Joe Pawlak is the Managing Principal at Technomic. Since joining the firm in 1991, he has conducted a wide variety of industry studies involving market planning, customer satisfaction benchmarking, brand equity investigation, new product development, food trends, opportunity analyses, M&A due diligence, concept testing and distribution system evaluations. He has special expertise in the areas of industry market trend analysis, market metric and forecasting modeling and implications development. Prior to joining Technomic, Joe held food technology management positions with the Campbell Soup Company.

Randy Russell is the President at The Russel Group, where he works with clients to identify goals and develop and execute lobbying strategies to successfully influence the legislative, administrative, and regulatory process. Prior to joining the firm in 1986, Randy served in a number of agricultural policy positions, both inside and outside of government, including Chief of Staff for Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Vice President for Agriculture and Trade Policy at the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Director of Government Relations for The Pillsbury Company, and the 1981 Farm Bill Coordinator for USDA.

Eric Mittenthal is the Vice President of Sustainability at the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), previously serving as the organization’s vice president of public affairs since 2012. He leads the Meat Institute’s sustainability initiatives and also focuses on developing communications to bust myths on the role of meat in the diet and how meat is produced. Mittenthal joined NAMI from the International Food Information Council (IFIC) where he worked closely with dietitians and led IFIC’s efforts in communicating with journalists and influencers.

Warren J. Panico is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Sigma. Warren has worked for Sigma since 1997, when it was one of the top ten largest privately held companies in Arizona. Since 2010, Sigma has been a subsidiary of Sigma Alimentos (based in Monterrey, Mexico) and these two companies combined represent the largest meat processing company in North America. His career in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry has spanned over 40 years, earning him experience in holding various executive management roles. He held various roles at Sigma over the years including Executive Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain as well as EVP of Sales and Marketing. Stepping into the role of COO in 2011 and President in 2012 and CEO in 2013. Warren currently serves as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the North American Meat Institute.

Heather Tansey is the Sustainability Director for Cargill Animal Nutrition & Health and Protein & Salt. Heather has nearly 20 years of experience in the sustainability field. Currently, she leads Cargill’s Protein and Animal Nutrition sustainability teams to develop and execute Cargill’s Sustainable Animal Protein Strategy which addresses sustainability challenges and opportunities throughout the animal protein value chain. Prior to Cargill, Heather spent 15 years at 3M leading various aspects of sustainability, most recently as 3M’s Head of International Sustainability & Community Investment.

Ben Peyer is Director of Animal Welfare and Sourcing Economics at Johnsonville. His team is responsible for continuous improvement in animal care at every point in the animals’ lives. Prior to joining Johnsonville, he worked both within the meat industry and for an animal advocacy group to find ways to improve farm animal welfare.

Dr. KatieRose McCullough serves as a director of regulatory and scientific affairs at the North American Meat Institute where she provides expertise on a variety of topics including: meat science, meat quality and composition, sensory, spoilage, food safety, pathogen control and detection, intervention technologies, microbial ecology, public health, diet and health, epidemiology and more. Prior to joining the Meat Institute, McCullough designed and conducted research studies related to pathogen reduction, system validation, molecular pathogen identification, shelf-life, sensory, and carcass optimization. McCullough also has experience in public health epidemiology, and foodborne outbreaks investigation.

Mark Dopp is the general counsel and senior vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs for the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), previously serving as the American Meat Institute's (AMI) senior vice president of regulatory affairs and general counsel. In his current role, Dopp oversees policy development and research and represents industry views to government officials on all significant regulatory and scientific initiatives. He also provides legal counsel to NAMI. Prior to joining AMI, Dopp worked at Hogan and Hartson (now Hogan Lovells), where he was active in areas of food and agricultural law.

Hank Bongers is NAMI's director of worker safety and human resources.

Bongers joined the Institute in April 2017. Previously, he worked in the food industry for Frito-Lay, Kerry Americas and American Foods Group.

Bongers graduated from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with a Bachelor of Science in Social Science and subsequently earned his M.S. degree in Safety Management from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

He is a Certified Safety Professional. Bongers also volunteers with the National Safety Council serving as past chairman of the Business and Industry Division and on the Board of Delegates.