Lisa Cork

Lisa Cork has been called "a marketing dynamo" and with 16 years experience in the food marketing and distribution industry, this lady knows her stuff. She was involved in the American produce industry for 5 years where she became most well known as "The Broccoli Lady" for the role she played in sending former President George Bush ten tons of broccoli. For the past 10 years, she has been based in Auckland, New Zealand where she has built a successful business working with food clients around the world. Lisa is a professional speaker and one of only 11 New Zealander's to hold the international APS accreditation. She is a University Lecturer and recently both wrote and taught New Zealand's first post-graduate paper in Retail Food Marketing. She is a popular magazine columnist and the author of a world first book, "15 Fresh Ideas - Secrets of a Produce Marketer Revealed." For more information, visit: www.freshproducemarketing.com.

Paul Dolan

Wine runs in Paul Dolan's blood. For four generations there have been winemakers in Dolan's family, and he has quietly been at the forefront of transforming the California wine industry for more than a decade.

Part of the California winemaking renaissance that began in the 1970s, Dolan crafted a style for Fetzer Sundial Chardonnay that resulted in one of the longest running success stories in California wine history, with no end in sight. He repeated that success with Fetzer Eagle Peak Merlot, which remains one of the most popular restaurant wines in America.

Fetzer's vineyards are located in some of California's premier grape growing regions, from the rugged Mendocino County to the north, to the cool, fertile vineyards along the Central Coast.

As president of Fetzer Vineyards and a founder of Wine Vision, Dolan has been an advocate for sustainability and organic farming based on the simple premise that this natural view of our relationship with the world is not only the right view, but also delivers a more flavorful, memorable wine for consumers.

Author of True To Our Roots: Fermenting A Business Revolution, Dolan is now sharing ideas about how to thrive with a triple-bottom-line approach: balancing environmental, economic and social equity needs to achieve success.

Dolan serves on the boards of the Wine Institute and Business for Social Responsibility, and is developing next-generation product ideas for Brown-Forman Corporation, parent company of Fetzer Vineyards.

Steve Gross

Steve is Director of State Relations at Wine Institute, where he has been employed since 1986. Steve's duties entail overseeing the activities of Wine Institute's State Relations Field Staff as they track state legislation affecting the wine industry, as well as coordinating Wine Institute's legislative and regulatory activities with staff, contract lobbyists and member wineries. Steve began his Wine Institute tenure as a Legal/Legislative Assistant, and also worked as Administrative Services Manager before assuming his current position in 1995. Steve regularly participates in many national programs dealing with issues facing the wine industry, both on the legislative and regulatory levels. Also, he is deeply involved in various public policy forums that are currently working toward reforming California's governance structure, the state's education and public finance systems, as well as environmental and sustainability issues. A native of Nebraska, Steve brought to Wine Institute knowledge garnered during his ten years of employment in the on-sale food and beverage industry, as well as extensive experience in political campaigns and legislative activism.

Shermain Hardesty

Shermain Hardesty is an Extension Economist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California - Davis. She is responsible for research, education and outreach programs related to cooperatives and food marketing issues. Dr. Hardesty served as Director of the University's Center for Cooperatives from March 2002 through its closure in January 2004. Previously, she was principal of Food Marketing & Economics Group, a consulting firm based in Davis, California. She specialized in evaluating domestic and international marketing opportunities for produce, processed food products and agricultural commodities. Since 1993, she has served as the primary instructor for the class, Getting Started in the Specialty Food Business, offered by University of California-Extension, Davis. Prior to founding Food Marketing & Economics Group in 1991, Shermain Hardesty held the positions of Director of Financial Planning and Senior Economist at the Rice Growers Association of California, a rice marketing cooperative, between 1986 and 1990. Her responsibilities included conducting market research, developing new products, coordinating promotion programs and structuring financing programs. Dr. Hardesty earned her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California, Davis, where she has also taught marketing courses. She served as a member of the faculty of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University from 1984 through 1986. During 1996-97, she served as President of the American Marketing Association, Sacramento Valley Chapter. Her other professional affiliations include the National Cooperative Business Association, North Central Region Committee on Research on Cooperatives, American Agricultural Economics Association, Food Distribution Research Society and the International Food & Agribusiness Management Association.

Joshua Ruiz

Currently, Joshua is working for River Ranch Fresh Foods, a Grower/Packer/Shipper/and Processor of fresh produce in the Salinas area, where he serves as Director of Harvest Operations for their broccoli program, as well as Food Safety Rep for the Ag Operations side of the business. Josh has degrees Crop Science and Agribusiness at California Polytechnic State University, SLO and has a MS in Agribusiness from the same institution. His university work evaluated resource allocation in the leaf vegetables in the Salinas Valley.

James E. Haskell

James is Assistant Deputy Administrator for Cooperative Service, Rural Cooperative Development - USDA, Washington, D.C. James is an USDA honored employee for outstanding achievement "52nd Annual Honor Awards: For Personal and Professional Excellence." The Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program was established under the 1996 Farm Bill to provide grants to nonprofit corporations and institutions of higher education for the primary purpose of improving the economic condition of rural areas through the development of new cooperatives and improving operations of existing cooperatives. Emphasis is placed on those projects with high potential to improve rural business activity through the cooperative form of business. Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) may offer up to $10 million by the end of fiscal year 2003 to fund Agricultural Innovation Centers that will provide technical and business development assistance to producers interested in selling value-added agricultural commodities or products.

Mary Holz-Clause

Mary Holz-Clause is Program Manager for the Value Added Agriculture program at Iowa State Universit, in Ames, IA. In that role, she assists value added ag businesses with market research, feasibility studies, business plans and other key components of business start-up and expansion. She has worked on numerous feasibility studies in the area of meat and fish processing, grain processing, wine, cheese processing, and with a number of specialty food products.

In addition to her position as program manger, she is co-director of the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center (AgMRC). The AgMRC is a joint project of Iowa State University, Kansas State University and the University of California. Holz-Clause wrote the grant which established the $15 million center. The Center provides electronic-web based information for producers wanting to start value added ag businesses or expand existing businesses. The web site is www.agmrc.org.

Prior to joining, ISU Holz-Clause was with the Iowa Department of Economic Development, where she helped to launch the first in the nation ethanol consumer marketing campaign. She headed up the research for the department helping to locate businesses and industries to the state and was involved in numerous international marketing trade missions.

Holz-Clause has a Master's degree in Public Administration/Political Science from ISU and has a B.S. in agriculture business from ISU. She is currently pursing a PhD.

Jenni James

Jenni is an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at Pennsylvania State University. A California native, she received three degrees at the University of California, Davis: a bachelors in agricultural and managerial economics, and masters and doctorate degrees in Agricultural and resource economics. Jenni's research interests include the effects of agricultural policies and how they can influence product quality, policies related to commodity marketing boards, and consumer demand for food and agricultural products. Most of her current research focuses on consumer demand for particular product characteristics, in particular, whether a product has been developed using modern agricultural biotechnology. Along with co-authors, Jenni has received two awards from the Western Agricultural Economics Association for outstanding published research. Jenni teaches in Penn State's Agribusiness Management undergraduate program, which emphasizes business skills applied to agricultural and food markets. She teaches Agribusiness Problem Solving, an Excel-based class, Food Product Marketing, and Agribusiness in the Global Economy. She has been on the faculty at Penn State for 4 years.

Tom Lorish

Tom is a technical consultant living in Los Osos, CA. Working throughout central California, and the Pacific Northwest, he helps organizations develop, implement, and maintain Food Safety & Quality programs, including GMPs, GAPs, HACCP, ISO 9000, and EUREPGAP. His company, Ag2Tek, specializes in Agriculture and Food Processing.

Bob Noyes

Dr. Bob Noyes, Professor Emeritus of Food Science, taught in the Food Science and Nutrition Department at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, CA for the past 30 years. His wine related efforts at Cal Poly included teaching two classes, one on the commercial production of wine and beer and another on the sensory evaluation and enjoyment of wine. He was the advisor to the Cal Poly Vines to Wines Club, a very active group of young people who are planning on careers in the wine industry. In 1999, he had an eight-month sabbatical working with Tim Hanni (MW) of Beringer Wine Estates and WineQuest LLC. He now consults in both the food and wine industries and gives wine related lectures around the country. Bob was raised in the state of Vermont, received his Ph.D. in Food Science at the University of Georgia in 1974, and he and his wife Sandra have lived in San Luis Obispo since then. Bob is a retired Lieutenant Colonel (Army Reserves), has served on the executive committee of the Institute of Food Technologist (IFT) (a 30,000 member scientific society regarding food), is a Past President of Phi Tau Sigma, the national Food Science honorary fraternity. He was recently elected a Fellow of the IFT and is currently the Secretary of the San Luis Obispo Exchange Club. While at Cal Poly, Bob taught courses in Fruit and Vegetable Processing, Sensory Evaluation of Food, Food Law and Regulation, Wine and Beer Production, and Sensory Evaluation of Wine. Bob enjoys gardening, hearing from friends and former students, traveling with his wife and being with their two grown sons, talking about and trying new wines, and most especially a tight line at the end of a bent fly rod. He also enjoys helping others learn about the wonderful world of wine and is looking forward to meeting you.

Thomas Reardon

Tom joined the Department of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University in 1992. Before that he worked the 8 years after his Ph.D. with the International Food Policy Research Institute. He teaches the upper-level undergraduate course in International Agrifood Industries and Markets and the graduate course in International Agricultural Development, both in Fall Semester. Tom is the Deputy Director of the MSU project Partnerships for Food Industry Development - Fruits and Vegetables, PFID-F&V, funded by USAID. He is also a founding member of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards, funded by the National Science Foundation. He coordinates MSU work in Guatemala on the PFID-F&V project, collaborating with colleagues from the Association of Non-Traditional Product Exporters of Guatemala. Tom focuses his research on the rapid rise of supermarkets in developing countries, and the implications of that rise for agrifood systems, trade, and development in general. The bulk of the work focuses on implications for fruit and vegetables and dairy sectors, the foci of agricultural diversification initiatives to improve the lives of small farmers and firms. The extremely rapid rise of supermarkets in only one decade in developing regions constitutes a fundamental sea change in development, with profound implications for poor rural households and small farms and firms. Tom has done collaborative work on this theme in Latin America, East/Southeast Asia, Eastern/Southern Africa, and in Central/Eastern Europe. In most of the countries in these regions there is rapid multi-nationalization and consolidation of the supermarket sector. Moreover, the food product procurement systems of supermarkets differ substantially from those of traditional retail, whether state or private. These changes in procurement systems include: (1) a shift from local store-by-store procurement to nationally centralized big distribution centers; (2) a shift from the use of traditional brokers to new specialized/dedicated wholesalers; (3) a shift to preferred supplier systems; (4) a shift to high private standards of quality and safety. These changes change the conditions facing farmers, creating important opportunities and challenges in the international agrifood system. Dr. Reardon's global view of food retailing and procurement will set the stage for the 2004 FDRS Conference.

Bradley J. Rickard

Bradley Rickard completed his undergraduate and masters degrees in Agribusiness at the University of Guelph, in Canada. Brad has worked in fruit production, in the agricultural chemical sector, and interned in Australia. In 2003, he received his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis where he studied the economic effects of domestic support and trade barriers applied to markets in the tomato processing industry. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Agribusiness Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and a member of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society and the Western Agricultural Economics Association. His primary duty at Cal Poly is teaching, and his research interests are in the areas of agricultural and food policy, traceability issues, and the economics of nutritional recommendations.

Michael P. Riley

Michael is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Diamond of California, the market leader of culinary and inshell nuts. In his role as CFO, he led a major reshaping of the company's capital structure that eliminated grower retains, added a Trust Preferred Offering, went into the private placement market for long term debt and utilized the retained earnings of a growing nonpatronge business. The last private placement earned an NAIC 1 credit rating, putting Diamond in the top tier of quality borrowers. He was actively involved in Diamond's transition away from the joint marketing and administrative structure of Sun-Diamond (which represented Sun-Maid Growers, Sunsweet Growers and Diamond) to a completely independent entity. Diamond has grown from $190 million in annual sales to over $300 million in the four years since operating under the new structure. He has worked for Diamond since 1988. Prior to Diamond, he held treasury and accounting positions for Sun-Diamond and Foster Poultry Farms. He graduated with a B.A. from California Lutheran College and and M.B.A from California State University, Stanislaus.

Mark J. Semmens

Mark is a Managing Director of Investment Banking for D.A. Davidson & Co., one of the nation's leading regional investment firms. Mr. Semmens has extensive experience in providing investment banking services to clients in the western and midwestern U.S., including public offerings, private placements, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. In 2003, he led the team that structured and sold the $86 million perpetual preferred stock offering for CHS, Inc. Since then, Mr. Semmens and his colleagues have prepared various analyses and presentations regarding equity capital alternatives for cooperatives.

Albert Straus

Albert Straus is the President and Founder (1994-present) of Straus Family Creamery of Marshall, CA in Marin County. Albert converted his family's dairy to organic in 1993, making it the first certified organic dairy west of the Mississippi. He then opened Straus Family Creamery to bottle milk and other organic dairy products under the family name. Since 1996, two other dairies have become an extended part of Straus Family Creamery. Albert continues to be active in farmland protection and environmental issues. Albert's on farm projects include growing silage, no-till planting, water waste reduction and the recent installation of a methane digester. The dairy is now powered with methane captured from the farm waste. Albert received his B.S. in Dairy Science at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in 1977. Awards given to the Albert and the Straus family include the 1998 Steward of the Land National Award in Recognition of outstanding efforts in land stewardship, farmland conservation policy and the use of environmentally and economically sustainable farming practices and the 2002 Ecological Farming Conference Sustie Award in recognition for their Leadership in Sustainable Agriculture and Organic Farming.