Speaker Biographies
GMA Consumer Complaints Conference 2012

Robert Burns, Ph.D.Vice President, Health and Nutrition PolicyGrocery Manufacturers Association

Dr. Robert (Robbie) Burns oversees the development of positions on health and nutrition labeling at GMA. Prior to joining GMA in 2011, he had a consulting business, Nutrition Implications, LLC, which helped food organizations develop strategies, research programs and communications for nutrition and wellness. Before consulting, his professional experience included nutrition leadership roles in Cadbury Schweppes and Mead Johnson Nutritionals. In both organizations, he worked with cross-functional business and technical partners to leverage nutrition science and deliver business objectives. He has an extensive knowledge of nutrition, health, public policy and food regulations, and the ability to use this knowledge to drive changes which positively impact human health and nutrition. He has contributed significantly to the successful development and launch of brands including Viactiv, Boost, Enfamil Lipil, and upgrades of Snapple, Halls, a wide range of Cadbury chocolates and the Enfamil family of products. Dr. Burns is an active leader in the nutrition community. He has authored consumer education articles and peer-reviewed scientific publications along with a series of patents. He has also participated in numerous public speaking engagements relating to nutrition and health. He is active in several professional organizations including the American Society for Nutrition and the Institute of Food Technologists. Dr. Burns has a Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry and a B.S. in Biochemistry, both from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Subsequent to his graduate studies, he conducted postdoctoral research fellowships at Nottingham University, U.K., and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Sidney W. Degan, III
Managing Partner
Degan, Blanchard & Nash

Mr. Degan was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and attended both the University of Louisiana and the University of New Orleans, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977. Mr. Degan then attended Tulane University School of Law, where he received a Juris Doctor degree and was licensed to practice in Louisiana. Mr. Degan has over twenty-eight (28) years of experience handling the defense of claims on behalf of restaurants, hotels, and retailers involving contaminated foods, merchant’s duty of care, shoplifting, security issues, and liquor liability. Mr. Degan also has experience in the handling of sexual harassment, racial and age discrimination, wrongful termination, personal injury and advertising injury, and product liability matters. Mr. Degan has also has extensive experience in the handling of Workers’ Compensation and casualty and insurance coverage matters.

Cathy Dial
Senior Director, Consumer Relations
Frito-Lay

Cathy Dial has spent her career at PepsiCo in the consumer services field. She joined PepsiCo in 1982 working on the beverage side at Pepsi-Cola and transitioned to Frito-Lay in 1995. Cathy's team of 60 consumer service professionals responds to over 400,000consumer contacts annually and is responsible for delivering service to promote loyalty and retention to the Frito-Lay brands. Not only does the team respond to consumer inquiries and concerns, but they share the information broadly within Frito-Lay so consumer feedback is incorporated into planning and decision-making to positively impact the brand experience. Cathy is a Texas native and lives in Plano.

John GoodmanVice ChairmanTARP Worldwide

Mr. Goodman graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1971. Mr. Goodman worked at the Environmental Protection Agency, supervising part of the Environmental Impact Statement System. He left the EPA to rejoin TARP which he co-founded in 1971. Mr. Goodman has managed more than 1,000 separate customer service studies, including TARP's White House sponsored evaluation of complaint handling practices in government and business and studies of word of mouth and the bottom-line impact of consumer education sponsored by Coca-Cola USA. His clients have included Pepsi-Cola, Kraft, J&J, GSK, Food Marketing Institute, USAA, Harley Davidson, Cisco Systems and Chick-Fil-A. The American Management Association published his book, “Strategic Customer Service”, in May, 2009. Business Week credits Mr. Goodman’s research for creation of the GE Answer Center, the original customer satisfaction contact center, as well as leading service initiatives at American Express, Coors and Toyota in the 1980s. He has taught service quality and service reengineering courses at Wharton Business School's executive education program. He has appeared on “Good Morning America”, the ABC Evening News, the Discovery Channel and as a panelist on the PBS show, “The Editors.”

Brian Harty
Recall Strategist
ExpertRECALL
Mr. Harty is responsible for retrieval and recall service offerings including working with prospects and clients to ensure flawless customer integration and satisfaction. Brian assists in scopingprojects for product retrieval, recall execution and plan development for food & beverage manufacturers, including many high profile companies over the past five years. He has assisted manufacturers with the execution and setup in over 300 product recall situations. Prior to joining Stericycle ExpertRECALL, Mr. Harty worked for CapitalOne as a Senior Sales Consultant. Brian is a graduate of Plymouth State University and holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources.


Steven Leslie, Esq.
Senior Manager and Counsel, Claims Program
Grocery Manufacturers Association

Steven Leslie has worked for the Grocery Manufacturers Association since November of 2002. As Senior Manager and Counsel, Steven oversees all Claims Program operations. These operations include litigation management, non-litigated claims handling, laboratory testing, and claims system reporting. Steven also has primary oversight of all Claims Program conferences and webinars, including the annual Food Claims and Litigation Conference, Consumer Complaint Management Conference, Food Litigation Webinar, and Consumer Complaint Management Webinar. Steven completed his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University, and graduated with honors from the George Washington School of Law in May of 2011. Steven was admitted to the Maryland Bar on December 15, 2011.

John Lovro

Director Quality Assurance

Sun Products Corporation,Wilton Connecticut

John Lovro is a graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He has extensive experience in manufacturing and quality assurance having worked for Procter & Gamble company for over 25 years and for the past 1 ½ years with Sun Products Corporation. John held assignments in manufacturing and quality assurance with Procter & Gamble including 10 years leading international joint ventures, acquisitions, and building manufacturing and quality capability in China and Australia. Prior to leaving P&G, he led quality assurance capability across global Beauty Care working with 24 plants sites as well as leading improvement initiatives to global shelf quality, Quality by Design, quality related loss elimination, and global supplier quality management processes. While at P&G, John was awarded the James N. Gamble Outstanding Quality Award for passion, leadership, and technical mastery of quality. In October 2010, John accepted the position of Director, Quality Assurance for Sun Products Corporation where he is engaged in building quality assurance systems, work processes, and quality culture across Sun Products. This work includes the recent start-up of a consumer comments system and improved design to the corporate claims handling process.


Emily Mathusa
Senior Manager of Science Program Management
Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)
Ms. Mathusa applies her background in microbiology and food safety to help address microbiological issues of importance to the industry. In her role, she provides scientific support for food protection policy issues to assure science-based outcomes. Ms. Mathusa leads several efforts related to implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in the areas of preventive controls, supply chain management, and imported food. In addition, she acts as the staff lead and as an industry advisor to the US Delegation on the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Capital Area Food Protection Association, a local organization focused on national food safety issues. Ms. Mathusa holds a Master of Science degree in Food Science and Technology from Virginia Tech and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from George Mason University. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Bud Miller
Certified Protection Professional
Executive Director, Coupon Information Center (CIC);
President, Efficient Research Solutions

Bud has worked on numerous industry initiatives and has managed CIC operations since it began operations in 1986. The CIC is the coupon industry's only watchdog group and has been involved in every significant coupon fraud case since its inception. Bud has played a central role in the design, implementation and evolution of all CIC activities, programs and data systems. Prior to his current position, Bud was a Staff Assistant for the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a Member of the national Economic Crime Council, a past Chairman for the 1,450+ Members of The National Capital Chapter of The American Society for Industrial Security International; recipient of the 2003 IMAN Outstanding Alumni Award. In 2011, Bud was presented with an award for his Dedicated, Vigilant and Passionate Leadership in Protecting the Integrity of the Coupon Industry by Manufacturers, Retailers and Coupon Processors. Bud has a MA in International Commerce from the University of Maryland and a BA in International & Public Affairs from The George Washington University.


Rhett Parsons
Senior Industry Consultant Food & Beverage
Astute Solutions

With over 23 years of experience in customer care, through work at TANDY, XEROX, T.A.R.P. and ASTUTE Rhett has worked with over 150 companies defining standards of excellence for customer interactions and using the information from those interactions. Currently Rhett takes his 14 years of experience in various roles at Astute and channels them into a mission focused on the Food & Beverage and Restaurant Guest Relations sectors of the market. These industries face incredible challenges, dealing with product recalls, regulatory compliance, liability, customer retention and brand loyalty. This focus will allow Rhett to help these organizations meet these demands and grow with confidence in the coming era. In the last few years Rhett has partnered with great companies such as ConAgra, Unilever, Kraft, Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, Darden, Brinker and dozens of other customer focused organizations.

Peggy S. Rochette
Senior Director of International Affairs

Grocery Manufacturers Association

Peggy S. Rochette serves as for the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). In that role, she manages international regulatory and trade issues to support the interests of over 400 food companies and has expertise in international regulatory trends and requirements. Peggy provides leadership for GMA work in Codex Alimentarius and for the U.S. Food Industry Codex Coalition. She is the secretariat for the International Alliance of Grocery Manufacturer Associations (ICGMA) which represents the interests of allied food associations in ten nations. She serves on the USDA Agricultural Trade Advisory Committee (ATAC) on Processed Foods and on the Department of Commerce Industry Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC) on Standards and Technical Trade Barriers. Peggy provides industry leadership for APEC’s Partnership Training Institute Network (PTIN) on food safety. Peggy is also a member of several Washington based coalitions dedicated to facilitating trade in agricultural products and engaged in influencing the development of U.S. regulation and legislation as it applies to global trade in food products. Prior to joining the association in 1996, Peggy served as the Director of Government Affairs for the National Grocers Association (NGA) where she represented the retail and distribution sector of the food industry. Peggy has a B.S. degree from Cornell University.

Marie Shubin
Director, Global Consumer Relations
E & J Gallo Winery

Marie’s long career has blended her formal education as a teacher, experience working in both supermarkets and consumer products and a passion for service excellence. Marie has developed customer care curriculum and trained thousands of individuals during her career. She advocates deploying technology to improve operational effectiveness in the contact center while maintaining the human interaction and personal service. She has managed both B2B and B2C customer care teams in supermarkets, consumer products, and technology and health care industries. Marie joined E & J Gallo in 2004 as part of the newly formed Consumer & Product Insights division. Her mission is to create a world class consumer service operation that delivers the voice of the consumer and meaningful insights to all areas of the winery while creating brand loyalty and trust. She has had a pivotal role in driving Gallo’s CRM and product quality initiatives and is a member of Gallo’s Crisis Management Team as a trained Incident Commander. Marie has a Bachelor’s Degree from Arizona State University and an MBA from Western International University. She serves on the SOCAP Board of Directors as Treasurer and was recently certified by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association as an expert in Social Media.

Jason Young
President
Leadsmart, Inc.

Jason Young has been called a "rare breed" when it comes to developing leaders and customer service initiatives. No wonder. As a former senior-level manager at Southwest Airlines, Jason learned the value of a successful workplace culture. During his 10-years with the airline consistently rated No. 1 in customer service and employee satisfaction, Jason Young was a key driver in creating and developing the company’s innovative training programs for its successful leadership and customer service culture that have become renowned in the business world today. Driven by the need to extend his unique insight in leadership development to others outside Southwest, Jason Young separated from the pack in 1998, when he left the airline to launch his own consulting practice to
focus on corporate training and development services specializing in leadership, customer service and team building. Today, as president of LeadSmart, Inc., Jason Young shares his vision in developing successful corporate cultures and workplace environments with forward-thinking companies, including Starbucks, IHOP, Radio Shack and Tyson Foods, to name just a few. He has even returned to his old turf—Southwest Airlines—to extend his knowledge as a corporate training consultant in the leadership development area once again. Capturing the innovative strategies and tactics he created at Southwest Airlines, Jason Young offers insight and practical information that can be implemented immediately.