• Presentation at National Pork Industry Conference, July 2007
• Key note address at U.S. Poultry & Egg Association Financial Managers Conference, June 2007
• Presentation at AgroTech, India's premier food and agricultural conference, December 2006
• Presentation at Canadian Cattleman's Association Annual Convention, August 2006

Dr. Peter Barnard
General Manager of International Markets and Economic Services, Meat and Livestock Australia, Sydney, Australia

Australian Beef's Position in the Global Market

Biography

Dr Peter Barnard is currently the General Manager, International Markets and Economic Services for Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA).

In this role Peter heads up MLA's thirteen international and representative offices. The role also involves over sighting the planning of MLA's R&D and marketing programs and delivering market information to the Australian beef and sheep meat industries.

Dr Barnard previously worked as a tutor, lecturer and research fellow at Adelaide and Macquarie Universities. He was employed for five years as a research scientist by the Australian Road Research Board and for four years as Director for Transport and Telecommunications for the National Farmer's Federation.

Dr Barnard has a PhD in Economics from Adelaide University.

Economic papers authored or co-authored by Dr Barnard have appeared in a number of international journals. Dr Barnard continues to serve on several academic, transport and agricultural industry bodies.

William Kerr
Van Vliet Professor of the Agriculture Economics Department, Uiversity of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

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Opportunities in the Beef Market - Challenges of the Future

Biography

William A Kerr is the Van Vliet Professor of International Trade at the University of Saskatchewan. He received his PhD in economics and agricultural economics from the University of British Columbia. He was a member of the Economics Department at the University of Calgary from 1980-1999 before taking up his current position.

He has published widely in a number of areas of agricultural economics including international trade and international commercial policy, international value chains and international livestock markets. He has over 300 academic publications including more than ten books. Recent titles include: North American Beef Industry in Transition - New Consumer Demands and Supply Chain Responses (in press); Governing Risk in the 21st Century, Economic Analysis for International Trade Negotiations and Marketing Beef in Japan. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society and editor of the Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy.

Ted Schroeder
Distinguished Professor of the Agriculture Economics Department, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA

Consumer Demand: Coordinate to Compete

Protein suppliers in the global market place continue to ratchet up the level of competition. Canadian beef has numerous virtues and opportunities in this dynamic market, but effectively competing requires much better vertical coordination.

Biography

Ted has been on the faculty at Kansas State University for 20 years conducting research on livestock and meat marketing, consumer demand, and price analysis and teaching. He co-directs the North American Institute for Beef Economics Research (NAIBER.org), a Canadian-US beef economics research partnership. He cherishes the privilege of getting to help educate our next generation of industry leaders. Raised on a Nebraska farm on which he remains actively engaged, his goal is to help the beef industry prosper.

John Scott
President & CEO, The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, Willowdale, Ontario, Canada

The Consumer Drives the Agenda

A presentation on how the consumer is changing the dynamics of the retail food industry and the implications for the protein food sector.

Biography

John Scott is President of The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, which is a national non-profit association, dedicated to furthering the unique interests of independent and franchised grocers in Canada.

Following his post-graduate studies in economics at Queen's University, he moved to Alberta and was involved in several business and government related ventures. A primary focus of his work was the retail food industry.

In 1991, Mr. Scott was appointed to the position of President of The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers. He continues to be involved in a number of national industry and government committees as well as several boards in his home community of Unionville. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Markham Stouffville Hospital and the Institute for Agri Food Policy Innovation.

His enthusiasm and passion for the retail food industry has helped lead CFIG to play a prominent part in the major issues challenging the Canadian food industry. He continues to analyze the industry and meld his perspective into the frequent presentations he makes to audiences throughout North America. He has delivered keynote addresses on the Canadian food industry at both national and international events.

Gail Hall
Food Activist and Owner of Seasoned Solutions, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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Where's the Beef and Where's the Consumer

A presentation that includes comments and observations on beef and the food industry today and the impact of consumer demands on the industry tomorrow. Can current consumer trends affect our country's beef industry?

Biography

Gail Hall is a well-known Edmonton culinarian. Gail is a food activist and consultant and owns Seasoned Solution's Loft Cooking School. Gail is the weekly food columnist for CBC radio 740 am/93.9 fm and regularly cooks up a storm on CTV Edmonton and Access/Help TV. For 18 years Gail owned and operated Gourmet Goodies, an award-winning catering company that became one of the largest in the country. In the summer of 2006 Gail coordinated and hosted the food culture program that formed part of Alberta at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. She is on the board of Cuisine Canada, Growing Alberta, Global Women of Vision and Responsible Hospitality Edmonton.

Gail is passionate about sourcing local and regional ingredients and supporting our agriculture community. Her cooking school is on the same street as the Edmonton Downtown Farmer's Market and during the months while the market is open, students shop the market with Gail, meet vendors and purchase ingredients which are then created into a scrumptious three course meal, paired with Canadian wines. The cooking school is a popular venue for private special events and corporate team building afternoons.

Culinary Tours are another activity organized by Gail. She has hosted groups to culinary regions of the US including Santa Fe, Seattle, Louisiana and New York., as well as Italy and New Zealand. Future culinary destinations include New York in May 2008 and France in October of 2008.

Wesley Mendonca Batista
President and CEO JBS Swift & Company, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Biography

Wesley Mendonca Batista is the President and CEO of JBS Swift & Company. Before JBS purchased Swift & Company, Mr. Batista was the Executive Director of Operations of Brazil's JBS S.A. ("JBS"), Latin America's largest beef processor, the Vice President of its board of directors and a J&F partner. He is a member of the JBS founding family and has been employed in the beef industry his entire career, having served in various capacities at JBS since 1987.

Brian Nilsson
Co-Chief Executive Officer of XL Foods Inc. and Nilsson Bros. Inc., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Beef on Both Sides of the Border

An analysis of operating beef packing plants in Canada and the United States, the challenges and opportunities from an operational, sales and regulatory stand point.

Biography

Brian Nilsson, Co-Chief Executive Officer of XL Foods Inc. and Nilsson Bros. Inc., owns and operates a diversified group of agricultural businesses headquartered in Calgary and Edmonton, and located throughout Western Canada and the United States.

Brian Nilsson, along with his brother Lee Nilsson, have been involved in the Canadian livestock industry for over thirty years owning livestock auction markets and feeding operations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

In the late 1990's Nilsson Bros. began their interest in the meat packing business with the purchase of Edmonton Meat Packing and XL Foods and have grown to where they now own and operate packing plants in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta; Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan; Omaha, Nebraska and Nampa, Idaho.

XL Foods is a fully integrated meat processor from production through to slaughter and further processing.

Ken Clark
General Manager Meats, Merchandising, Overwaitea Food Group, Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Beef Market Trends: What are Consumers Asking For?

From a retailer's perspective on issues and how, as a retailer, we are addressing these concerns within our marketplace as well as looking at future opportunities.

Biography

Ken began his career in the grocery business back in 1971 and found the love of the meat business in 1974. Since that time he has had the fortune of having the opportunity of working for and learning from a number of very good organizations like Steinberg/Miracle Food Mart, Loblaws, Ontario Pork Marketing Board, the Oshawa Group and IBP/Lakeside Packers. For the past ten years he has had the great pleasure to call the Overwaitea Food Group home as the General Manager Meat Merchandising. The Overwaitea Food Group operates 108 stores throughout BC and Alberta under the following banners: Save On Foods, Overwaitea Foods, Cooper's, Price Smart and Urban Fare.

Besides the love for the business, he is a real Boston sports fanatic.

Ken likes to refer himself as just another "Meat Head" in an exciting, fast paced, fun business!

Ruben Nelson
Executive Director, Foresight Canada, Lac Des Arcs, Alberta, Canada

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Surprises Ahead; Exploring the Assumptions of 21st Century Food Production

The consensus on the basis of which we have all been planning is likely wrong. The future we face will not be essentially familiar - one demanding greater innovation. Rather, the odds are that it will be fundamentally unfamiliar - one demanding adaptation. Every government and industry has bought into the innovation agenda; none have adaptation on their radar. No what do we do? Ruben Nelson, will explore these propositions and this question.

Biography

Mr. Nelson is Canada's leading practitioner and teacher of strategic foresight. By training and inclination, he is a big picture strategic thinker about why and how the world around us is changing. The question at the heart of his life is this, "Just what would we do, if we knew what we were doing?"

Ruben was born and raised in Calgary. His formation there as a maverick gave him the freedom to aspire to a future that breaks with present trends and blazes new trails. Ruben fell into futures research as an undergraduate at Queen's University. There, in 1960, he co-chaired the first formal Canadian futures conference, making him a Canadian pioneer of serious futures thinking. Since then Ruben has spent his life exploring and seeking to understand the forces that are now re-shaping our lives, our world and our future.

Over the years, Ruben has offered strategic advice to senior executives in every sector and province of Canadian society. His clients run from Prime Ministers, to Presidents, to Church Primates. He has lived in India and worked in Ottawa. His most recent major project was a fresh assessment for the National Research Council of Canada of the complex and swampy strategic issues Canada and the world will face to 2020.

Ruben is the only Canadian who is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, the World Academy for Art and Science and the Meridian Institute for Leadership, Governance, Change and the Future. He is also a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. He is a director of the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome and the Enviros Wilderness School. He is President of Square One Management Ltd., the Creating Tomorrow Foundation and The Alliance for Capitalizing on Change, and Executive Director of Foresight Canada.