Abbotsford, BC, May 13, 2010. With only three weeks to go until FoodPro West—slated for June 4 in Burnaby—the BCFPA is pleased to announce that the slate of Industry Expert Panel speakers has been confirmed as follows:

• Lloyd Bernhardt (Ethical Bean): In 1988, Lloyd co-founded Motion Works, which became one of B.C.'s first and most successful Macintosh software development companies. Following this, he did a stint at Apple Computer in California where he consulted on Quicktime, a standard movie player for all personal computers. He continued working for a series of software development companies in Vancouver prior to shifting to launching Ethical Bean in 2003. It started with a deep, personal connection with Latin America and grew out of a sense of social and environmental responsibility and a love of great coffee. Ethical Bean has quickly evolved into the Lower Mainland's fastest growing Certified Fair Trade coffee supplier and BC's only 100% Transfair Canada Certified Fair Trade coffee roaster. A recipient of various excellence awards, Lloyd was honoured to be included in the 1991 'Top 40 under 40 Achievers' (Business in Vancouver)
   
• Gay Hahn (Avalon Dairy): Gay was born and raised in Vancouver, B.C. and continues to reside in the city with her husband Pat and son Bob. She began working for Avalon Dairy Ltd. in 1980. After working at the dairy for the past 24 years she is now CEO of Avalon Dairy Ltd. Gay is very active serving the industry. She has been Founding President of the BC Food Processors Association, President of the BC Dairy Foundation, President of the BC Dairy Council and is currently the Board Chair of the Food Processing HR Council of Canada. Gay has won several awards in her career, the most recent being the 2010 Farm Credit Canada Rosemary Davis Award for her leadership and commitment to the Canadian agriculture and agri-food industry.
   
• Arran Stephens (Nature’s Path Foods): Arran and his wife Ratana started Nature’s Path Foods out of the back of their independent restaurant in the early 80s. They built the company into North America’s first and largest organic breakfast food company. Arran has won several awards and accolades over the years, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2008 Nature’s Path Foods purchased a new plant in Sussex, Wisconsin and bought 2,240 acres of fertile Saskatchewan farmland, all in the spirit of spreading the organic love (and acreage) far and wide. Jyoti Stephens (Arran’s daughter and Nature’s Path’s Sustainability and Stewardship Manager) completed her Green MBA from Bainbridge University and became an official Green Genius. To celebrate, the company signed the Declaration of Sustainability. Nature’s Path was one of the first companies to sign onto the Declaration of Sustainability. The Declaration is an 11-point action plan that was created for the organic food trade to move toward more sustainable business models.

The industry panel will again be facilitated by Guyle Tippe of KPMG. He served in this capacity in 2008 and 2009 as well, and both sessions were rated very high in feedback. Attendees loved the interaction with the CEOs and the practical lessons learnt. 

FoodProWest—with theme this year of “Energy/Sustainability”—is your chance to learn from industry leaders, attend professional development sessions, network with peers and visit the exhibits.  Professional development sessions will include Product Packaging, Occupational Safety and Finances (lending, leasing and foreign exchange). The event will also feature the BC Food Processing Industry Awards, as well as the expert panel of industry specialists described above.

Space is running out fast! Visit http://www.bcfpa.ca/event/387 for more information and book your seat or table, or exhibit space online now.

Flow of events:

• Trendy Tradeshow (all day)
• Breakfast Keynote 8 am
• Three concurrent Professional development seminars
• Industry awards
• Celebratory lunch
• Keynote Speakers of Excellence
• Industry Panel of Experts and Trendsetters
• Conclusion at 3 pm.

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The BCFPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to represent all segments of the food, beverage and nutraceutical processing industry, and to coordinate common industry activities and resources under one umbrella. The Association represents micro, small, medium, and large processing companies.

For more information, contact:

Adam Ford
BCFPA, 35707 Sunridge Place, Abbotsford, BC, V3G 1E5
Tel 604-504-4409  Fax 604-746-4409
adam@bcfpa.ca
 

2010_05_13_FoodProWest2010.pdf