Hana Bieliauskas leads Inspire’s southern office from Asheville, North Carolina, as well as oversees Inspire’s digital practice and directs marketing for the firm. With nearly 15 years of public relations and digital marketing experience — primarily working with food, agriculture, nonprofit and pet care clients, Bieliauskas has worked on more than 100 digital campaigns that have won national and regional awards. A graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, she earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism with a specialization in political science.

Karen Christensen, Ph.D., has worked extensively in live production for more than 35 years, serving as broiler manager, live production manager and director of technical services. She then worked for to the Center of Excellence in Poultry at the University of Arkansas as an associate professor where she was involved in extension and research around welfare and production. At Tyson Foods, where Christensen has worked since 2017, she is responsible for the welfare of broilers, turkeys, hogs and cattle. Christensen has served on the Board of Directors for PAACO, the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization, since 2007. She currently serves on the board of the Poultry Science Association. Christensen has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in animal science from Washington State University, and a Ph.D. in poultry physiology from Mississippi State University.

Annica Conrad is chief brand officer for City Barbeque. She is responsible for the brand’s image, experience and promise, creating a world-class brand vision and providing the definition, direction and evolution of the company, brand and culture.  She previously served in CMO positions with FAT Brands and Global Franchise Group — leading marketing efforts with a portfolio of brands including Round Table Pizza, Great American Cookies, Marble Slab Creamery, Pretzelmaker and Hot Dog on a Stick — and held marketing leadership positions with Mellow Mushroom, Moe’s Southwest Grill and McAlister’s Deli.

Randy Day is the chairman of the National Chicken Council and the recently retired CEO of Perdue Farms, a fourth-generation, family-owned U.S. food and agricultural company that empowers consumers, customers and farmers through trusted choices in products and services. Randy had a 40-year career at Perdue, where he held roles of increasing responsibility, including chief operating officer and president of the Foods division. Day received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Western Maryland College (McDaniel). He earned a master’s degree in poultry nutrition from the University of Maryland-College Park.

New product trends have been the focus of Lynn Dornblaser’s career for more than 35 years, giving her a unique perspective on the marketplace and new product development. An experienced public speaker, Dornblaser has been quoted by major U.S. news organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, and CNN.

Brian Earnest is lead economist for animal protein in CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange division. He provides market and industry research for the poultry, pork and beef sectors. Earnest has more than 10 years of industry and consulting experience. Prior to joining CoBank, he was senior commodity analyst, poultry, with IHS Markit’s Food and Agricultural Commodities Economics group. Earnest provided forecasting and price risk strategies, client service, as well as project consulting in the poultry and egg space. He previously held various procurement and advisory roles with Topco Associates LLC, a retail food industry cooperative. Earnest holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in economics from Eastern Illinois University.

Jan K. Henriksen serves as the CEO of Aviagen. His journey to Aviagen began in 2014 after his successful tenure as Managing Director and CEO of Landmännen Unibake, the international bakery division of Landmännen Group. Before that, from 2009 to 2011, Henriksen was Managing Director and CEO of Landmännen Kronfogel Group, a prominent broiler integration in Northern Europe, where he forged invaluable connections with Aviagen, thus acquiring profound insights into the global broiler industry. From 2005 to 2008, Henriksen demonstrated his exceptional leadership skills as Managing Director and CEO of Danaeg amba, a conglomerate of egg producers spanning Denmark and Sweden. Beyond his role at Aviagen, Henriksen is a member of the supervisory board of Brdr. Hartman A/S, and as chairman of BPI A/S.

Raymond Hogan has served as a senior poultry supply buyer and business manager for Applegate for the past nine years. Previously, he worked for A&P Supermarkets for 15 years where he introduced no antibiotics ever (NAE) and organic poultry to the portfolio mix. Raymond has a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University.

Brian Jones is President of Natural Choice Foods, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has been with the organization for 10 years, helping it to grow into a national organization that partners with many of the largest food producers in the world. The company started 27 years ago in the secondary market and has expanded to include retail stores, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) packaging operation, a logistics company and distribution nationwide. Jones earned his master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan.

Don Kupski started in the industry as a store manager for KFC while completing his degree at the University of Cincinnati. Following graduation, he moved into KFC’s R&D department where he worked on a number of non-fried offerings including the pot pie, Rotisserie Gold and TenderRoast chicken, among many other projects. In 1995 Don moved to RTM Restaurant Group in Atlanta. RTM was a major franchisee of Arby’s, along with owning Mrs. Winner’s Chicken & Biscuits and Lee’s Famous Recipe. One highlight from this employment was the development of the Double Dippers, a spicy breaded fried breast chunk. Following seven years at RTM, he moved to Sara Lee Foods meat division for a short stint before returning to Lee’s in 2004 as the vice president of purchasing and R&D.

Marty Matlock, Ph.D., is a professor in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas. He served as senior advisor to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 2021-2022. Prior to that he was executive director of the University of Arkansas Resiliency Center. He received his Ph.D. in biosystems engineering from Oklahoma State University, is a registered professional engineer, a Board-Certified Environmental Engineer and a Certified Ecosystem Designer. He served as Chairman of the Cherokee Nation Environmental Protection Commission for 16 years and as sustainability science advisor for three environmental conservation organizations and more than a dozen food and agricultural product companies.

Justin McCoy joined Cousins Subs in January 2006 as an entry-level marketing specialist and held several marketing positions before being named vice president of marketing in May 2013. In his role, he is responsible for managing advertising agency relationships, developing national promotional calendars and creating system-wide strategic initiatives related to advertising, marketing and public relations. McCoy brings more than 18 years of restaurant industry experience, more than four years of experience in public and media relations with the Milwaukee Bucks and several years of experience in the finance industry to Cousins Subs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Cardinal Stritch University.

Hinda Mitchell is the founder and president of Inspire PR Group, a nationally recognized communications firm representing valued brands across the United States. At Inspire, Mitchell leads a team of public relations and digital professionals shaping communications strategies and delivering results for a diverse group of clients. Mitchell is a trusted public relations advisor to farm organizations and food companies, CEOs and top association leaders. She has extensive experience in providing direct counsel and strategic, high-level communications support in the C-Suites of numerous companies, including national corporations, state and national trade associations, advocacy groups, restaurants, education organizations, and nonprofit groups. She has led communications strategy and response for numerous high-profile national crises in manufacturing and production, education, food safety and animal agriculture.

Michele Murray leads Ketchum’s Food Agriculture and Ingredient Practice. Murray has more than 25 years of experience leading strategic communications in food and agriculture, including managing the “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner.” integrated marketing communications for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association for 12 years. A farmer’s daughter, Murray is passionate about improving access to healthy food, creating community through food and strengthening the food system by building a deeper awareness of where your food comes from

Joyce Neth is vice president, director of audience engagement, for WATT Global Media. She is responsible for creating insights for strategic decisions, audience marketing, product marketing and proprietary research using knowledge from WATT’s database of audience behavior and demographics. Prior to joining WATT in 2006, Neth held senior research positions at two major-market newspaper companies. She started her career as a marketing engineer for Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Neth is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, and earned a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

As vice president of consulting services at Revenue Management Solutions, Chris Norton generates profitability for the world’s leading chicken restaurant brands through pricing, menu optimization, consumer trends and market research strategy consulting. Norton joined Revenue Management Solutions in 2011 as director of sales, international, responsible for developing the Asian and European markets. He holds an MBA from The Open University in the U.K. and a bachelor’s degree in hotel administration from Cornell University.

Terrence O’Keefe began his association with the poultry industry in graduate school and has been working with and writing about poultry for 36 years. In his role as content director at WATT Global Media, O’Keefe leads a team of 24 reporters, editors and artists who cover the world’s poultry, animal feed and pet food industries. He has written for and edited publications covering the broiler, turkey and egg industries. Prior to joining WATT, he worked for broiler and turkey companies in variety of live production and processing roles including serving as manager for broiler and turkey slaughter and deboning plants. O’Keefe earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at the College of William & Mary, a master’s degree in poultry science at the Pennsylvania State University and an MBA at James Madison University.

Moderator

Erkin Peksoz is a senior director of client insights at Circana and leads the Perdue Farms team. Prior to joining Circana in 2017, he held various brand management roles across the food and beverage CPG industry. In his own words, nothing excites and energizes him more than observing and reacting to the ever-changing consumer trends and decisions. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in civil engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.

For the past 15 years, Christophe Pelletier has been one of the world’s true experts on the future of food and agriculture. As “The Food Futurist,” he has provided his services and vision to organizations in about all sectors of food value chains, from small niche players to some of the world’s largest food and agriculture corporations. He combines extensive knowledge with practical hands-on business experience and an innate sense for foresight and strategy. Pelletier graduated with a master’s degree in economy and development of animal productions from France’s Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (now Agro ParisTech). He is the author of three books and is currently working on a fourth one about value marketing in food and agriculture.

Don Ritter, DVM, is a broiler production veterinarian with over 35 years of experience in designing and managing programs in poultry health, welfare and food safety, as well as providing technical support to sales teams and customers. Ritter was a founding collaborator of the One Health Certified animal production standard and has held positions at Mountaire Farms, Showell Farms and Perdue Farms. He currently runs a full-time poultry veterinarian consultant business that offers poultry health industry experience and business acumen in areas of production to various clients in the poultry supply chain. Ritter obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Missouri.

Tom Super brings more than 20 years of combined experience in strategic communications, public policy, politics and meat and poultry issues management to the National Chicken Council’s senior management team. He is responsible for day-to-day media relations, media outreach, social media management and strategic communications planning to supplement the NCC’s legislative, regulatory and public affairs efforts. Prior to his joining NCC, Super spent three-and-a-half years at the American Meat Institute, most recently as vice president of public affairs. He previously spent six years at Greener and Hook LLC, a Washington-based strategic communications consulting firm where his focus was on planning and executing communications strategies and delivering strategic communications and media relations counsel to corporations, trade associations, ad-hoc organizations, non-profits and political candidates at the local, state and federal levels. Super began his career in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill as a press assistant and legislative correspondent for U.S. Senator John W. Warner (R-Va.). A graduate of Washington & Lee University, in Lexington, Va., Super earned his bachelor’s degree in public policy.

Moderator