Rob has been involved in the specialty food trade for over twenty years, with a proven record of success in global sales, strategic planning, packaging, team-building, new product development, distribution, procurement and import/export management. He has deep and established relationships with buyers in every major distribution channel: specialty retail, grocery, club stores, foodservice, direct to consumer, drug and export. His long-standing sales relationships include retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Williams-Sonoma, Target, Walmart, Publix, The Fresh Market and Dean & DeLuca.

As a consultant since 1998, Bob Burke provides assistance in bringing natural, organic and specialty products to market across most classes of trade. This includes work in strategic planning, growth strategies, writing sales, marketing and business plans, budgeting, pricing, building distribution, broker selection and management, organizational development, strategic options, branding and trade spending management. He is also the co-author and co-publisher of the Natural Products Field Manual, Fourth Edition and The Sales Manager's Handbook. Prior to consulting, Bob was with Stonyfield Farm Yogurt for 11 years as Vice President, Sales & Corporate Development and Vice President, Marketing & Sales. He has held marketing positions with Colombo, Inc. and Sperry Top-Sider. He received an MBA from Babson College.

Jeff founded JPG Resources to build food and beverage companies. JPG Resources now has three areas of practice, with focus areas of Strategy and Sales, Product Development, and Supply Chain. The JPG Resources team is headed by a collection of senior leaders who are results focused business people, with depth developed at leading companies and an entrepreneurial spirit that connects with companies at all stages of growth. Before launching JPG Resources in 2009, Jeff provided product and business leadership at Kashi as the company grew from $25million to $750million in sales over 9 years. Since then, JPGR has launched over 80 successful products, and continues to work with companies of all sizes to build strong and innovative businesses. These experiences have given him direct insight into rapidly moving functional food concepts from blue sky to market shelf, as well as into the creation of brands and products that capture the hearts of consumers, retailers, and investors. He has founded and operated companies in the manufacturing, sales, and consulting fields, and sits on various company boards. More information on Jeff and JPG Resources is available on the website at www.jpgresources.com.

Multiple-award-winning Terry Frishman, Principal of the boutique food consultancy Culinest, inspires and helps food start-ups and more established culinary businesses profitably excel. As a creative food marketing and business consultant, coach and educator, Terry (Columbia MBA) specializes in taking culinary businesses to the next level via concept building, strategic planning, brainstorming, branding, product development, food product launches, business expansion, and sales. Terry regularly instructs culinary business classes, and has been a repeat industry expert on Food Network, International Restaurant Show and the Fancy Food Show. She's served on Boards of Directors for professional organizations and taught thousands of aspiring food entrepreneurs. As Product Manager at Kraft, Terry won 6 team awards, launched a $20M brand and successfully managed $120M brand.

Debbie Wildrick – Chief Strategy Officer, MetaBrand is a sales, marketing, and operations executive and channel strategy specialist in the consumer packaged goods industry with 30+ years’ experience. She has had leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies including 7-Eleven, Inc. and Tropicana North America (Pepsico). In addition, her experience includes a strong background in building start-up brands including her own consulting business, the CEO of BAZI®, Inc. a public company, FRS Healthy Energy and Sundance Juice Sparklers, a brand which she helped grow to 100 million dollars in the early 1990s. She has also worked with leading companies in the industry to include both retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. They include The McLane Company, Wal-mart, Whole Foods, Target, GNC, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Safeway, Coca-Cola, Nestle Waters and many others. Wildrick has served as an Executive Committee Chair of the Network of Executive Women for ten years. She is also a regular panelist, speaker and columnist. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas and the Cornell Food Executive Program.

John has been in the grocery business for over 25 years, he founded Maggiore's Sales & Marketing in 2003, as a consultant and broker to the Natural/Specialty trade, with a primary focus on grocery, dairy and frozen in the Supermarket Channel. Prior to setting out on his own John was the Category Manager of Natural Food for Stop & Shop Supermarkets based in Boston, MA. John pioneered the store with-in-a-store Natural Food departments at Stop & Shop, creating over 150 departments in less than five years. Natural Food sales grew at Stop & Shop from $6 million when John took over responsibility for the department to $67 million when he left. Before John became Category Manager of Natural he had buying responsibilities in numerous categories including Specialty Cheese, Specialty Crackers, Gourmet Coffee, and Specialty Pasta as well as Frozen and Dairy Foods. Currently John is working with some leading manufacturers in the Natural Food channel including Pirate Brands, Justin's, Green Mountain Gringo, Seapoint Farms, R.W. Garcia and Angie's Popcorn, and has worked with other leading companies in the past including Bear Naked Granola, Larabar, Vita Coco and Ian's Natural Foods.

Kate Weiler is co-founder of DRINKmaple holds a Master of Science in Nutrition from Northeastern University and is a Certified Holistic Health Coach. With a passion for nutrition and health, Kate is proud to have brought a beverage to market that is created in a maple tree and not in a lab. Kate recently co-authored her first cookbook, Real Fit Kitchen which shares recipes designed for athletes and fitness enthusiasts with the intent to "Fuel Your Body, Improve Your Energy, and Increase Strength With Every Meal.”

Jeff Rose, co-founder of DRINKmaple, has 20 years of logistics and supply management experience working in the construction industry. Before devoting himself to co-founding the DRINKmaple, Jeff ran a home automation and electrical business. His technical expertise allows him to power through any logistical roadblock that may arise. Jeff manages all aspects of DRINKmaple's operations and oversees the entire process, from tree to bottle.

Founder, CEO of Flood Creative…an award winning branding agency Located in Irvington NY. Paula's story and Flood's story are one in the same. After designing for at more traditional agencies in London and New York in her early career, Paula was given the amazing opportunity to help build a brand from scratch as a co-founder and investor. She left her design job and co-founded a beverage company in 2001. After 5 years of hard work and lots of lessons in brand building, the brands, Fuze and NOS energy sold to Coca-Cola. The experience changed her view of what design can accomplish and more importantly, gave her an empathy and insight for marketing that no other agency role could provide. Flood has grown a lot over the years and the team continues to use the fundamental learnings from this experience to effect both new and established brands. In addition to the continued effort of innovating and building brands...most recently, BodyArmor Sports Drink and Core Hydration, Paula enjoys sharing her expertise by speaking and contributing to the branding community. She is also on the executive board of AIGA Brand Central and visits Parson's and other campuses in NY to share her insights.

Bill Sipper is Managing Partner at Cascadia Managing Brands and is one of the food and beverage industry's bright stars, having held senior-level positions at several of the top beverage marketers in the world. His market reach and depth of knowledge of the food and beverage industry includes North America, Asia, Europe as well as Central and South America. Sipper's track record for helping develop rising brands is unparalleled and will be key to any brand's development and deployment. Sipper was Chief Operating Officer of New Leaf Brands before rejoining Cascadia Managing Brands, a company he co-founded in 2003, a recognized consumer packaged goods consulting firm with deep expertise across all key areas of the food and beverage business including planning, sales, marketing, training, finance, operations, logistics, and general management. Before establishing Cascadia, Sipper was Senior Vice President of Marketing at the Ultimate Juice Co. which owned brands such as Naked Juice, Zeigler's Apple Cider, Fantasia, Hansens Smoothies, and Saratoga Mineral Water; President of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Tear of the Clouds; Director of National Sales at Nantucket Nectars; Vice President of Sales, Marketing, Distribution and Operations at Fresh Samantha. Fresh Samantha and Odwalla merged during Mr. Sipper’s tenure and both companies were sold to the Coca Cola Company in 2001; Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Chatham Beverage Company (Clearly Canadian, Old Tyme Soda, and New Amsterdam Beer.. Sipper began his career at Evian Natural Spring Water and helped pioneer Evian to its height in the United States, which in turn helped establish the premium bottled water category in America.