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| Cullen Andrews Vice President – Sales & Marketing Dot Foods, Inc. Cullen Andrews joined Dot Foods in 2003 and has held various management positions within Sales, Marketing and Supply Chain. He is vice president of Sales & Marketing leading the foodservice, convenience store, international, and overall digital initiatives. Cullen is a member of the GS1 Foodservice Executive Leadership Committee and is on the Board of the International Institute of St. Louis, Morsum, and Pet Food Experts. Cullen has a bachelor’s degree and MBA from the University of Missouri. | |
| Aaron Barulich President BiRite Raised in the industry, Aaron has worked in almost every capacity of the family business, from the warehouse and trucks to sales and purchasing. With the company since 2002, Aaron has worked in inbound logistics, customer service, headed the Military Sales and Export Department, and served as General Manager. As the company's president, since 2019, Aaron is now responsible for ensuring the various departments at BiRite function as one and that BiRite’s dedication to great customer service and outstanding products are delivered on a day-to-day basis. | |
| Michael Calbert Chairman of the Board Dollar General Corporation Mr. Calbert has served as Chairman of Dollar General since 2016 and formerly was a member of the private equity firm KKR & Co. L.P., where he led the Retail industry team from January 2000 until his retirement in 2014. Mr. Calbert recently joined the PVH Corp. Board (formerly known as the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation) an American clothing company which owns brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Warner's, Olga, and True & Co. and licenses brands such as Kenneth Cole New York and Michael Kors. He was previously Chief Financial Officer of Randall’s Food Markets, and started his career as a certified public accountant with Arthur Anderson Worldwide. He has extensive experience in corporate finance, strategic business planning and accounting, particularly in the retail industry, as well as a director of publicly traded retail companies. | |
| Chris Elliott Co-Founder, Head of Marketplace & Merchandising Cheetah Technologies, Inc. Chris is the co-founder and Head of Marketplace and Merchandising at Cheetah Technologies, Inc., a technology company launched in 2015 with a mission to radically level the playing field in the wholesale food supply chain for Independent Restaurants. Chris has deep experience in both marketing and logistics in the Food and Beverage industry. Chris started his career at WX Brands, where he built the supply chain to support the production and distribution of private label wine brands from across the world for top retailers in the USA, Europe, and Japan. Prior to launching Cheetah, Chris was a Brand Manager at both Otis Spunkmeyer (Aryzta) and Basic American Foods, working on their Foodservice portfolios. His work with independent foodservice operators revealed how many of their needs are not met by current distribution options and inspired him to launch Cheetah. Chris holds a BA in History from UCLA and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. | |
| Phil Kafarakis President and CEO IFMA Phil Kafarakis is the President & CEO of the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA), a leading trade association serving the more than $271Billion food-away-from-home food and beverage industry. Kafarakis is a global food industry executive with more than 30-years of leadership experience in for-profit and non-profit organizations. Prior to his IFMA appointment, he served as President of the Specialty Food Association (SFA) representing more than 4,000 small and emerging food entrepreneurs in the $160 Billion U.S. Specialty Food Inudstry, and was the Chief Innovation & Member Advancement Officer at the National Restaurant Association (NRA). Prior to his association work, Phil successfully led and managed businesses at McCormick & Co., Cargill, Jones Dairy Farm, and Kraft. Mr. Kafarakis was born in Athens, Greece and immigrated to the U.S. with his family as a child. He holds an International Executive MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and a BSBA from Northern Arizona University. | |
| Mani Kulasooriya Co-Founder & CEO Cut+Dry Mani started his technology career in 2000 and has two decades of experience innovating within companies big and small. His last company, CAKE, was acquired by Sysco and while there he created a new organization called Sysco Labs that took responsibility for modernizing Sysco. He helped lead this transformation at Sysco from 2014-2018. At Cut+Dry he is leveraging his experience in Foodservice to create a more efficient and transparent digital supply chain for all. | |
| Charlie McConnell Sr Director, Insights and Best Practices IFMA Charlie McConnell is the Sr. Director of Insights & Best Practices at IFMA. Charlie’s foodservice career includes experience with both manufacturers and with US Foods. His career began with The NPD Group where he managed clients’ consumer research needs. He translated that experience into consumer and operator insights roles with Unilever Foodsolutions and Sara Lee Foodservice before joining US Foods. At US Foods, he managed their research needs and developed their one-to-one marketing promotion, My Kitchen. | |
| Santiago Ortiz CDO and Founder DrumWave Santiago is an interactive designer, information visualization researcher, inventor and entrepreneur. With a strong background in mathematics and complexity sciences, he pushes the boundaries of information visualization and data based storytelling. | |
| Scott Strull EVP Strategic Business Units UniPro Foodservice Inc. Scott joined UniPro in 1996 and has held several senior management positions. Scott’s current duties and responsibilities includes 6 departments managing all Strategic Business Units (i. e., Supply Chain/Peachtree Logistics, the Multi-Unit Group-MUG and the Unity Advantage Group UAG GPO), as well as the Marketing, and Meetings & Events Departments. Scott also manages the Member Development Team located across the US. Scott is also charged with or involved in several Special Projects within the organization and on industry advisory panels or committees. | |
| André V. CEO DrumWave André is a frontier entrepreneur and a visionary leader, the driving force behind DrumWave’s mission to unleash the value of data for intelligence and monetization. André holds several awards and patents as a technology entrepreneur, and over the last years, he has built high-performance teams focused on global opportunities. | |
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