Dr. Stan Blade
CEO
Alberta Innovates - Bio Solutions

Biography
Dr. Stan Blade, CEO of Alberta Innovates - Bio Solutions, previously served as Executive Director of the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute (in the Government of Alberta's Ministry of Advanced Education and Technology) and as the Deputy Director General (Research) for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Dr. Blade's expertise has been recognized through his invitations to participate in initiatives and reviews conducted by the European Union, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Harvard Business School and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.  Dr. Blade has published 80+ research articles, ten book chapters, 140+ conference abstracts and has edited four books. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta.

Theresa Dietrich
Principal
People Talking Market Research Services, Toronto, Ontario
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Biography
Theresa Dietrich of People Talking has a proven track record translating fact based learning to shape strategic decision making. She is an independent and experienced market researcher and marketer skilled at bringing her strong business experience to qualitative and quantitative research methods, because she has been both a client and supplier.

In 2008, Theresa opened her own firm, People Talking, which specializes in research with the Consumer Packaged Goods, Agriculture and Financial Services industries. This was a natural progression after spending seven years with a full-service research consulting firm serving clients from a broad range of industries.

An HBA graduate of the Ivey School of Business at UWO, Theresa spent the first 18 years of her career in increasingly senior marketing positions working for outstanding organizations such as Nabisco Brands, General Mills, Coca-Cola and Diageo where she learned the importance of research as a tool to aid strategic business decisions.

Theresa is a member of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) and the Marketing Research Industry Association (MRIA) and is a Certified Market Research Professional (CMRP).

Jeff Doucette
Principal
Sales is Not Simple, Calgary, Alberta

Biography
Jeff Doucette is thought leader in the Canadian retail industry. During his eleven year career in the consumer packaged goods industry he held a range of sales roles with two of the industry's largest players Unilever and L'Oreal.

Jeff has an extensive Retail Marketing background, having lead retail / consumer promotions development for brands such as Lipton, Knorr, Hellmann's, Slim Fast, Maybelline New York and Garnier Fructis.

While with L'Oreal he was asked to lead the Global Sales Training Initiative based in Paris, France. His work took him to many corners of the world and he has worked with sales and retail marketing teams from more than 70 countries in Account Management, Trade Marketing, Merchandising, Category Management and Sales Leadership.

Jeff launched "Sales Is Not Simple International" in Calgary as a unique consultancy focused on sales strategy consulting and tailor made training initiatives for retailers and suppliers in the CPG industry.

We help our clients "sell more and sell more profitably".

Gilles Gauthier
Chief Agriculture Negotiator
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Ottawa, Ontario
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Biography
Gilles Gauthier has been the Director General and Chief Agriculture Negotiator at the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), since June 29, 2009.

Mr. Gauthier leads the negotiating team for agriculture products in the WTO and bilateral free trade negotiations. Prior to joining AAFC, he held the position of Director General, Multilateral Trade Policy, at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), from November 2007 to June 2009, where his responsibilities included the management of WTO related matters. He joined DFAIT in January 2006, as Director of the Investment Trade Policy Division, responsible for the negotiations of foreign investment protection agreements and the policy management of investor-state dispute settlement proceedings involving Canada.

Mr. Gauthier was Director of Corporate and Insolvency Law Policy at Industry Canada from 2002 to 2005. From1998 to 2002, he held several positions at the Department of Finance, including the position of Chief, Trade in Services and Investment. In the mid-90s, he served four years at the Canadian Mission to the WTO in Geneva, where he dealt with a broad range of trade policy issues of interest to Canada. In recent years, he was appointed on several WTO dispute settlement panels. He was a member of the Government of Canada negotiating team for the NAFTA and the GATT Uruguay Round. In 1994, on assignment to Industry Canada, he worked on the negotiation of the Internal Trade Agreement and in the 1980s, he held various positions at the Bureau of Competition Policy and at the Research Branch of the Library of Parliament.

Mr. Gauthier holds a degree in economics from the University of Ottawa, a master's degree in economics from the Université de Sherbrooke and a diploma in international economic relations from the Université de Paris-IX Dauphine.

Jean-Phillippe Gervais
Senior Economist
Farm Credit Canada, Regina, Saskatchewan
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Biography
Jean-Philippe Gervais joined FCC as a senior agricultural economist in July 2010. He has over 15 years of experience in domestic and international analysis of agricultural policies and markets. Jean-Philippe is a featured speaker at conferences across the country on the linkages between the economy and agriculture as well as the determinants of competitiveness in agri-food markets.

Prior to joining FCC, he was a professor of agricultural economics at North Carolina State University and Laval University where he held the Canada Research Chair in Agri-industries and International Trade. Jean-Philippe obtained his PhD in economics in 1999 from Iowa State University.

Bill Helming
President
Bill Helming Consulting Services, Olathe, Kansas
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Biography
Personal Information: Bill is a Christian. He turned 70 on July 2, 2010 and has a lot of energy. He truly has a strong passion and love for what he does. He is a positive and optimistic person. He has been working out vigorously five to seven times a week since January of 1976. He ran one 26.2 marathon in 1981 in Kansas City. He is 6'2 " and weighs 165 pounds. He enjoys golf and snow skiing. Bill and his wife Kathleen have two sons and one daughter. Bill and Kathleen live in Olathe, Kansas.

College Education: Bill Helming started at Oregon State University on a football scholarship in the fall of 1959. He graduated with honors in six years with a BS and MS degree in Agriculture Economics from the University of Nevada, Reno (1964-1965). He received the Ag College outstanding student award twice, was on the university honor roll five out of six years and was honored by the University Board of Regents with the Centennial Alumnus Award in 1988. The meaning of this award is that the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada (in 1988) considered Bill Helming to be the outstanding graduate of the university within the past 100 years. He gave the commencement address in May of 1988.

Third Job Working for Someone Else: His third job working for someone else was as the first Chief Economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) beginning in late 1965 and he was also the founder and first General Manager of CattleFax in 1968 (the highly respected national data base, market outlook, analysis and research organization of NCBA).

Self Employed For 40 Years: Bill Helming began his agribusiness consulting services in 1972 as the sole owner (Livestock Business Advisory Services initially and subsequently Bill Helming Consulting Services). His business has been based in Overland Park and Olathe, Kansas (part of the greater Kansas City area) for 40 years and continues today. His primary focus is on;

1. The U.S. and global economic outlook, and
2. The key supply, demand, cost and price outlook conditions for beef cattle and grain, feedyard values, total investment requirements, bank financing, cost structure, profit margins and other key beef production and cattle feeding business, financial and operational metrics.

He has clients and subscribers all over the U.S. and gives five to seven speeches per year on the U.S. and world economy and on the U.S. beef and cattle feeding industry supply, demand and price outlook and dynamics. He writes and publishes a Quarterly AS I SEE IT Economic and Ag Sector Outlook Update Report for his clients and subscribers and has been doing so for 40 years.

Executive and Management Experience: While attending the University of Nevada (UNR), Reno (for about six years as a fulltime undergraduate and graduate student), Bill Helming was also the general manager of his parents' large-scale beef cattle cow-calf ranching operation located close to Austin, Nevada, involving 3,500 head of beef cows, 24 employees, annual gross sales of over $4,000,000 and more than 30,000 acres of land.

After attending college at UNR, Bill became the founder and general manager of CattleFax. He had a staff of 18 employees. He also served as the chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA).

Highly Respected Economist and Agribusiness Consultant: Bill Helming is prominently featured and quoted in major beef industry and trade publications such as BEEF magazine on a regular basis and this has been the case for the past 40 years. Bill is considered by many to be one of the top and most respected U.S. macro economists and experts with one of the most accurate and impressive forecasting, macroeconomic, big picture and beef industry outlook and analysis track records in the world today. For example, he was asked to speak and represent North America regarding the U.S. macro economic outlook and the U.S. beef industry supply, demand, cost and price outlook in 2005 at the Global Beef Outlook Conference in Argentina (South America).

Bill is known as an independent thinker. He has a reputation for telling it like it is. He is considered a futurist by many. Examples are his macro economic forecasting track record. He accurately forecasted the 1981-82, the 1990-91, the 2000-01 and the 2008-09 recessions. He told his clients and subscribers in his quarterly AS I SEE IT Economic and Ag Sector Update Outlook Report in early June, 2008, that the fourth U.S. economic and financial (modern day) depression would start in the second half of 2008 and would last for several years. He has a highly respected forecasting track record for the beef and cattle feeding industry relative to key supply, demand, cost and price trends, including the changing beef and competing protein key industry structural changes and trends.

The Helming Report on Radio for 14 Years: From 1977 to 1991 or for 14 years, Bill Helming produced a syndicated radio program (The Helming Report) for farm and Ag radio stations that aired three to four times a day (five days a week) on 355 stations, reaching five to six million people daily from Texas to North Dakota and Colorado to Ohio. This program concerned itself with the U.S. economic outlook and the livestock and grain market outlook and analysis.

A Cattle Feeding Expert: Since 1972, Bill Helming has been a self-employed agribusiness consultant and economist. Bill is well known and highly respected as a farm and livestock economist and agribusiness consultant. He spends most of his time consulting and working closely with the U.S. large-scale cattle feeding industry in the high plains mainstream cattle feeding region. Bill grew up on a feedyard operation in southern California in the 1950's. He was, in the 2001-2003 time period, a 10% owner of a large-scale feedyard located in the northern Texas Panhandle region that turned out to be financially rewarding for him.

Bill Helming has 45 years of extensive experience with the U.S. cattle feeding and beef production industry and with agribusiness generally, including the pork, poultry and grain production sectors of the American agricultural and food industry. He was president of the American Society of Agricultural Consultants in 1984 and received the ASAC Distinguished Service Award in 1991. He has a thorough knowledge of the large-scale cattle feeding industry relative to supply and demand market outlook conditions, feedyard values, total investment requirements, bank financing, cost structure, profit margins, and other key feedyard business, financial and operational metrics.

During his career, Bill Helming has successfully facilitated (on a direct and firsthand basis) the market evaluation, appraisal, purchase, sale, merger and the due diligence process (since 1974) of over 45 large-scale feedyards in a business consulting and financial advisory capacity. He is well known for his vision, his proven strategic thinking capabilities and he has many valuable beef industry and agribusiness contacts throughout the United States, as well as his proven ability to accurately anticipate and interpret the big picture relative to the overall U.S. economy and the cattle feeding and beef industries. He served for 17 years on the Advisory Board for Simmons Foods (a large and privately-owned integrated chicken company, headquartered in Siloam Springs, Arkansas) until 2009. He presently serves as a member of the Kansas State University Advisory Board for the Agribusiness Masters Degree 2-Year Program.

Crafted a Replacement to the Federal Government Income Tax Code: Bill Helming has worked with passion to craft and advance a complete replacement to the federal income tax code for many years, known as The BEST Plan. The BEST Plan was authored by Bill Helming with the help and valuable input from many people across the United States. Bill has been fine tuning this plan since 1984. The Broad Economic Simplification Tax (The BEST Plan), S.1921, was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Jim DeMint and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina on October 26, 2005. The lead sponsor is Senator Jim DeMint. He thanked Bill for his very valuable contribution to crafting this new tax structure and plan. This tax plan, if implemented would greatly increase;

1. U.S. economic growth, and
2. Strongly encourage private sector investment, new job creation and savings by consumers and families.

Wrote and Published a Book on the U.S. Economy: Bill wrote his first book during the seven-months of June-December, 2009 and this 210-page, 10-chapter book was self published in January of 2010. The title of this paperback book is What Goes Up Eventually Comes Down. The subtitle is Long term boom and bust cycles have occurred historically in the U.S. …It's time to plan accordingly for a Modern Day Depression in 2010-2014. He wrote the book at the urging of some of his clients and subscribers to give a lot more people the opportunity to better understand the U.S. and global economy and to better understand how to prepare for the future. It is a good read, educational and very informative. The response by those purchasing the book and by those who have already read the book has been excellent. He has signed, sold and shipped over 1,150 books as of September 30, 2010. The book is in its 4th printing (as of February 1, 2011) and the average number of books per order has been 4.60!

Glen Hodgson
Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist
The Conference Board of Canada
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Biography
Glen Hodgson brings 29 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 is the editor and a contributing author of the book Crisis and Intervention: Lessons from the Financial Meltdown and Recession, published in November 2010. Glen is launching the Board's latest research initiative, the Canadian Alliance for Sustainable Health Care (CAHSC). He took the lead in creating the Board's International Trade and Investment Centre and has published over 140 articles and briefings. He is co-authoring a new series of briefings on the economics of pro sports in Canada.

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 pursued Ph.D. studies at McGill. He resides in Ottawa with his wife and younger of two sons, and spends leisure time coaching youth soccer and cycling.

Mark Klassen
Director of Technical Services
CCA, Calgary, Alberta
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Biography
Mark has been working with Government of Canada and industry stakeholders to enhance the EU Canada beef production protocols to reduce costs and to address barriers at the packing plant level. In his role with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association Mark is involved with technical marketing of the Canadian Beef Advantage, international trade and animal health and food safety policy.

Travis Toews
President
CCA

Biography
Toews has been involved with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) since 2005. Formerly the CCA's Vice-President, he chaired the Foreign Trade Committee and served on the Domestic Agriculture Policy & Regulations and the Value Creation & Competitiveness committees.

Living just outside Grand Prairie, AB, Toews, along with his wife, run Melbern Holdings, a cow-calf and backgrounding operation.

Passionate about ensuring the industry's competitiveness on the domestic and international fronts, Toews works hard at both levels. Prior to joining the CCA, Toews was involved with his provincial association, the Alberta Beef Producers, and up until January 2009, served as a director with the Canada Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA). Toews is a designated member of the Society of Management Accountants.