Webinars

Jonna has been an innovator in the fresh foods space for nearly two decades driving the evolution of consumer-centric decision making and big data analytics throughout the perimeter.

Jonna joined Circana in 2016 and leads Circana’s Fresh Foods practice which unlocks the big data power of Circana for perishables suppliers and retailers. She spearheaded developing Circana’s Integrated Fresh solution for sales and shopper tracking across total food and beverage, in partnership with IDDBA and other industry leaders.

Jonna has talked fresh foods to outlets such as NPR and CNN and many others. She co-authors the monthly IDDBA and fresh industry articles with 210 Analytics’ Anne-Marie Roerink and was one of Progressive Grocer’s 2020 Top Women in Grocery.

Marco is a seasoned Senior Consultant at Euromonitor International, boasting over 12 years of experience in Strategic Research and Consultancy. He holds the position of Team Leader for the Trade and Government practice, overseeing commercial affairs in the United States and Canada.

Throughout his tenure at Euromonitor International, Marco has cultivated a wealth of experience collaborating with diverse groups, including associations, governmental bodies, and multilateral organizations spanning Europe, Latin America, and North America.

As a bakery product developer in San Francisco he works with clean label initiatives to create nutritious breads and bakery items. He is an award-winning bread baker, author, and teacher. He specializes in the sensory aspects of bakery items and breads, particularly those made with sourdough starters. He holds the copyright on the Aroma & Flavor Wheel for Breads©, a sensory tool that helps manufacturers understand consumer preferences in breads.

Michael has designed bakery sensory programs for Anson Mills and the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation. In collaboration with Maine Grains and the Maine Craft Brewers Association, he developed a system for beer and bread pairings based on flavor and texture complements. His interest in the link between flavor and nutrition in breads has given him opportunity to present at Stanford University's Department of Nutrition, Maine Grains Kneading Conference, and twice at the Johnson & Wales University International Symposium of Bread.

Using his doctoral studies in adult education, he served as the Director of Education at the California Culinary Academy. His bread baking curriculum was used at the Le Cordon Bleu schools, N.A. and the culinary program of the Art Institute school system. Michael's professional certifications include executive pastry chef, culinary educator, and master taster.

His first book, How To Bake Bread: The Five Families of Bread®won the Gourmand International Award for Best Bread Book in the World and was nominated Best Professional CookBook by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. His most recent book, How To Bake MORE Bread: Modern Breads/Wild Yeast, explores flavor profiles delivered by various sourdough methods. It was short-listed in the bread category for best cookbooks of 2018.

Eric Le Blanc is the SVP of Marketing at Category Partners, LLC; a retail sector, business insights company founded in 2008, which specializes in driving growth by executing consumer and market research, data analytics and technology solutions.

Prior to joining Category Partners in 2023, Eric worked for nearly 20 years leading Tyson Foods’ marketing efforts in the Deli channel, with responsibilities spanning from consumer and shopper marketing, trade marketing, customer planning and development, and business strategy. In this capacity he pioneered the use of data and insights in the Deli channel at Tyson Foods, including original and innovative studies and methodologies that led to new and sometimes surprising insights into consumer behaviors and attitudes in this section of the store. He served 5 years on the IDDBA Board of Directors and has been recognized as an industry thought leader.

Adam Brohimer is the President of Category Partners, LLC; a retail sector, business insights company founded in 2008, which specializes in driving growth by executing consumer and market research, data analytics and technology solutions.

Adam got his start in the retail grocery industry in the early 1990s. He worked for nearly five years across most of the store departments at Omaha, Neb. based Baker’s Supermarkets’.

Born and raised in Omaha, Neb., Adam earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Following, he earned an MBA from the University of California, Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.

Tom Barnes is the chief executive officer of Category Partners, LLC; a retail sector, business insights company founded in 2008, which specializes in driving growth by executing consumer and market research, data analytics and technology solutions.

Tom has successfully led Category Partners by developing strategic partnerships, proprietary data reporting tools and adding primary consumer research capabilities to Category Partners services. Since taking the reins at the end of 2016, Category Partners has more than doubled its annual revenue.

Prior to joining Category Partners in 2013, Tom held a senior position at Wada Farms Marketing Group leading a major retailer account group for more than 9 of his 13 years with the company.

Cara Ammon is the Senior Vice President of Category Partners, LLC; a retail sector, business insights company founded in 2008, which specializes in driving growth by executing consumer and market research, data analytics and technology solutions.

Prior to joining Category Partners, spent nearly two decades leading research efforts for Beacon Research Solutions and Nielsen’s Perishables Group.

Cara has worked with a “who’s who” of perishables clients, centered on understanding consumers and the retail channel and delivering strategic recommendations to help companies increase sales. She has conducted hundreds of consumer-research projects, ranging from large-scale, custom projects to multi-organizational projects to quick-turn, single-question surveys. More specifically, Ammon’s consumer experience also includes focus groups; syndicated research; in-store testing; loyalty-card data analysis and promotion/pricing analysis.

Justin Deal is a Sales Representative with Rise Baking Company. He is also a coordinator for helping educate and train Cake Techs with new ways to train decorators, bakery department trends, and cake decorating trends.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree, Justin stumbled into the world of bakery while in a grocery store training program. A self-taught cake decorator and at-home-baker, he was surprised when he was able to combine his creativity with business and a dash of research methods. From there, he worked in a couple bakeries for five years, brokered bakery products for two years, and then joined Rise Baking Company as a Cake Tech for three years.

Justin enjoys learning about the vast world of baking and decorating, always looking out to see what is new and exciting. He also enjoys sharing that information with others.

As Chief Customer Officer, Derek Hannum is responsible for expanding customer relationships, growth and revenue performance including sales, marketing and customer success. Before joining Park City Group in 2017, Hannum served as managing director of marketing and product for Miller Heiman, the global leader in sales and leadership training. His retail industry experience includes marketing leadership roles with workforce management solution provider Empower Software (successful exit to Kronos) and CHEP Equipment Pooling Systems. Sales and marketing leadership roles include previous stints with Nissan Motor Corporation USA and Tenneco Automotive. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Marietta College and is a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Anne-Marie Roerink is the president of 210 Analytics, a research firm specialized in food retailing. Working closely with retailers, wholesalers, producers and trade associations, Anne-Marie has developed an excellent perspective on the ever-changing wants and needs of the consumer in a one-size-fits-no-one world. She understands the challenges and opportunities in the food retailing today as well as the drivers of success tomorrow. She works in many different areas from deli and meat to candy and bakery — uncovering the trends in our ever-changing marketplace.

Jonna has been an innovator in the fresh foods space for nearly two decades driving the evolution of consumer-centric decision making and big data analytics throughout the perimeter.

Jonna joined Circana in 2016 and leads Circana’s Fresh Foods practice which unlocks the big data power of Circana for perishables suppliers and retailers. She spearheaded developing Circana’s Integrated Fresh solution for sales and shopper tracking across total food and beverage, in partnership with IDDBA and other industry leaders.

Jonna has talked fresh foods to outlets such as NPR and CNN and many others. She co-authors the monthly IDDBA and fresh industry articles with 210 Analytics’ Anne-Marie Roerink and was one of Progressive Grocer’s 2020 Top Women in Grocery.

From a young age Chef Christian has had a passion for pasty, which led him to prestigious schools like French Pastry School in Chicago, IL and Notter School of Pastry Arts in Orlando, FL. In these renowned schools he honed his skills and gained a profound understanding of the art and science behind pastry making.

Upon completing his studies, Chef Christian ventured into the culinary scene in Atlanta, GA, where he joined a prominent restaurant group. Here, he used his creative flair and culinary ingenuity to craft exquisite dessert menus for a collection of distinguished restaurants throughout Atlanta.

Driven by his ambition and desire to create something uniquely his own, Chef Christian began on a new chapter in his career. Co-founding a Café and Wholesale Bakery, he embarked on a journey of entrepreneurship, supplying top-tier desserts and custom cakes to an array of restaurants and caterers in the local culinary landscape.

Through his years of dedication and hard work, Chef Christian has emerged as a pillar of expertise in both fine dining and food manufacturing. As a member of our U.S. team, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. Using these tools, he works to combine the IRCA ingredients and Dobla decorations into creative solutions.

Annette Nielsen, MA is the Executive Director of the Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center. Until recently, she led the New York City office for the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets. Her role representing the Department provided a touchpoint for the agricultural & food industries in the greater metropolitan area, while supporting efforts across the state to build food systems & resiliency. Beyond working to extend access to healthful, farm-sourced food for all New Yorkers, her portfolio included facilitating the Commissioner’s statewide Community Gardens Task Force & the Procurement Advisory Group.

After a career with leadership posts in Washington, DC serving on the staffs of US Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan & Edward M. Kennedy, Ms. Nielsen put her skillset to work in the food world. Whether policy or programming, she has engaged in the full spectrum of the food system from production to consumption: launching an incubator kitchen, collaborating on an 8,000 square-foot community garden, facilitating farm to institution initiatives, serving on the inaugural health & wellness committee as an elected member of a NYS board of education, as well as significant work in agritourism, precepting nutrition students & teaching culinary nutrition & food systems to medical residents.

Annette’s work as an award-winning food writer has appeared in national publications such as Adirondack Life, Eating Well, Edible, The Hill Rag, The NYC Food Policy Center, The Washington Post, & the Saratogian. She has served as a board or committee member for several food policy organizations. She was appointed to NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ Transition Team for Food Policy & received the 2022 Food-Ed Coalition Outstanding Coalition Member award. Annette earned her BA, Fine Arts from Colgate University, MA, Writing from Johns Hopkins, & completed her certification in Nutrition from Cornell University. She grew up in the Adirondacks & calls Harlem home.

The McCully Group offers strategic consulting to dairy and food companies, specializing in business analysis, supply chain strategies, market research, and commodity risk management. Prior to starting The McCully Group, Mike worked for over 15 years at Kraft Foods where he held management roles in dairy, meat, and grain purchasing. He now contributes expertise to global consulting firms, private equity, and Wall Street banks. Currently, Mike serves on the boards of IDFA's Dairy Ingredients and the Economic Policy committee, as well as the American Dairy Products Institute Center of Excellence.

Trevor has spent his entire working life in the cheese industry. He started in a local cheese shop while attending college to become an architect. Needless to say, designing cheese displays became more interesting than designing buildings.

This first job led him to a better position at Nob Hill Foods, a 29 store supermarket chain based in Gilroy, CA. By the time Raley’s Supermarkets of West Sacramento purchased Nob Hill Foods in 1997, Trevor had worked his way up to Director of Delis.

Trevor worked for Raley’s for another seven years before leaving the retail side of the business to become a specialty cheese broker, where has love for the cheese industry grew.

In 2013, he accepted a job with Lactalis American Group to cover their Southwest Territory. Trevor’s passion only grew from there, as he became an American Cheese Society, Certified Cheese Professional; Authored a book on Lactalis’ 25 PDO Cheeses; was inducted into the Guilde des Fromagers and volunteers on the IDDBA Cheese Merchandising Team.

In 2019, he started a cheese blog www.cheesetraveler.com

Karen holds a master's degree in German with a focus on Second Language Acquisition. She has worked in academia, government, corporate, and association settings. She speaks multiple languages including English, German, and Spanish.

Luke is a Senior executive, consultant, and entrepreneur with experience in raising capital, accounting, deduction management, CEO coaching, and retail domination best practices. As the President of Monterrey Provisions, he scaled and grew the company from $32M to $250M+ in revenue, and launched 3 startups along the way. Currently, as CEO and Coach at Vdriven, Luke helps emerging brands in all aspects of retail.

Prior to her tenure at STOP, Mitzi cultivated a 23-year career at Feeding America rising to the senior level position of managing director of food safety. Ms. Baum earned a Master of Science in Food Safety and a certificate in Food Law from Michigan State University. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Bowling Green State University and has obtained certificates in Non-Profit Management from the University of Chicago, Quality Management from DePaul University, and Food Safety Management from Cornell University.

Mitzi is the 2021 Joseph Leiter Lecturer of the Medical Library Association and National Library of Medicine, an adjunct instructor for Michigan State University’s Online Food Safety Program, a certified seafood HACCP instructor, a certified PCQI, is a member of the National Restaurant Association’s Food Safety Advisory Council and is a board member of the American National Standards Institute.

Stop Foodborne Illness is headquartered in Chicago, IL.

Debra Holstein brings a wealth of expertise in marketing, advertising, new product consulting, and cultural trends. Holding an MBA from Columbia University, she has made significant contributions to renowned organizations such as Grey Advertising, Coca-Cola Foods, and Faith Popcorn’s Brain Reserve. Throughout her career, Debra has collaborated with industry giants including Coca-Cola, Unilever (Ragu, Lipton, Bertolli), Nabisco, Kraft, TNT Pizza, Neutrogena, Unilever Beauty, and Avon. Her diverse portfolio showcases her versatility as a new products creator, branding innovator, and trend specialist.

Currently serving as the Principal of The Edible Future, Debra has established herself as a visionary leader. Her entrepreneurial spirit is evident through her own product line, "The 4 O’clock Cookie," a testament to her commitment to creating innovative and delightful consumer experiences. With a proven track record of success and an unwavering passion for shaping the future of the industry, Debra Holstein continues to be a driving force in the world of marketing and product innovation.