Women in Food Industry Management (WFIM) presents:
Leadership Academy Round Table
November 3, 2015 from 6:30 to 9:00 am
Toronto International Centre, 6900 Airport Road
WFIM Members $55 + HST / Non-members $70 + HST (includes breakfast)
Join us for breakfast and three inspiring round table sessions. Get up close and personal while you learn from and network with accomplished food industry executives! Select a leader for each round table session: 7:30, 8:00, and 8:30 am.
Meet this year’s Academy Leaders:
Dana McCauley – Executive Director, Food Starter
Dana McCauley is the Executive Director for Food Starter, a new food business incubator and accelerator, located in Toronto. Dana is a seasoned marketing executive with extensive experience in all facets of the food business and a track record of taking ideas from concept to kitchen to commercialization. Dana held the position of Vice President of Marketing for Plats du Chef, an internationally successful frozen foods company, until January 2015. She was also an on-air judge for seasons one and two of Canadian reality TV show Recipe to Riches and continues to contribute frequently as an expert food trend and innovation source for the media. Dan’s most recent media project is YouTube channel Food Trends TV where she shares industry insights in a video format. Dana has authored four cookbooks, all published by top tier publishers, which have sold over 200,000 copies worldwide.
Mary Dalimonte – VP Merchandising, Sobeys Inc.
Mary Dalimonte joined Sobeys in February 2008 as the General Manager of Sobeys Urban Fresh. With over 35+ years experience in the grocery retail industry, Ms. Dalimonte was responsible for stewarding Sobeys Urban Fresh operations, merchandising and marketing teams and fostering Sobeys Urban Fresh key external relationships. In 2011 she was appointed to Vice President of Private Label and in November of 2012, promoted to Senior Vice President of Merchandising and Commercial Programs for Sobeys Inc., leading the strategic plans and driving the development and execution of customer driven, market leading innovations for Full Service Formats across Canada.
With a bachelor of arts in sociology from York University, Ms. Dalimonte began her career in the grocery retail industry with Loblaws Supermarkets Ltd.
Ms. Dalimonte was recently recognized and awarded ‘Top Women in Grocery’ in North America.
Winnie Chiu – Director, Food Innovation & Research Studio
Winnie Chiu, Director of the Food innovation and Research Studio (FIRSt) at George Brown College in Toronto, is a food scientist and brings with her over 22 years of food product development and commercialization experience in both consumer packaged foods and the flavor ingredient business.
Since joining George Brown College, Winnie has led over 30 applied research projects and successfully helped food companies and healthcare sector partners develop and commercialize food products and recipes, while providing culinary students real life, real time experience in innovative learning.
Prior to George Brown, Winnie worked for Effem Inc. (a division of MARS Inc.) as product development manager. She led a team of scientists and technologists to develop products for North America and Australia for Uncle Ben’s®, Seeds of Change® and Masterfoodservice® brands. She also held various product development roles with two globally renowned flavour ingredient companies.
Winnie received a B.Sc. (Hon) from the University of Westminster, U.K. and subsequently gained her M.Sc. in Food and Management Science from King’s College, the University Of London, U.K.
Helen Langford – VP Foodservices, Boston Pizza
As the Senior Vice President of Foodservices for Boston Pizza, Helen Langford is responsible for leading the culinary and menu development, purchasing, supply chain and restaurant design. Prior to joining Boston Pizza, she held various roles within the foodservice industry in quality assurance, product development and supply chain. She has a passion for inspirational leadership and is an advocate for women leaders in this industry. She firmly believes in the power of people, the strength of teamwork and that hard work and perseverance are the enablers to meet any goal, no matter how difficult.
Christine Raptopulos, Senior Director Supply Chain Canada, Conagra
Christine Raptopulos joined ConAgra Foods in 2008 and has progressively transformed supply chain performance. In her current role, she leads Supply Chain functions in Canada including Logistics, Demand and Supply Planning and Customer Supply Chain.
ConAgra Foods is one of North America’s largest packaged food companies. Its balanced portfolio includes consumer brands found in 99 percent of American households. It is also the largest private brand packaged food business in North America and has a strong commercial and foodservice business.
Prior to joining ConAgra, Christine spent 14 years at Nestle SA working both locally and internationally as the Global Business Excellence Leader for Zone Americas (United States of America, Canada, Latin America, Caribbean) focused on Supply Chain optimization and best practice implementations.
Christine holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Lakehead University.
Jill Baxter, Co-Founder / VP / VP Operations, N2 Ingredients Inc.
Jill is co-founder and Vice President of N2 Ingredients Inc., based in Mississauga, ON. N2 is a dynamic company that was founded in 2004. N2 are leaders in the importation and supply of organic and all natural ingredients to the Canadian food processing industry. Jill plays a hands-on role in managing the day-to-day operations of the organization by aligning and executing operational and strategic plans, while working with all members of the team. Evaluating systems, processes and recommendations for continuous improvements for the organization are her areas of responsibility.
N2 Ingredients has come a long way since inception, being named as one of Canada’s fastest growing companies on four separate occasions.
Kim Vogel, President, Spyder Works Inc.
Kim Vogel is an established leader of business strategy and corporate culture development. With more than 20 years of strategic management experience in HR and Operations including seven years at the executive level, Kim has excelled in both consulting and corporate capacities. Her credentials include maximizing organizational performance, driving cultural change and generating transformational results with national retail brands such as Tim Hortons, Winners, Grand & Toy, Sobeys and The Bargain! Shop. Through business strategy and corporate culture development, Kim shows companies how to transform themselves into cohesive, high performance cultures.
Kim has a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and an HR Management degree from Humber College.
Angela Zaltsman, Owner, A to Z Event Management Inc.
Inspired by a lifetime of experience in the hospitality and event management industry, Angela Zaltsman is the driving force behind A to Z’s delivery of Extraordinary events from start to finish.
Angela has worked in a range of management roles at upscale restaurants, conference facilities and luxury hotels. She has planned and executed corporate events for some of North America’s most influential companies: American Express, BMO, Chanel, GlaxoSmithKline and KPMG, just to name a few. In addition to achieving excellence in the corporate sector, Angela has met rave reviews with lifestyle events for celebrities including Shania Twain, Lauren Holly, Dan Ayckroyd, Kiefer Sutherland and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
With more than 20 years of experience in hospitality and event management; Ms. Zaltsman calls upon a rich network of relationships with suppliers and venues to deliver, throughout the Greater Toronto Area, Extraordinary events from start to finish.
Women in Food Industry Management 