Dr. Stacey Bell
Dr. Stacey J. Bell is a nutritional consultant who has published over 120 peer-reviewed scientific articles on topics like obesity, diabetes, and cancer. She has been a registered dietitian for 35 years. Dr. Bell is a former member of the Harvard Medical School faculty and was Vice President of Medical Research and Education for Dr. Barry Sears. She holds six patents and has developed products for well-known figures such as Tony Robbins and Dr. Andrew Weil.
Having delivered over 100 scientific lectures, as well as appearances on radio and TV, Dr. Bell is motivated to share her knowledge on healthy eating. She is a member of numerous scientific advisory boards and sits on the Board of Directors of numerous organizations, like Kids Can Cook, which offers cooking and nutrition education to school children.
Taylor Conroy
Taylor Conroy is the founder of Change Heroes, a for-profit company that uses 100% of its profits to do social good. The only reason Change Heroes exists is to do social good, which means no inflated salaries or executive bonuses. To date Change Heroes has raised over $1 million and funded more than 130 projects in the developing world
Before founding Change Heroes, Taylor ran a successful real-estate business. It was on a trip through Uganda and Kenya that his eyes were opened to the harsh reality of life in the developing world. Having found his life mission, Taylor vowed to use his sales, marketing and business knowledge to develop a better method of fundraising – one that offered high returns in little time. In 2013, Change Heroes was voted ‘Best Social Enterprise’ at the Start-up World Finals, and received 1st Place at Start-up World Vancouver.
Michael Ableman
Michael Ableman has been an organic farmer for forty years. He is an advocate for sustainable agriculture and a pioneer in urban farming. Michael is the founder and former executive director of The Center for Urban Agriculture, and the founder and co-director of Sole Food Street Farms. Sole Food transforms vacant lots into urban farmland that provides fresh, healthy food, while empowering, training and employing at-risk residents.
Ableman is the author of several books, including From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World; On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm and Fields of Plenty: A Farmer’s Journey in Search of Real Food and the People who Grow it. Ablemanlectures and consults widely and is the subject of the award-winning documentary Beyond Organic, which was aired on PBS andnarrated by Meryl Streep. Hecurrently lives and farms at the historic Foxglove Farm, which is also the home of the Centre for Arts, Ecology, and Agriculture.
Gaspare Colletti
Gaspare Colletti is the President of Cell Foods, a leading Montreal-based importer and processor of spices and dehydrated vegetables. As one of Canada’s leading importers and processors of spices, herbs, and seasonings for the food industry, Cell Foods serves markets across North America and the Caribbean. It is 100% Canadian owned
Gaspare has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Spice Trade Association since 2011. He is also a past President. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Spice Association since 2003, and has served a number of terms as its President. Prior to joining Cell Foods, Gaspare was Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Reynolds Aluminum Company of Canada.
Darren Stott
Darren Stott has over seventeen years of experience in the retail food industry. He began his career at one of the UK’s largest co-op retailers, where his responsibilities included store management, logistics, marketing, and purchasing. Since then, he has worked for a business intelligence firm consulting with well-known multinational companies Safeway, P&G, and Unilever. More recently, Darren served as Director of Purchasing for SPUD, the largest online organic home delivery company in North America.
Darren is passionate about food that is grown naturally, reared humanely, and processed with no artificial ingredients. His aim is to support good, fair, local food production. Guided by these beliefs, Darren created Greenchain Consulting in 2010. Greenchain helps BC food companies pursue sustainable goals by utilizing sound, “blue chip” business planning, strategizing, and purchasing policies and procedures.
Darren is a board member of LOCO, a not-for-profit organization that promotes local businesses and buying local. He also volunteers with Growing Chefs, teaching Grade 3 children how to grow and cook their own food. Darren is a very proud father of two children.
Jennifer Fong
Jennifer Fong is a social media expert who focuses exclusively on the direct selling industry. Jennifer has helped companies throughout the industry, both party plan and network marketing, to use social media more effectively to generate brand awareness, sales and recruiting. She writes regularly about how to use social media for direct selling at jenfongspeaks.com, a blog that is read by thousands of direct selling professionals around the world.
A former direct sales company founder and CEO, Jennifer understands the direct selling industry’s unique needs and advantages when it comes to social media. Jennifer regularly presents on how to use social media as part of the operations of a direct selling company at Direct Selling Association conferences in the US and Canada, and has written several articles about social media for Direct Selling News, our industry’s professional publication. Jennifer is also a sought-after conference speaker, teaching direct selling distributors how to use social media effectively at direct selling company annual conventions and leadership meetings throughout the United States and Canada.
Julie Anne Jones
Julie Anne Jones is a direct sales corporate consultant, keynote speaker, coach, and trainer, and the CEO of Julie Anne Jones, Inc. She is known for her authentic and easy-to-use scripting and specializes in specific language and tools for success in direct sales. As a former direct-sales professional, Julie Anne worked a party plan business for several years, consistently holding three parties per week and winning national awards yearly. She also built a National team with a network marketing company using the internet.
Over the past six years, Julie Anne has become a sought after corporate consultant and trainer, bringing her unique style to corporate events throughout the United States and Canada. She loves sharing her information, whether it’s from the stage or through her webinar and tele-seminar training platforms. (julieannejones.com)
Julie Anne recently married the love of her life John and they live in Walla Walla, Washington with her teenage sons Sam and Eli. She has a degree in theatre and loves to sing. She says if she were 20 years younger, she knows she would be the next American Idol (or at least make it to Hollywood!).
Don Jonas
Don Jonas has more than 25 years of experience in the direct-selling industry, with much of his efforts focused on recruitment and training of sales forces. Currently, Don heads up sales force development and training at Chicago-based Direct Selling Strategies.
Before joining Direct Selling Strategies, Don spent 10 years at Avon Products in various positions, including division sales manager, national recruiting manager, and sales training manager. On top of that, he has been involved with two direct sales companies from their inception and has served as vice president of sales at each.
Don has invaluable experience with developing a core group of Consultants, which is the engine behind the growth of a sales force and a company. Thanks to his insight into the industry, Don is very much in touch with the day-to-day operations of a Consultant and knows what works and what doesn't.
