Featured Speakers

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Stacey Antine is senior vice president of nutrition and health specialty in the marketing practice at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide/New York. With 10 years of experience, she offers strategic counsel and directs programs in the areas of nutrition, functional foods, nutraceuticals, dietary supplements and OTC marketing for clients such as Unilever, North American Foods, The Minute Maid Company and the Paris-based Danone International Research Center. Prior to joining Ogilvy, she was a vice president at Porter Novelli/New York where she was involved with issues management and communication initiatives for The Dannon Company, Kellogg USA, SmithKline Beecham, Marlow Foods Ltd. and Braun, Inc. She began her public relations career at Ketchum, where she won a 1993 Silver Anvil for the public health initiative on vitamin nutrition in pregnancy and pre-pregnancy for Hoffmann-La Roche.

Jon Benninger, group publisher, Virgo Publishing, directs the Natural Products Division at Virgo Publishing. Trade magazines produced by Virgo Publishing include Natural Products Industry Insider, HSR: Health Supplement Retailer, Organic & Natural News, Juiced! and Natural Beauty Retailer. The division also produces the SupplySide trade shows. He graduated from Arizona State University with a journalism degree, and has worked in the natural products industry since 1990.

Joseph M. Betz, Ph.D., is the vice president for Scientific and Technical Affairs at the American Herbal Products Association. He also is AOACI general referee for Botanical Supplements and has served as FDA's representative to the United States Pharmacopeia's Subcommittee on Natural Products. He has been a principal investigator for the National Cancer Institute's Functional Foods Program as well as project manager for the FDA's plant toxins and Chemical, Biological and Toxicological Characterization of Food Plants research programs. In addition, he spent 12 years as a research chemist at the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Cheryl Bottger, the director of Marketing and Retail Business Development for Portland, Ore.-based Healthnotes, Inc., has 24 years experience in grocery retail, specifically the natural products segment. Until she joined Healthnotes in 1998, she had been with Nature's Northwest for 10 years, serving as a store manager, staff trainer, buyer, product merchandiser and retail concept designer. At Nature's she incorporated a day spa and an allopathic pharmacy into a 42,000-square-foot flagship natural products supermarket, the first of its kind in the United States. She has been integral to the product development of Healthnotes Online, playing a key role in its content development and application in the retail environment. In addition, she is a founding member of the Natural Product Quality Assurance Alliance and past president of The National Nutritional Foods Association, Northwest Region.

Jan Thaw Bruce, CEO of onemedicine.com, has 20 years experience in publishing and 10 in circulation, marketing and financial management positions for large publishing companies. In addition, she has spent 10 years in leading entrepreneurial teams in media turnarounds and start-ups. Most recently, she served as senior vice-president and general manager of Internet products for Individual Incorporated, where she led the team that developed Newspage, a premium customized business service that was one of the top Internet advertising sites in 1996 and 1997. Prior to Individual, she led the turnaround of Walking magazine, serving as CEO and founder of Walking, Inc. In 1994, after four years, Walking was sold to Cowles Media, at which point she became the managing director of Walking and other fitness and health-related books and newsletters. Prior to her affiliation at Walking, she held general management and circulation positions at Newsweek, Rolling Stone and Hearst Magazine Corporation

Wes Burgar, executive vice president of nutrabid.com, combines more than twenty years of successful leadership in the natural products industry with a passionate vision in utilizing technology to improve the traditional business environment. He is responsible for establishing relations with key manufacturers, distributors and retailers. He is the former president of Super-Nutrition Distributors, leading the company to a nationwide status with distribution centers in New York and California. His prior management responsibilities cover a broad range of business disciplines including finance, sales & marketing, IT, operations, purchasing, fleet transportation and human resources. He served as the west coast sales manager for two premier divisions of Johnson & Johnson. After starting with the Baby Products Company, he was transferred to the McNeil Consumer Products Company and finished his tenure as the Tylenol Brands 'Manager of the Year' in 1980.

John H. Cardellina, Ph.D. is vice president, Botanical Science and Regulatory Affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition. A recognized expert in plant chemistry, he will develop CRN's comprehensive botanicals agenda, intended to guide member companies in the manufacture of safe, standardized and beneficial herbal products. Prior to CRN, he was a senior investigator and head of the Natural Products Chemistry Section in the Laboratory of Drug Discovery, Research and Development at the National Cancer Institute. In addition to publishing 150 scientific papers, he has lectured on natural product research and was an associate professor at Montana State University. He also is the president of the American Society of Pharmacognosy for the 2000-2001 term and is a member of the American Chemical Society.

Lauren Clardy, with more than 20 years experience in strategic sales and marketing for dietary supplements, nutraceuticals and functional foods, currently is the president of NutriMarketing. Being an independent consultant, she has overseen the development and marketing of more than 150 products and worked with companies on strategies for growing their business, meeting new challenges and product marketing. She began her career in nutritional products distribution and went on to work in sales and marketing management for supplement and major food corporations. She is past president of the Consultants Association of the Natural Industry, CANI, and is a member of the American Marketing Association.

William Coakley is the director of purchasing at Rexall Sundown where he is responsible for managing all purchasing activities including contract manufacturing, bulk equipment and MRO purchases. Previously, he was purchasing director for Genzyme Corporation, where he gained 15 years experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. He is a co-founder of the Massachusetts Biotech Council Purchasing Committee and previously was the Chairperson for BIO Purchasing Advisory Committee and Hospital Services of New England Purchasing Committee. He also has been awarded the International Purchasing Person of the Year by NAPM.

Bret Conkin is COO of Healthnet International Inc. and has more than 14 years of product management, web site development, on-line and off-line marketing and new business development experience. He has been primarily focused on the Internet since 1997 and has overseen the development and launch of numerous web sites. He plays a fundamental role in the development of the company's B2C and B2B web site development and hosting services. He has had considerable success in the delivery of multi-million dollar sales targets and in managing multi-million dollar budgets. Prior to joining Healthnet International, he worked with companies such as Procter and Gamble and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation. His product management portfolio at P&G included Crest, Vicks, Scope and other health and beauty care products.

Annette Dickinson, Ph.D., vice president of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, has more than 27 years experience in the dietary supplement industry. She was appointed to the Presidential Commission on Dietary Supplement Labels by President Clinton, and is a frequent witness before the U.S. Congress. Her expertise includes the legal and technical aspects of marketing dietary supplements, including provisions relating to labeling, advertising and good manufacturing practices. She is responsible for analyzing and responding to new regulatory or legislative proposals as well as evaluating new scientific research relating to the safety and benefits of dietary supplements. She earned her Ph.D. in nutritional sciences and her M.S. in food sciences from the University of Maryland.

Robert DiSilvestro, Ph.D., is a professor of nutrition at Ohio State University. His current area of research is the complimentary and overlapping actions of minerals, phytochemicals and vitamins. He has authored the Handbook of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods in addition to more than 20 authored or co-authored articles for research journals. He earned his B.S. from Purdue University and his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, both in biochemistry.

Joe Downes has more than 38 years experience in the food industry and currently is vice president of sales and marketing for bMarco.com. Prior to joining bMarco.com, he spent 10 years with Rhodia Food Ingredients as a manager, where he helped establish the company as a top supplier to category accounts. He has marketing, sales and management expertise in both domestic and international food markets.

Jeffrey Eisenberg is an entrepreneur and a pioneer of the online-advertising market. He is currently serving as chairman and CEO of Infinite Axis, a leading web-development and incubation firm based in Westlake Village, California. Prior to joining Infinite Axis, he served as vice president of Business Development and a member of the board of directors of Adsmart (a CMGI company). While at CMGI, he helped build Adsmart into the second largest advertising representation firm on the Web. He has more than twenty years of experience in the advertising and publishing business and a track record of several successful start-ups.

William Fitzgerald currently is purchasing manager-sourcing with Leiner Health Products in Carson, CA. His responsibilities include sourcing new suppliers and raw materials. He has six years experience in the nutraceutical industry and 23 years purchasing experience with companies such as Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., Coca-Cola and Avon Products. He attended Yale and the University of Southern California.

Steve French, vice president of the Natural Marketing Institute, has more than 20 years of marketing, business development and management experience with PepsiCo, Mars Inc. and Marriott. His expertise is in consumer packaged goods brand marketing, multi-channel business development, corporate marketing research management, new business start-ups, new product concept development, competitive/product category analysis and strategic plan development.

Michael Gavigan is a senior manager at Andersen Consulting, a leading business integration consulting firm. With more than 13 years of technology and consulting experience, he has worked with many clients to define their eCommerce strategies and establish their eCommerce capabilities. He also has been directly involved in the definition and establishment of multiple eCommerce marketplaces for both the chemicals and nutraceuticals industries.

Ellen Golden, with more than 20 years of marketing and public relations experience, currently is the senior vice president/director of Consumer Healthcare at GCI Group. There she leads GCI's dedicated consumer healthcare practice, which includes clients such as: Ross Products, a Division of Abbott Laboratories; Procter and Gamble; Playtex; AMBI, manufacturer of chromium picolinate; and Solvay Women's Health, manufacturer of Estratest®, Prometrium® and Estratab®. Prior to joining GCI, she managed the consumer healthcare business at Ruder-Finn where she provided counsel and oversaw accounts such as Rite Aid; Promensil, the first dietary supplement for women in menopause; Playtex; Similac; and Ensure. Beginning her public relations career at Burson-Marsteller she worked on accounts such as Burger-King, AT&T, Merrill Lynch and Tylenol. While there, she earned a Silver Anvil award for her public relations role in the historic Tylenol tampering incident.

Heather Granato is the editor of the Natural Products Division at Virgo Publishing Inc. The division includes the magazines HSR: Health Supplement Retailer, Natural Products Industry Insider, Organic & Natural News and Juiced! Magazine. She has more than eight years of experience in the natural products industry, overseeing the natural products editorial at Virgo and working at Natural Foods Merchandiser as the managing editor. She has been a presenter at SupplySide, Natural Products Expo, the Natural Gourmet Show and NNFA MarketPlace. Her outside publishing includes Country Living's Healthy Living, Delicious! and WomenOf.com. She also serves as the advisory board chairman for the Arizona State University chapter of the national women's fraternity Kappa Alpha Theta. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Richmond, Va., in 1992 with a B.A. in journalism.

Susan Haeger is president/CEO of Citizens for Health and has more than 15 years of diversified experience in the natural products and natural health care industries. Prior to accepting the CEO position, she served as strategic planning and communications consultant to the organization, developing for them the first Health Freedom National Lobbying Day in Washington, D.C. Prior to her position at Citizens, she was co-owner of Ascent Communications, Inc., a marketing/communications firm specializing in natural health products. The Boulder, Colorado-based Citizens for Health is a grassroots organization committed to expanding and protecting consumer natural health choices. It represents consumers through more than 160 chapters in the 50 states and 11 affiliated groups worldwide.

Phillip W. Harvey, Ph.D., is director of Science and Quality Assurance for the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA). He is the principal voice on issues of science, research, technology and quality in the health-products industry, and directs the NNFA's self-regulation effort, the Good Manufacturing Practices Certification Program. He also serves as staff director to NNFA's Committee on Product and Label Integrity (ComPLI) and oversees the association's random testing and label registration program, TruLabel. His areas of expertise include nutritional biochemistry and assessment, clinical nutrition and gastrointestinal physiology and endocrinology. He received his Ph.D. in food science and nutrition from Colorado State University, a M.S.P.H. from UCLA and a B.A. from California State University, Northridge. He is a member of American Society of Nutritonal Sciences, American Dietetic Association, Institute of Food Technolo-gists and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Recognized by Advertising Age as one of the "nation's Top 100 marketers," Jeff Hilton is a partner with Integrated Marketing Group in Salt Lake City, UT, a marketing services company providing coordinated strategic planning and campaign execution to its clients. He has 17 years of broad-based marketing and business experience, seven of which he spent in the natural healthcare industry as president of the KAL division of Nutraceutical Corp. and vice president of marketing at Murdock Madaus Schwabe, in charge of marketing programs for more than 400 products under Nature's Way, NaturaLife and Medicine From Nature. Prior to his corporate work, he served as vice president of Bonneville Communications and also worked at Young & Rubicam and Benton & Bowles, both national ad agencies.

John L. Hines, Jr. is a partner at Chicago's Sachnoff & Weaver, Ltd., Lawyers to Innovators®. He practices in the intellectual property, information technology and Internet commerce practice group and concentrates on Internet Commerce, Intellectual Property and licensing. He teaches cyberlaw at Northwestern University School of Law, where he is an adjunct professor in intellectual property. He also regularly participates as an adjunct faculty member in Northwestern's clinical trial advocacy program. He received his J.D. from Northwestern University in 1981 and his B.A. in Philosophy from Princeton University in 1978.

Gary Jepson is vice president of Strategic Sourcing at Weider Nutrition Group, based in Salt Lake City. In his current role, he manages both strategic sourcing and procurement for Weider and its affiliates. These departments are responsible for the purchase and management of more than 3500 individual raw materials and components, which are internationally procured. He has been active in the development of supplier certification, raw material specifications and communication systems, inventory rationalization plans and supply chain management. With more than 18 years of industrial experience, he has worked in various purchasing and engineering functions with other notable companies such as Amway Corporation and Burroughs Corporation.

Chris Kilham has nearly 30 years experience in the natural health field and is the founder of Medicine Hunter Inc. He conducts field research on natural medicine and helps develop new botanical health products. His expertise includes holistic health trends, botanical medicines, vitamin supplements, homeopathy and nutraceuticals. He has authored 12 books including Tales from the Medicine

Thomas J. Longstaff is manager of Global Strategic Sourcing for Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals. His current responsibilities include strategic sourcing for vitamins and minerals in addition to active pharmaceutical ingredients used in over-the-counter products marketed by Whitehall-Robins Healthcare. These products include Centrum®, Advil® and Robitussin®. Both Whitehall-Robins and Wyeth-Ayerst are divisions of American Home Products Corporation. He also is involved in the process of supplier development and working closely with marketing and R&D on new product development. Previously, he was involved in various positions in operations and materials management at Wyeth-Ayerst's Liquid Nutritional manufacturing facility.

Diane C. McEnroe, counsel to the firm in Sidley & Austin's New York office, has practiced for twelve years in the areas of food, pharmaceutical and dietary supplement law. She has participated in pharmaceutical patent and Lanham Act Litigation, DEA hearings and FTC investigations. She regularly counsels clients on a full range of issues involving the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, functional food ingredients and state and federal pharmaceutical regulation. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Connecticut Law School.

Maryellen Molyneaux has more than 30 years experience in the natural product arena, including marketing and sales management nationally and internationally. As president of The Natural Marketing Institute, her research has been utilized by such companies as Smucker Quality Beverages, Lipton Foods and Campbells. Her expertise includes new product development and introductions, qualitative and quantitative trade and consumer research and market research for mergers and acquisitions. She is a frequent contributor to many trade publications and is a sought after speaker.

As more.com's vice president of Marketing and Business Development, Bruce Mowery brings more than 20 years of technology-marketing experience and proven strategic vision to the executive management team. He previously held senior sales and marketing positions at two pioneering technology companies, MNI Interactive and Visioneer. At MNI, he helped establish the company's presence as an Internet site focused on music preview and purchase under the MusicNet name. Visioneer, a leader in personal imaging products, relied on him to lead the launch of eight new products and establish the PaperPort brand. He was senior director of marketing at Apple Computer, where he was an integral contributor to the market positioning and launch for most Apple products from 1984-1990. Under his leadership, the marketing team was awarded the American Association of Advertising Agencies "Management Excellence Award" and honored by the American Marketing Association as the "Marketer of the Year" in 1991 and 1993.

Mary C. Mulry, Ph.D., is president of Foodwise, Inc., Hygiene, Colo. Since 1993, she has supplied technical and scientific consulting to natural and organic food and beverage, herbal product and dietary supplement companies. She has held positions such as vice president, Research and Operations at Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems; vice president, R&D at Celestial Seasonings; and product development and analytical positions at Kraft and Kellogg. She contributes on a technical advisory level for the Herb Research Foundation, AHPA and the National Organic Standards Board. She holds a Ph.D. in food science and human nutrition from the University of Florida.

Miles Munger, vice president and general merchandising manager, joined HealthCentral in January 2000. Previously, he served as the vice president of strategic growth initiatives and vice president of merchandising at West Marine Products. He has also acquired several years experience in the retail industry as a sourcing director for North Face and as a world sourcing director and product manager for Mervyn's. He received his B.S. in economics and accounting from Portland University.

David Neuwirth is a 29 year veteran in consumer and business-to-business marketing (and development) in the food industry, domestic and international. He is president of the Neuwirth Consulting Group, Inc., which specializes in strategic business analysis and positioning, market and product identification and development, competitive positioning and marketing and selling effectiveness. His prior management positions include exposure to a wide variety of departments including marketing/sales, strategic planning, new product development, new business development for Ralston Purina, Holiday Inns, Inc. and Procter & Gamble. His experience includes heading task forces to set corporate direction, accomplish divisional turnarounds, addressing marketing/selling/business effectiveness and the identification, development, launch and conduct of products/markets/businesses. He has published numerous articles and served as a speaker at national and international conferences on an array of market trends, industry direction and market development issues.

Saul M. Pilchen currently is partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom where he focuses on the defense of corporations, officers, directors and employees in criminal, civil and administrative matters. He advises corporate clients on the design and implementation of in-house legal compliance programs and has assisted them in conducting internal investigations. Prior to joining Skadden, Arps he served as Assistant United States District Attorney

Larry Platkin is corporate counsel for American Home Products Corporation, the parent company of Whitehall-Robins Healthcare and Solgar Vitamin and Herb. Whitehall-Robins Healthcare manufactures and markets such brands as Advil®, Robitussin® and Centrum®. In addition to being counsel to Solgar Vitamin and Herb, he is also a member of the company's Executive Committee. In his current position, he is responsible for regulatory, antitrust and product-liability counseling; review and defense of advertising and promotional materials; FTC compliance; contracts and commercial matters. He served as both counsel and Management Committee member of Ciba Self Medication's consumer healthcare business.

Jeffrey Rosenberg is CEO and co-founder of MesoMas.com. He has founded, operated and sold businesses in the consumer products, telecommunications and real estate sectors. He co-founded and managed a company that manufactured $40 million per year of Reebok footwear in China and sold the business to Reebok. He also established Motorola's cellular systems presence in China and sold the business to Motorola after the company obtained more than $50 million in cellular systems contracts. As a trader for Pechiney Trading, he traded tens of millions of bulk and rare, earth metal commodities. Having managed the distribution of commodities, components and finished products worldwide, he is an expert in both shipping and logistics. He has developed and operated the real estate for Asian manufacturing and distribution centers for multi-national corporations.

Leila Saldanha, Ph.D., RD is vice president, Nutritional Sciences for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. There she manages program activities relating to the scientific and technical aspects of the dietary supplement field. Previously, she served as director of Nutrition and Scientific Affairs for the Kellogg Co., Asia Pacific in Sydney, Australia. During her tenure at Kellogg, she also held the positions of director of nutrition affairs, manager of nutrition communications and research nutritionist. Before joining Kellogg, she was an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and an assistant instructor at Kansas State University, where she earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in nutrition. She is an active member in American Dietetic Association, American Society for Nutritional Sciences, American Society for Clinical Nutrition and the Society for International Nutrition Research.

Cindy Schweitzer, Ph.D., manages the science program for carotenoids at Cognis Nutrition and Health, a leading supplier of antioxidant ingredients and products. For more than four years, she has worked with scientists worldwide on research products supported by Cognis. She received her B.S. in Food Science from University of Wisconsin- Madision and Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from Utah State University. Active in many professional organizations, she is a member of the Institute of Food Technologies; the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, a constituent society of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB); and was recently elected to the board of the Chicago Nutrition Association.

Philip Sheldon has more than 20 years experience in public relations counseling, planning, management and implementation on both the corporate and the agency sides of the business. He currently is executive managing director and general manager of the Hill and Knowlton New York office. He formerly was executive vice president and New York health care practice director at Porter Novelli. His clients included Alza, Aventis, Berlex, BASF, Bristol-Myers, Millennium, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Wyeth. He worked on both U.S. and global business for many of his companies providing strategic counsel as well as developing and executing integrated communications programs.

Suzanne Shelton is president of the Chicago-based Shelton Group providing public relations product and company publicity, writing and video/multimedia production exclusively for the natural products industry. She has worked with herbal products, organic, whole and vegetarian foods and cause-related products for more than 18 years. She is a regular contributor to industry publications and is the founding president of CANI. In addition, she serves on the board of directors for Citizens for Health and Sustain, an environmental communications organization.

Daren Sigrist, vice president of Finance and CFO of Olympian Labs, is involved in all facets of the operation including budgets and projections, analyzing potential merger targets, marketing and advertising, operations and purchasing and selection of raw material suppliers. Previously, he founded an accounting firm in Tempe, Arizona, which grew into one of the largest firms in the area, specializing in income taxes, business consulting and financial management. He also has pioneered an internal audit division at Northern Automotive Corporation and was a part of an audit team performing audits for Fortune 500 companies at Arthur Andersen. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University with a B.S. in accounting and later earned the designation of Certified Financial Planner.

Don Stires will serve Naturebid as COO. He currently is CEO of MedAcoustics, Inc., a Raleigh, NC based medical device start up company. He has more than 20 years of general management experience in medical device industry. Prior to joining MedAcoustics, he served as COO and executive vice president with Cardio Technologies Inc., a company commercializing an implantable, temporary cardiac assist device. He also has served as executive director of New Product Development for Cordis, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson acquisition. He was a founder and vice president of Finance and Administration for Johnson & Johnson Interventional Systems. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University and a MBA from Columbia University.

Sid Tracy, founder of Traco Labs, has been active in the nutritional industry for more than 25 years. He is continuing as president at Traco after the company became one of SKW Nature's Products BioActives companies. He testified in front of the U.S. Congress for United States vs. Two Plastics, a case that shaped current DSHEA laws. Prior to Traco, he worked for Johnson and Johnson, RP Scherer and Viobin.

Marc Ullman is partner in the New York City-based law firm Ullman, Shapiro & Ullman, LLP, which specializes in representing clients in all aspects of food and drug law. Mr. Ullman's work includes representation of clients in matters concerning the FDA, FTC, DEA, CSPC and related state agency regulatory and legal proceedings. Prior to the formation of the present firm, he served Of Counsel to Bass & Ullman, PC, which provided legal counseling to clients in the natural products industry for more than 50 years. He also practices with one of NYC's white collar criminal defense firms for 10 years. He has written extensively on compliance-related issues as they concern the industry.

Bradford W. Williams currently is special assistant for the Division of Compliance and Enforcement, Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling and Dietary Supplements, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He is instrumental in implementing the Dietary Supplement Strategic Plan and heading the Enforcement/Safety Strategy Team, which is working to develop regulatory policies and procedures for enforcement of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. Previously, he served as director of the Division of Nonprescription Drug Compliance and chief of the Generic Drug Compliance at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. There, he was responsible for the implementation of programs and the final technical review of cases involving new drug (section 505 of the FFD&C Act) and misbranding (section 502 of the FFD&C Act) charges for over-the-counter and homeopathic drugs.

Terry Word is the director of materials at Murdock Madaus Schwabe. Prior to joining MMS, he was with 3Com Corporation for more than 10 years. There he was involved with materials management, supply chain management, EDI, web based purchasing and ERP implementations. He received his B.S. in Computer Information Systems at York College of Pennsylvania.