 Download ILC Conference Agenda (.pdf - 220kb)
Meet the guest speakers for Beef 2009!
 Barbara Beane
Director, Technology KFC-Product Support Center, Yum! Brands International, Louisville, KY
Biography
Since 2001, Barbara has been the Director, Technology KFC-Product Support Center, being responsible for commercializing new products, the Dean of Technical/Training courses for KFC, to direct new supplier start ups on key ingredients, to test and approve new restaurant procedures, manage the CHAMPS Standards Procedures for Core Products and is a project lead for 2 new strategic layers.
From 1995 - 2001, Barbara was the Director, Global Quality Systems for Tricon Global Restaurants Dallas, TX, and developed and managed Global Quality Systems, and implemented training and certification courses for new QA staff across YRI. From 1991-1995 she was the Manager, International Purchasing, KFC International in Louisville, KY; from 1988-1991 she held the position of Manager, Poultry Quality for KFC - US out of Louisville, KY.
From 1984 - 1988 she was the Poultry Quality Representative for KFC - US in Greensboro, NC; in 1981 - 1984 Barbara held Various Management Positions including Breeders/Hatchery and Processing with Tastybird (Tyson) Foods, in Waldren, AR. Barbara has her Master of Science Animal Science from the University of Florida.
 Dr. Alastair Cribb
Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Biography
Dr. Cribb completed his DVM degree at the University of Saskatchewan in 1984. Following an internship and two years in rural multispecies practice, he undertook advanced training in clinical pharmacology. He then spent four years in drug safety assessment with Merck & Co, USA.
In 1996, he joined the Atlantic Veterinary College, UPEI, as a professor of clinical pharmacology before joining the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary as founding dean in 2006.
Dr. Cribb's research focuses on drug and chemical safety - he is particularly interested in ensuring the safe use of drugs in animals and humans. His work has spanned antibiotics to anti-inflammatory drugs.
 Earl Geddes
Vice President, Farmer Service, Canadian Wheat Board,
LaSalle, MB
Download Speaker Presentation (.pdf - 928kb)
Biography
Earl grew up on a family farm at Pilot Mound Manitoba and in 1957 as a young lad watched the one of the first truckloads of Charolais cattle come into Western Canada to his father's farm. He grew up living and breathing Charolais cattle at exhibitions and shows across Canada and into the US.
After graduating from the University of Manitoba's Agriculture program in 1972 he returned to and bought his own farm and proceeded to go into competition with his father and brothers selling bulls to commercial cattlemen. This business went on for 24 years with many highlights, awards and memories.
Following an accident with grain mold which made opening round bales of hay for his cattle risky to his health, he changed careers and moved to a job in market and product development at the Canadian Wheat Board. In this role Earl has had extensive international travel experience as he worked with wheat and durum customers in many locations around the world. His interest in population demographics developed as a result of trying to predict what functional characteristics of wheat would be required 10 years in the future as it takes that long to develop a new variety. Earl has extensive experience working with industry associations having been the President of the Manitoba Beef Cattle Performance Association, Member of the National Advisory Board for Beef Cattle Improvement, Executive Member of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the President of Keystone Agricultural producers and President of the Manitoba Institute of Agrologist to name a few. Earl has been happily married for 35 years with two children and four grandchildren all of whom are the most important ingredients in his life.
 Professor J. Bruce German
Food Science & Technology, University of California,
Davis, CA, US
Biography
Bruce German received his PhD from Cornell University, joined the faculty at the University of California, Davis in 1988, in 1997 was named the first John E. Kinsella Endowed Chair in Food, Nutrition and Health is currently professor, at University of California, Davis serves as senior scientific advisor at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne Switzerland and head of the Scientific Board of Lipomics Technologies Inc in California. His research interests include the structure and function of dietary lipids, the role of milk components in food and health and the application of metabolic assessment to personalizing diet and health.
The goal of his research is to build the knowledge necessary to improve human health through superior foods. Research projects directed to this goal are studying how individual human lipid metabolism responds to the chemical composition and structural organization of foods. Each person has slightly different responses to diet based on their genetics, their metabolism and their nutrition status. It is thus necessary to understand the molecular basis of these differences, how to recognize them and design food strategies to complement them. We are working on analytical strategies to enable individuals to monitor how their body reacts to various foods and to modify their consumption to maintain good health. With health targets established it is the equally important task of the research to understand how to provide superior choices in foods that integrate the compositional, structural and nutritional functionalities of biomaterials. The model being used of how to proceed is milk, the product of millennia of constant Darwinian selective pressure to produce a food to nourish, sustain and promote healthy infant mammals to be healthier. Milk is the only bio-material that has evolved for the purpose of nourishing growing mammals. Survival of offspring exerted a strong selective pressure on the biochemical evolution of lactation as a bioguided process. Just like evolution of any biological organism or system, the strong survive, which leads to the appearance of new traits that promote health, strength and ultimately survival. This evolutionary logic is the basis of the research program to discover physical, functional and nutritional properties of milk components and to apply these properties as principles to foods.
Bruce and colleagues have published more than 300 papers on lipids and food, metabolism and metabolite measurements and food functions and patented various technologies and applications of bioactive agents. The research articles from the lab over the past 10 years rank in the top 10 most cited in Agriculture available at www.ISIhighlycited.com.
 Glen Hodgson
Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist, The Conference Board of Canada, Ottawa, ON
Download Speaker Presentation (.pdf - 804kb)
Biography
Glen Hodgson brings 27 years of experience and a specialization in international economic and financial issues to the position of Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist of The Conference Board of Canada.
Mr. Hodgson is responsible for overseeing the Board's macro-economic outlook products, tourism, custom research and conferences programs. He is the Board's chief spokesperson on economic issues, has written extensively on Canadian and international economic and financial issues, and is bilingual.
He plays a central role in enhancing the Board's public policy analysis. He published Mission Possible: Stellar Canadian Performance in the Global Economy in January 2007, co-authored with Anne Park Shannon and available at www.conferenceboard.ca. Glen took the lead in launching the Board's International Trade and Investment Centre, and has published over 80 articles and briefings including a series on Canadian tax reform for sustainable prosperity.
Mr. Hodgson joined the Board in September 2004, after 10 years at Export Development Canada (EDC), where he held several senior positions including Vice President of Policy and Deputy Chief Economist. He also spent 10 years with the federal Department of Finance. From 1984 to 1988, Mr. Hodgson served as Advisor/Assistant to the Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean at the International Monetary Fund.
Mr. Hodgson has an M.A. in Economics from McGill University and also pursued Ph.D. studies at McGill. He resides in Ottawa with his wife and two sons. He spends leisure time coaching youth soccer and cycling.
 David Kohl
Professor Emeritus, Agricultural Finance & Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Virginia Tech,
Blacksburg, VA, US
Download Speaker Presentation (.pdf - 356kb)
Biography
David Kohl received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. For 25 years, Kohl was Professor of Agricultural Finance and Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. He was on special leave with the Royal Bank of Canada working on advanced initiatives for two years, and also assisted in the launch of the successful entrepreneurship program at Cornell University. Kohl retired from teaching in 2003 and is Professor Emeritus in the AAEC Department at Virginia Tech.
Kohl has traveled over 7 million miles throughout his professional career! He has conducted more than 5,000 workshops and seminars for agricultural groups such as bankers, Farm Credit, FSA, and regulators, as well as producer and agribusiness groups. He has published four books and over 1,000 articles on financial and business-related topics in journals, extension, and other popular publications. Kohl regularly writes for Ag Lender and Soybean Digest.
He has received 11 major teaching awards while teaching over 10,000 students, and 15 major Extension and Public Service awards from Virginia Tech, Cornell University, and state and national organizations. Kohl is a two-time recipient of the prestigious American Agricultural Economics Association's Outstanding Teaching Award. Kohl is only one of five professors in the 90-year plus history of the Association to receive the award twice. He received the Governor's award for his distinguished service to Virginia agriculture, the youngest recipient to receive this award.
Kohl has addressed the American Bankers Agricultural Conference for 30 consecutive years, and has appeared before numerous state bankers' schools and conferences throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the world. He has also been one of the top rated instructors at the LSU and Colorado Graduate Schools of Banking, and is Chancellor of Farm Credit University, which has trained over 700 lenders using a online and face-to-face educational approach.
As facilitator of the United States Farm Financial Standards Task Force and member of the Canadian Agricultural Financial Standards Task Force, Dr. Kohl was one of the leaders in establishing guidelines for the standardized reporting and analysis of agricultural producers' financial information on a national and international basis. Recently, a $2 million endowed Chair of Agribusiness Management and Finance was established at Virginia Tech in the name of Dr. Kohl. This was in honor of his long-term commitment to teaching, research, and extension, and is one of only four such Chairs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.
If you would like to keep up with Kohl's information and perspectives, you can find his weekly columns on the following websites:
Kohl is currently President of AgriVisions, LLC, a knowledge-based consulting business providing cutting-edge programs to leading agricultural organizations worldwide. He is also business coach and part owner of Homestead Creamery, a value added dairy business in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
On a more personal note, Dave enjoys playing basketball and likes most sports, farms, dogs, and covered bridges; he dislikes lazy students, administrative bureaucracies, and paperwork!
 Dennis Laycraft
Executive Vice President, Canadian Cattlemen's Association, Calgary, AB
Biography
Dennis Laycraft was raised on a cattle ranch in southern Alberta and studied livestock production. He has been involved in beef cattle association work since 1981. From 1981 to 1990, he was employed by the Alberta Cattle Commission and served as Manager for 6 years. During this time, Dennis was actively involved in the development of new markets for beef, new product development activities, and domestic promotion programs and was instrumental in the establishment of the Canada Beef Export Federation. He served as its first Executive Officer. In June of 1990, Dennis was employed by the Canadian Cattlemen's Association as General Manager and in 1992 was promoted to Executive Vice President. With the CCA, Dennis has been instrumental in beef grading revisions and new technologies, and managed the successful defense of the industry against the RCALF countervail and anti-dumping investigations. Dennis serves as a leading spokeperson for the beef cattle industry on trade, product safety, and animal disease issues.
Dennis is also currently serving as Chair of the Canadian Beef Industry/Government Roundtable and a member of the industry technical advisory group on WTO negotiations. Dennis has also served as: Chairman of the Regulations and Standards working group on the Agri-Food Competitiveness Task Force, an Executive member of the Agri-Food Competitiveness Council, Chairman of the external advisory panel of the 1992 regulatory review conducted by Agriculture Canada, advisor to Canada's Auditor General's department on a number of food inspection and research matters and facilitator for the Beef Industry Development Fund committee meetings and workshops.
 Brant Randles
President, Louis Dreyfus Canada Ltd.
Download Speaker Presentation (.pdf - 4.1mb)
Biography
Brant Randles first joined Louis Dreyfus Canada Ltd. in 1981 and has been its President since 2000. In 1986 he became the General Manager for Louis Dreyfus Canada Ltd. in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was the Commercial Manager for Louis Dreyfus Asia in Singapore from 1992 to 1995 and was the General Manager for that office from 1992 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998 Mr. Randles was the Managing Director for Louis Dreyfus Africa in Johannesburg and was Vice-President and General Manager of Louis Dreyfus Canada from 1998 to 2000.
Mr. Randles is currently a board member of the Churchill Gateway Development Corporation, a board member of the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, executive member of the Western Grain Elevator Association and involved in a community association.
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