat products.
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Samara Foisy
Samara Foisy is a director of product development for Loblaw Brands. She holds a Master of Health Science in Community Nutrition from the University of Toronto and is also a registered dietitian. At Loblaw Samara has held both nutrition and product development roles. Her previous experience resides with non-governmental associations such as Health Check, and Eat Smart! at the Nutrition Resource Centre where she managed their implementation at the provincial level. Over the last 13 years Samara has worked with a variety of industry, government and public health stakeholders who are committed to improving the health of Ontarians. In her spare time Samara enjoys spending time with her daughter, cooking, and collecting wine.
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Stéfane Marion
Stéfane Marion is Chief Economist and Strategist for National Bank of Canada and National Bank Financial, a position he has held since November 2008. In 2018, Mr. Marion was ranked the leading economist in Canada according to Brendan Wood International.
In 2012, the C.D. Howe Institute appointed Mr. Marion to its Monetary Policy Council and to the newly established Business Cycle Council. He also sits on National Bank Pension Committee.
Mr. Marion joined NBF’s Economics Group in 1999. Previously, Mr. Marion worked for several years in the federal departments of Finance and Industry in Ottawa, where, in addition to economic analysis and forecasting, he also worked on microeconomic policy impact studies. In particular, he participated in the development of forecasting models and the analysis of the FTA and NAFTA free-trade agreements with the United States and Mexico.
Mr. Marion holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Economics from the Université de Montréal.
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Aidin Milani
Aidin Milani is the Sales & Development Manager at Buhler Inc based in Minneapolis. He joined Buhler after finishing his graduate studies in mechanical engineering and, since then, has been involved in different divisions and business units within Buhler working with various cereals and grains across the value chain. Currently, his main focus is pulses and he is working with partners in the industry and academia to improve existing practices and develop new methods for processing pulses and pulse-based ingredients.
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Chuck Penner
Chuck Penner started LeftField Commodity Research in 2010 to provide market analysis and economic research for Canadian agricultural markets, with weekly newsletters covering small grains, special crops and oilseeds. Chuck grew up on a farm in Manitoba’s Red River Valley and has nearly 30 years in the Canadian grain business, including 15 years in various roles at United Grain Growers and Agricore United, followed by 5 years at Informa Economics as Senior Consultant.
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Carl Potts
Carl Potts is Executive Director of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers (SPG), working on behalf of 15,000 pulse producers in Saskatchewan. SPG’s mission is to provide leadership and create opportunities for profitable growth in the Saskatchewan pulse industry. Carl is responsible for providing strategic leadership to the organization and overseeing a team of professionals that undertake SPG’s work in the areas of research, market development and communications. Carl has nearly 20 years of experience in the grain industry in the areas of international market development, market access, trade policy and government and industry relations. Prior to joining SPG in 2011, Carl served as the Director of Market Access and Trade Policy and Director of Market Development with Pulse Canada.
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Blair Roth
Blair has spent his career working in various facets of the special crops industry from applied research, agronomy and processing to international marketing. He has been with Viterra for the past 29 years and as Director of Special Crops for the past 13 years overseeing the North American procurement, processing and international merchandising activities in peas, lentils, dry beans, chickpeas, mustard and canary seed, including oversight on 11 processing plants.
He is and has been involved in many wide ranging industry committees and is currently the Chair of the Market Access Committee for CSCA and Chair of the Prairie Pesticide Minor Use Consortium representing 12 commodity groups in Western Canada. A long time volunteer at the Lethbridge Interfaith Foodbank. And a long suffering golfer.
Recipient of the Alberta Pulse Industry Innovator Award in 2017 and the CSCA Presidents Award in 2016.
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Neil Townsend
Neil Townsend acquired his Masters of Science in Agricultural Economics from the University of Manitoba in 2002. He has spent his career writing market commentary for farmers over the last twenty years through his work with CWB, Cargill, G3 and his current role as Chief Market Analyst at FarmLink Solutions. Neil’s explorations of insights from around the world took him to live and work with farmers in Thailand for three years to see global impacts first hand. He now resides in Winnipeg with his wife and three sons.