An expert in resilient business practices, Steve is an academic whose research is grounded in industry experience. He is Director of the Centre for Industrial Sustainability and Professor at the University of Cambridge, and leads research across many aspects of the transformation toward a sustainable industrial system. He’s been Special Adviser to the House of Lords, and has held many policy informing roles in the UK and globally. His academic excellence was recognized in his 2019 election as Member of Academia Europaea.

Regina joined Food Recovery Network as the Executive Director in 2015. Regina works with the amazing team at national headquarters, stakeholders and partners around the country to achieve FRN's most recent strategic framework that will guide FRN over the next several years. FRN's goal is to support higher education to be the first sector where food recovery is the norm and not the exception. FRN's strategic framework is rooted in a key outcome to recover surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the United States, and also rooted in the larger desire to build an equitable and sustainable society.

One of North America’s foremost social entrepreneurs, Mark’s determined to breathe new life into our struggling and disjointed communities through his advocacy, convenings & social impact business models. Along with the 5 organizations under MB Inc, Mark leads A Better Life Foundation (CA, US, MX), is a Stanford fellow, Professor of Innovation and Design Thinking, and has served as executive chef for the American Refugee Committee and Pope Francis's Climate Challenge.

Philli runs a food consultancy, specializing in end to end development for foodservice and delivered food businesses. Philli has developed and launched hundreds of products for brands like Tesco and Starbucks in the UK as well as internationally. A strong foundation in Michelin starred kitchens with the Gordon Ramsay group and in Tokyo & Hong Kong has helped her attain strong culinary skills. Philli has a MSci in Chemistry which she leverages to advise on nutritionals for health and nutrition focused food concepts.

Ashley Colpaart is the founder and CEO of The Food Corridor, a platform that connects food entrepreneurs with commercial kitchen space. The Food Corridor is the first and only fully integrated software platform that manages scheduling, compliance, time tracking, billing, and client communication for the emerging shared-use kitchen industry. The company’s newest app, The Kitchen Door, provides the largest database of rentable commercial and shared-use kitchens in the country, giving rise to food entrepreneurs across the USA and Canada.

Christopher is the Corporate Executive Chef for Griffith Foods US, where he inspires new concepts for the company’s protein, retail and snacks customers. A highly experienced and decorated chef, having held many roles at restaurants and institutions across the nation, he has been a member of the American Culinary Federation (ACF) since 1995, holds over 50 culinary competition medals, is a Certified Executive Chef, Certified Culinary Educator and a Certified Culinary Judge, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Chef. He also received the ACF Presidential Medallion, among other accolades.

Selena Cuffe is a globally recognized entrepreneur and executive. As President of SodexoMAGIC, a $600 million joint venture between NBA legend and hall of famer, Earvin “Magic" Johnson and Sodexo, a food service and facilities management company, Cuffe empowers 6,500 employees to provide Quality of Life solutions to clients and communities across the United States. She is also co-founder of Heritage Link Brands, the largest M/WBE wine importer in North America.

Andrew Shakman is CEO and co-founder of Leanpath and a leading voice in the global movement to address the food waste crisis. Working in thousands of foodservice kitchens in 40 countries, Leanpath deploys a suite of technology and coaching tools that change root behaviors that lead to food waste--preventing 55 million pounds of food from going to waste since 2014 alone.

As a culinary professional for over 25 years, Melinda has worked closely with staff from a wide variety of backgrounds, many of whom suffer from emotional and chemical health concerns exacerbated by the nature of “kitchen culture.” In 2017, Melinda started online group CulinaRecovery for restaurant workers to find hope, recovery, and connection. As a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist, Melinda focuses her attention where foodservice and human services intersect, and is passionate about leading the industry toward a future where human sustainability is a primary consideration.

Chef Robert Wood is Co-Founder and Executive Chef at SuperFD in Washington, DC. SuperFD is founded on a mission to provide the highest quality food to the community and its athletes. SuperFd provides meal services for the Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals, the NWSL's Spirit and many other professional franchises. Our talented chefs and dedicated staff work to incorporate organic ingredients and sustainable practices into our business every day.

Program Manager for A Better Life Foundation, Amber brings clear headed solutions to complicated problems. She has a history of working in fast-paced and dynamic industries and specializes in the intersection of systems and people, ensuring that systems are thoughtfully designed to put people first. Amber’s a trained Leadership Coach

Liz is the chef and founder at Santosha Nutrition, a plant-based company focused on sustainable cooking, sourcing local and education. After 10 years in the hotel industry, Liz decided to start Santosha and combine her passion for food, health and sustainability into a business in 2018 and hopes to grow community education to fight food waste and teach individuals and organizations to become a more positive part of our food system.

Sarah coordinates and implements the Save the Food, San Diego! EcoChallenge, a San Diego county-wide consumer education and behavior change campaign for household level food waste reduction. After completing her Bachelors in Cognitive Science and Human Development at UCSD, Sarah graduated from the Master of Social Work program at SDSU, concentrating in Administration and Community Development.

Kaimana is the Chef Ambassador for Eat JUST, a cutting-edge food technology company and the Executive Chef of Uncle’s Hawaiian Grindz, a modern Hawaiian restaurant in Fallston, MD. Chef Kaimana identifies his multi-ethnic upbringing as one of the key contributing factors in developing his passion for food. Chef Kaimana has since appeared in several food industry related publications and earned a collection of culinary accolades that include appearances on Fox’s MasterChef, Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen and Guy’s Grocery Games.  

Kyle manages the Materials Management Section at CalRecycle responsible for helping expand the organics infrastructure in California.  His team helped establish the inaugural Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds program to fund compost, anaerobic digestion, food waste prevention, and food rescue programs.  With more than 20 years of experience working in waste prevention and recycling, he has worked with both Bay Area and rural jurisdictions on their recycling program implementation.  

Ariel is a Clinical Fellow at the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), where her work focuses on domestic food waste and recovery policy as well as SNAP and other food access and nutrition programs and initiatives. She received her JD in 2019 from the Georgetown University Law Center and holds a Bachelor of Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia.

A San Diego native, Geertje is dedicated to implementing food system solutions that synergistically benefit the local economy, environment, and society. She is the Program Manager of the Wasted Food Prevention Program at San Diego Food System Alliance, where she oversees strategic initiatives focused on diverting food waste from landfills. Her career spans the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, including experience in sustainability consulting, data analytics, zero waste program development, and environmental education.

Jacob first found his passion for global development in Peace Corps Ghana. He worked on projects focused on food waste elimination, value addition and gender empowerment. Afterwards, he created a grain distribution business in Northern Ghana and has developed over a dozen global supply chains of specialty ingredients. As Agricycle’s COO, he oversees a network of 40,000 farmers upcycling natural fruit abundance into value added income for their families.

Colleen has been serving the City of Oceanside for 14 years and is the Environmental Officer managing the City’s Zero Waste initiatives and programs, including work with businesses to ensure food scraps recycling success. By fostering partnerships with the local food system and food distribution networks, and creating facilities like the Green Oceanside Kitchen, Colleen is moving Oceanside closer to zero waste and ensuring edible food goes to the community, not the landfill.

Mirit creates experiences that help people live and work better. She started planning big family celebrations at the age of 10, the challenge of orchestrating a complex experience compelled her. Years later, as the global head of designing Adobe's workplace experience programs, the thrill is still there. In her current role, Mirit designs Adobe's workplace experience programs around food, wellbeing, and employee events in order to spark collaboration, amplify culture, inspire belonging, and fuel employee and company success.

Chef Brune was born in “flavor country” Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he began cooking at a very young age. He's long nurtured a passion for organic farming, local ingredients, and sustainability, and introduced his conscious-cooking philosophy to an array of clientele, including celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Jerry Seinfeld, and Mike Shinoda. He founded Eco Caters in 2007 to bring fresh, seasonal, organic food to events in Southern California. Recently he's launched Gaslamp Food Hall, Ghost Fried Chicken & San Diego Tuna Company. His current focus is on the future of food and getting food from our phones to our mouths.

Martine is an Environmental Scientist in CalRecycle’s Statewide Technical and Analytical Resources Branch. She serves as CalRecycle’s technical advisor on food waste, and provides scientific analyses on California’s food system and climate change. Martine is also highly engaged in statewide efforts to increase safe surplus food donation in California, and is a member of the CalRecycle team tasked with developing the edible food recovery regulations for California’s short-lived climate pollutant law, Senate Bill 1383.

Nate is a California native currently living in Philly, builder of corporate food programs, chef, entrepreneur, and father of three wonderful daughters. He is passionate about sustainable food supply chain, food waste, and tacos.

Emilie is a scholar of business law, management, and health systems, currently in Health Policy & Management at Harvard Business School. She researches purpose-driven companies to understand how internal management and business law and management frameworks can better facilitate their substantial potential for social and economic impact. Before her PhD, Emilie worked for 6 years as a food and public health lawyer in the US and Europe, and at an education and health nonprofit in the Dominican Republic.