Members

Dan Barthmaier is the Senior Technical Advisor Market Systems and Value Chains for Catholic Relief Services, an international development NGO working in over 100 countries. Dan focuses on supporting CRS’ global work with agricultural value chains, linking farmers and farmer organizations to markets and creating linkages with the private sector in an effort to strengthen markets and build farmers’ incomes.

Dan has more than 20 years of experience in the development field and has worked across the economic development spectrum, from post-disaster early recovery settings to sophisticated farmer organizations exporting high-value crops to the international market. His work has included programs supporting a range of crops including cereals, organic cotton, horticulture, cacao, coffee, and vanilla and other spices. Dan has a degree in engineering from Stanford University and a Masters in International Development and Economics from Johns Hopkins.

Luc joined Mars Inc. in 1993 following his graduation from Eindhoven University where he completed his Masters in Industrial Engineering & Management Science. During his career at Mars he has worked across Procurement, Quality Management, Logistics, and Sustainability. Luc is currently holding the role of Global Sustainable Sourcing Director for Mars Incorporated.

Jed Davis is Director of Sustainability for the Agri-Mark dairy cooperative, known for being a certified B Corp and for its Cabot, McCadam and Agri-Mark brands of award-winning dairy products. Jed has a lifetime involvement with agriculture and cooperatives and over two decades of service in the cheese world.

Born and raised on a six-generation family dairy and fruit farm in Central Massachusetts, Jed received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College and his Master in Business Administration degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in New Hampshire. He began working at Cabot Creamery in Vermont in 1991 and has held a variety of marketing, sales and operations positions. In 2008, Jed was named Agri-Mark’s first Director of Sustainability and his efforts center on helping the co-op and its brands aspire to an understanding of “Sustainability” as “living within our means and ensuring the means to live” – from cow-to- creamery-to-customer.

Jed is active on a number of sustainability efforts, including local, state, national and international. In 2010, Jed was named a fellow in the Donella Meadows Leadership Program of the Sustainability Institute, now known as the Donella Meadows Institute. Jed, his wife Elizabeth, and their small “herd” of four children live in Waterbury, Vermont.

Kelly currently overseas Starbucks Ethical Sourcing division which includes program oversight of C.A.F.E. Practices, Cocoa Practices and Supplier Social Responsibility program for manufactured good. These programs are implemented throughout Starbucks global procurement organizations and apply a comprehensive set of environmental, social and economic best practices to guide responsible buying practices. Prior to joining Starbucks she worked at Nordstrom where she developed a social responsibility program to promote ethical sourcing of private labeled merchandise and promoted supply chain environmental practices. Kelly graduated from the University of Washington and currently sits on the Community Advisory Board for Dress for Success, a YWCA-affiliated program.

Katie is the Global Agricultural Development Manager for AB InBev based in Leuven, Belgium. In her role, Katie is responsible for developing new and existing malt barley supply chains, managing the global SmartBarley portfolio (smartbarley.com), and supporting AB InBev Better World initiatives focused on agricultural water conservation.

Whitney Kakos is the Director of Supply Chain Sustainability at Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP). She leads the development of appropriate policies, strategies and partnerships for KDP to play a proactive role in promoting equitable and sustainable supply chains across its business. This begins with understanding and prioritizing supply chain impacts with an aim to continuously improve, especially via industry collaboration. With strong roots at the intersection of sustainability and coffee, first at UK-based Cafédirect and then Keurig Dr Pepper, she leads KDP’s efforts to bring a consistent approach to balancing risk management with deeper, long-term impact work within the diverse supply chains under the KDP umbrella.

Whitney has an MSC in Environmental Policy from the London School of Economics and serves on advisory bodies of the Sustainable Coffee Challenge and Global Coffee Platform and on the Standards Committee of Fair Trade USA.

Julie is the Sustainability Director for Oatly North America. Her journey through sustainability has included PhD studies in archaeology, where she focused on agricultural practices of the ancient Maya, as well as roles in academia, government, non-profit, and business consulting sectors.

Julie is experienced in international development and biodiversity conservation, with particularly strong experience in Latin America. She spent 5 years as the forestry and natural resources advisor for Latin America at USAID, and then stepped into dual roles as chief of staff of the policy bureau and senior environmental policy advisor, leading development of USAID’s first climate change and development strategy. Later Julie moved into executive management of conservation portfolios as VP of the Americas with the Wildlife Conservation Society, where she led efforts to promote conservation through cuisine, including partnerships with renowned Latin American chefs. For the last 2 years Julie has led Passiflora Consulting, a business consultancy working with chefs, restaurants, travel companies, and government agencies to promote sustainable gastronomy.

Originally from New York, Julie now lives in Montana, and before joining Oatly spent 5 months working as a farmhand on an organic vegetable farm in northern Montana. Julie is also a writer on topics at the nexus of food, culture, and the environment for independent food and travel-focused media outlets, writing on topics like innovations in food studies programs and the indigenous roots of regenerative agriculture.

Alicia LaPorte is good food advocate with a unique background in the culinary arts, organizing, public policy and the business of responsibly produced food. Currently serving as Director of Communications for Niman Ranch, Alicia oversees the pioneering sustainable and humane meat brand’s messaging, positioning and impact efforts.

Prior to joining Niman Ranch, Alicia managed the Fair Farms Campaign, an initiative focused on building a healthy, sustainable and fair food system for all in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Additional career highlights include a seven-year tenure at The Pew Charitable Trusts working on national agriculture, environmental and public health policy.

Alicia has rich professional food systems experience from farm to table, apprenticing with a butcher and charcuterie chef on a diversified farm in Tuscany, running on the ground operations of a mobile farmers market serving Washington, DC residents and currently serving as Executive Director of Niman Ranch’s Next Generation Foundation.

Alicia received her B.A. in sociology from Skidmore College.

Britt is the Director of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture at Stonyfield Farm. She holds a Master of Science in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from Tufts University. Prior to joining Stonyfield, Britt spent five years as an agricultural policy specialist for Environmental Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. Together with Stonyfield co-founder and chair Gary Hirshberg and Dr. Charles Benbrook, she is the co-author of Label It Now, a book that makes the case for labeling genetically engineered foods. Britt serves on the boards of the Sustainable Food Trade Association and the New Hampshire Conservation Law Foundation. She has worked on organic farms in Maine, Massachusetts, and Colorado. She is also an avid fiddle player and member of the New Hampshire based Hickory Horned Devils.

Mark Lundy is a Senior Scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, CIAT, in Cali, Colombia.  His work focuses on the role of markets in reducing rural poverty including learning networks to increase capacities for enterprise development, the role of public agencies to promote market access and how to establish and sustain effective trading relationships between buyers and smallholder farmers.  Emerging areas of work include sustainable food systems and climate resilient value chains. Mark is lead author of guides on rural enterprise development, the LINK method on inclusive business models and an active participant in multi-stakeholder forums focused on sustainability and smallholder inclusion.

Rob has been with PepsiCo since 1997 and is currently a Director in PepsiCo’s Global Sustainable Agriculture Group managing implementation of the Sustainable Farming Initiative across their global supply chain.  The Sustainable Farming Initiative encourages growers to operate in ways that reduce environmental and social impacts, while maintaining economic strength and viability through a continuous improvement process.  Rob has played a key role in developing PepsiCo’s sustainable agriculture strategy and programs since their inception in 2008 and is currently serving as Vice President of the Executive Committee of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform.

Throughout his career Rob has consistently demonstrated the ability to implement “big” initiatives across complex global supply chains.  Prior to joining the Global Sustainable Agriculture Group Rob was a Sustainability Director in PepsiCo’s Global Operations function delivering productivity and minimizing risk for PepsiCo’s global enterprise and supply chain. In this position, Rob was responsible for PepsiCo’s ReCon (“Resource Conservation”) program, maintaining global environmental metrics systems and reporting, and directing PepsiCo’s Environmental Sustainability Council, a global & cross-divisional team of environmental professionals.

Prior to joining PepsiCo Global Ops Rob worked for PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay North America division in various Environmental and Energy Engineering positions.  Rob holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Akron (Ohio, USA) and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA). Rob lives with his wife of 20+ years and two daughters in the Dallas, Texas, USA area.

Alex Morgan is the Director of Markets Transformation for North America for the Rainforest Alliance. He leads and manages a team that works with companies across the different sectors of our work – agriculture, forestry, tourism and climate – to source sustainably produced goods and services. He works extensively in coffee and cocoa, but also in other industries and sectors. Alex works with companies to develop and execute sustainable sourcing programs, including supply chain management, marketing initiatives and internal education. He manages the cultivation of new business relationships and oversees stakeholder engagement and awareness building within the NGO community, government agencies and activist groups. He also works with companies already participating in Rainforest Alliance Certification to increase and deepen their engagement in the program and to assist them in effectively communicating the Rainforest Alliance mission to their customers.

Alex worked previously for Audubon, U.S. Senator Cantwell and other small regional non-profit organizations in the Seattle area. He has studied and worked in Belgium, the Netherlands and Madagascar where he participated in a large regional conservation project with the Wildlife Conservation Society and CARE International. Alex lives and works in Seattle, where he is an avid backcountry skier and serves on the Board of the Northwest Avalanche Center. He serves on the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Sustainability Council.

The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit conservation organization that has certified over 1 million acres of farmland in 18 countries to the Sustainable Agriculture Standard and over 100 million acres of forestry to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards in over 60 countries.

Marleen is Vice-President of Global Partnerships and Alliances and leads the team responsible for coordinating and leveraging global private sector partnerships efforts by establishing and maximizing relationships with multi-national regional and national corporate and foundation partners through value chain strategic alliances, cause-related marketing, and workplace giving programs.  Marleen works to ascertain the needs of both the farmers and the private sector and identify ways for both parties to gain business value through pro-poor, wealth creating value chain opportunities.

Prior to her decade of experience in the development sector, Marleen spent 25 years in marketing and public relations.  Her career includes senior level management positions in production, account services and project management.

Cheryl is the Global Values Led Sourcing Manager for Ben & Jerry’s, based in South Burlington, Vermont. Values Led Sourcing is Ben & Jerry’s approach to ingredient procurement which embeds Ben & Jerry’s commitment to Linked Prosperity throughout the value chain. Cheryl brings extensive experience in new product commercialization within an international foods manufacturing environment and received her MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago.

Kate leads sustainable sourcing in North America for Royal Canin, a division of Mars Petcare. As part of Mars’ Sustainable in a Generation Plan, and Royal Canin’s commitment to become certified carbon neutral by the end of 2025, Kate leads supply chain partnerships focused on regenerative agriculture, water stewardship, supplier climate action, social compliance, responsible fish sourcing, and deforestation & land use. Prior to joining Royal Canin, Kate served in global and US roles with the Kellogg Company and the World Wildlife Fund, respectively. She holds a Master of Science in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from Tufts University’s Friedman School and Bachelor of Science in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology from UC Santa Cruz.