Food Safety & QA Manager - Gwillimdale Farms Ltd

My career began in grocery retail, where I spent 13 years developing and leading food safety programs across the organization. Here I was responsible for strengthening food safety culture, ensuring regulatory compliance, implementing quality systems, and supporting operational excellence across multiple locations.

In my current role at Gwillimdale Farms, I lead Food Safety and Quality Assurance initiatives with a focus on maintaining the highest standards of product quality, customer satisfaction, and compliance. I am passionate about building a strong food safety culture, driving continuous improvement, managing audits and certifications, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver safe, high-quality products from farm to consumer.

Director General, Food Operations - Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Pamela MacDonald is the Director General of the Food Operations Directorate. Throughout her career, Pamela has held a variety of progressively senior positions across the organization, including Food Safety Inspector, Inspection Manager, Director of Operations for Northeastern Ontario, Senior Director of Ontario Operations, and Executive Director of Inspection Support Directorate. As Director General, Food Operations, Pamela provides strategic leadership for the delivery of CFIA's food inspection and regulatory activities. She works closely with internal and external partners to advance a modern, risk-based approach to food oversight while promoting consistency, collaboration, and operational excellence across the Agency's food inspection programs.

President - Philpott-PR Solutions LLC

Amy Philpott is the founder of Philpott PR Solutions LLC, a public relations firm specializing in food safety risk communication. With over 20 years of experience, Amy helps food and agricultural companies and industry organizations use effective risk communication across traditional and digital platforms to build stakeholder trust, protect public health, and preserve brand integrity. She also trains executive leadership and crisis response teams to prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises. Amy co-authored the 2022 Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Food Safety Risk Communication Framework and authored three of the six associated guidelines.

Founder & President - Food Safety Strategy, LLC

Dr. Jennifer McEntire is the Founder of Food Safety Strategy, LLC, which helps companies ‘gut check’ their food safety thinking- to validate or challenge it, so they can confidently implement and defend their programs. With a Ph.D. in food safety and nearly 25 years of food and beverage association experience in Washington DC, she combines her background in food microbiology and regulatory insights to help food companies and the associations that represent them assess and pragmatically manage food safety risks in order to protect public health.
She held previous food safety leadership positions with the International Fresh Produce Association, Grocery Manufacturers Association, The Acheson Group and the Institute of Food Technologists.

Food Safety & Sustainability Manager - A. Duda & Sons

Morgan Madison is the Food Safety & Sustainability Manager at Duda, where she supports company-wide food safety, compliance, sustainability, and audit readiness initiatives. In her role, she helps develop and strengthen training programs, corrective action processes, and cross-functional communication to promote a strong culture of food safety, workplace responsibility, and continuous improvement. With cross-department collaboration, Morgan works to strengthen programs that protect people, products, and the environment. Prior to this role, Morgan worked with the Florida produce industry and obtained her master’s degree from the University of Florida.

Director Food Safety & Quality - Naturipe Farms LLC

Ximena started her career in Canada after attending University in Chile.  She is now the Director of Food Safety & Quality at Naturipe Farms where she interacts with growers and processors all over the world.

She is part of the CPMA Food Safety committee, IFPA’s Emerging issues and Outbreaks subcommittee, GLOBALG.A.P. USA NTWG, AFFI’s Enteric Advisory group and Food Safety Working Group among others.

Director of Regulatory Affairs - Retail Council of Canada

Avery Bruenjes is the Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Retail Council of Canada, where her portfolio includes overseeing federal files related to food safety and supply, as well as privacy and data protection, product safety, and supply chain efficiencies. Avery works alongside RCC’s federal and provincial teams to ensure that the concerns of the retail industry are heard at all levels of government.

Director of Food Safety - The Acheson Group

Amit Jagirdar is an accomplished Food Safety leader with over 25 years of experience driving compliance, risk management, and operational excellence across global food manufacturing. His career spans plant, regional, and corporate leadership roles at top tier companies including Kraft, PepsiCo, Bunge and Weston Bakeries, where he built a reputation for practical, results-driven food safety leadership.  across a wide range of product categories. These categories include snack food, confectionery, beverages, dairy, preserves & spreads, oilseed, bakery ingredients and baked goods.

As Director of Food Safety at The Acheson Group (TAG), Amit partners with clients to strengthen food safety systems, enhance audit readiness, and embed a culture of continuous improvement. His expertise covers CFIA and FDA requirements as well as GFSI-recognized standards such as SQF and FSSC 22000. He is known for helping organizations streamline compliance programs, reduce non-conformances, and elevate operational performance.

Amit is passionate about mentoring and capability building with a positive food safety culture, helping clients and teams develop the skills to sustain compliance. He holds an MBA in Food and Agribusiness (University of Guelph), a B.Sc. in Food Technology (University of New South Wales, Sydney) and is a Certified Lead Auditor for SQF scheme.

President - Global Citrus Group Inc

Hugh Bowman is an experienced leader in the global agriculture and fresh food sector, currently serving as CEO of Global Citrus Group Inc., which sources and supplies citrus, avocado, and exotic fruits to North American markets through grower relationships and farm investments based on various factors like product variety and harvest timing. He has held senior roles such as President of Canada Operations at Misionero Vegetables Ltd, COO of Bayshore Vegetable Shippers Ltd., and President of Ippolito Group. With over 30 years in produce industry operations and an MBA from the University of Guelph, Bowman has expertise in vertical integration from farm to fork and has collaborated with major North American retail, wholesale, and foodservice companies; he has also held leadership positions in various agricultural and produce marketing associations.