Editorial Advisory Board
 |
Steve Allen is Vice President of New Business Development for Nestle USA, Glendale, CA. Steve is Vice-President, New Business Development for Nestlé based in Glendale California. He has been in the food industry for almost twenty-five years and gained experience working in Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and Switzerland. Prior to moving to the USA he was head of the Nutrition Division of Nestlé in Canada. He has had functional responsibility for marketing and sales in his career as well as general management. Steve was born in England and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Leeds and a Master¹s from the University of London. His current responsibilities are for global licensing and certain venture capital activities of Nestlé. Nestlé is the world # 1 food company with sales over $70 billion. The company has a leadership position in several food and beverage categories backed by food and nutrition research organization with over 3000 people.
Richard Barndt , PhD
Richard Barndt, Ph.D. began his industrial career at National Starch & Chemical Corporation serving in technical, regulatory and product assurance capacities and has recently rejoined the National Starch Food Innovation business division where he is responsible for coordinating the global product assurance, regulatory affairs and external technology functions. In the interim period of time, Dr. Barndt worked for 18 years in the high intensity sweetener category. The majority of that time was devoted to the commercial development of sucralose, Splenda Brand Sweetener, at McNeil Specialty Products Company. Dr. Barndt was part of the core business team that prepared and successfully petitioned the FDA for sucralose approval then built and managed the Product Development support team. His responsibilities broadened to include a New Business Development role seeking nutritional health related opportunities in the form of new ingredients, technologies, nutraceuticals and functional foods.
 |
Nancy Childs, PhD, joined the Department of Food Marketing at St. Joseph’s University in 1991. Prior to her academic appointment she spent 15 years in the food industry in positions with companies such as General Mills, Quaker Oats and Campbell Soup Company. Dr. Childs is also Founding Director of the Nutraceutical Institute partnership between St. Joseph’s University’s Center for Food Marketing and Rutgers University.
 |
Dr. Fergus Clydesdale is Distinguished Professor and Head in the Department of Food Science and Director of the Strategic Research Alliance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He received his BA and MA from the University of Toronto and PhD from the University of Massachusetts. He has published some 360 scientific articles and has coauthored or edited twenty books. He has served on numerous committees, including those of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), FASEB, The U.S. Senate, IFT, ILSI-NA, Codex Alimentarius, the Keystone committee on National Policy on Diet and Health, the Food and Nutrition Board of the NAS and the Food Advisory Committee of the FDA where, among other duties, he served as Chair of the FDA Working Panel to evaluate Olestra. His research involves the study and regulation of physiochemical changes in food, which alter nutritional bioavailability, physiological effects, food quality, food acceptability, overall health and quality of life. This interest provides a unique perspective since it combines Food Science, Nutrition, Public Health and Consumer acceptance.
Steven Dentali, PhD
Steven Dentali, PhD, is the Vice President for Scientific and Technical Affairs of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), Silver Spring, MD. Dr. Dentali earned his doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a specialization in Natural Products Chemistry from the University of Arizona, Tucson. An American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education Fellow, he has written about popular herb use and published safety reviews of kava and ephedra. Recognized as a foremost expert in the natural products industry and a frequent lecturer, Dr. Dentali has been appointed as a member of the United States Pharmacopeia 2005 Convention and, among other organizations, serves as a reviewer for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at NIH.
 |
Loren Israelsen, a dietary supplement industry veteran of 25 years, began his natural products life as general counsel of Nature’s Way Products, later serving as its president. He founded the Utah Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) in 1991 to focus the efforts of the Utah dietary supplement industry on FDA’s regulation of supplements. Amazingly, this led to passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994. Today, as President of LDI Group, Inc., he advises companies on all aspects of the dietary supplement, nutraceuticals and functional food regulatory and commercial world. He writes and lectures a lot. Occasionally people listen to him. In his spare time, he wishes he had more spare time.
 |
Alex Merolli, MBA, has 35 years of experience in the food and industrial biotechnology industries, with a career focus on research, business development and marketing of foods and functional/nutritional food ingredients. Mr. Merolli is an independent consultant specializing in strategic market assessments of emerging technologies with concentration in the dietary supplement and functional food categories. He is a founding member of Nutri+Food Business Consulting, a consortium of consultants, working at the interface of science and business. He is also a member of Consultants Association for the Natural Products Industry (CANI), another consulting network with diverse experience and skills in the food and nutrition industries. As a former member of the advisory board with Burrill & Company’s Nutraceuticals Capital Fund, he helped to incubate a start up, Efficas, Inc., a nutraceutical discovery, development and marketing company. While acting Director of Business Development, he was involved with negotiating numerous deals at all levels of the nutrition value chain and fundraising with venture capital companies. Currently, Mr. Merolli is an advisory board member for LSP Bioventures, a recently formed fund focusing primarily on early and mid-stage investments in the agricultural sector, but also in opportunities in new growth areas such as bio fuels, nutrition and health and wellness.
Paul Paslaski
Paul Paslaski is the Market Development Director for Cargill Health & Food Technologies (HFT). He is a marketing professional with over 20 years experience in developing and implementing consumer-focused business plans. Paul is responsible for managing and implementing strategic marketing and branding programs for Cargill HFT¹s health promoting ingredients. Value proposition generation via the utilization for quantitative and qualitative consumer market research to help host/CPG companies leverage key product essence. Paul joined Cargill HFT after working as director of corporate new business development for Tetra Pak Inc. Prior to that he was senior marketing manager for the North American Food Business Unit of Roche Vitamins, Inc.
 |
Greg Stephens is vice president of strategic consulting with The Natural Marketing Institute (NMI), Harleysville, PA. His background includes 25 years of specialized expertise in the nutritional and pharmaceutical industries. Most recently he was vice president of Nurture, Inc. Prior experience also includes a progressive series of management positions with the Ross Products Division of Abbott Laboratories, including development of global nutrition strategies for disease-specific growth platforms and business development for Ross' medical foods portfolio, including such products as Ensure and Glucerna.
 |
Rhonda S. Witwer is Business Development Manager of Nutrition for National Starch Food Innovation in Bridgewater, NJ. She develops business opportunities, creates marketing messages, communicates health information and coordinates regulatory issues for Hi-maize and NOVELOSE resistant starches, health-promoting carbohydrates that are supported by more than 120 published studies. Ms. Witwer has more than a decade of experience in marketing bioactive ingredients and has written numerous articles and expert market reports on market opportunities for bioactive ingredients. A graduate of Butler University with a BS in Chemistry, she received her MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
