Speakers

Nathan Bingaman

Nathan “Nate” Bingaman is the Director of Operations and Co-Owner for D1 Resources, Inc. Nate is a 2003 graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in Feed Science & Management.  Nate has been involved in the industry since high school with plant and project management across the United States as well as multiple projects internationally. He has worked on projects for animal feed, pet food and premix, and human food processes.

Dave Edwards

Dr. Dave Edwards is the Director of the Division of Animal Feeds at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM). The Division regulates animal food, including premarket ingredient approvals, medicated feed and post-market feed safety monitoring. He joined the office as the Deputy Director in 2014.    

Prior to joining the CVM, Dr. Edwards served as the Director of animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) in Washington, D.C.  BIO is the world’s largest biotechnology trade association. He has also worked on the majority professional staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and as a congressional science fellow with the Federation of Animal Science Societies on the same committee.   

Dr. Edwards grew up in Iowa and raised pigs, sheep and specialty crops. He received his bachelor’s in genetics and agricultural biochemistry from Iowa State University and his master’s and Ph.D. in animal science breeding and genetics at Michigan State University. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Federal Executive Institute. 

George Ferguson

George Ferguson is the agricultural feed administrator with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and is responsible for the management of the Food and Drug Protection Division's Feed Section and execution of the North Carolina Farmer Feed Testing Service. He has served in this role for over 6 years. Prior to serving as the administrator, he was the feed safety officer and feed compliance officer.

Mr. Ferguson has been very involved in the Association of American Feed Control Officials since 2013.

Before joining NCDA&CS, he worked for Blue Seal Feeds as a dealer development and sales manager, Family Home & Garden as a director of retail operations as well as a drill instructor with the U.S. Army.  He received is bachelor’s degree in poultry science from North Carolina State University.

John  T. Hoffman

Col. John T. Hoffman is a Senior Research Fellow with the Food Protection and Defense Institute, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence at the University of Minnesota.   He served in the United States Army in Military Law Enforcement, Intelligence and Anti-Terrorism roles including the protection of military supply systems against attack.   With a strong background in protecting the nation’s food supply infrastructure, he has also served as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a post-9/11 Appointee during the Bush Administration with U.S. Department of Homeland Security, prior to Joining FPDI. His current areas of focus are on improving the resilience of the nation’s food supply systems and to reduce risks to the complex supply chains that support the food and agriculture infrastructure. John has extensive experience in developing, operating, hardening and sustaining extensive cyber systems.   With the recent growth in cyber-attacks targeting our nation’s critical infrastructures, including the food and agriculture sector, John has focused on protecting the nation’s food supply chains from the impact of system disruptions, cascading consequences of cyber attacks on critical industries and the reduction of vulnerability to such attacks. 

Clare Hsu

Clare Hsu is originally from Taipei City, Taiwan where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy in 2019. After graduation, she moved to Champaign, Illinois to pursue her studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Dr. Maria Godoy’s companion animal nutrition laboratory. Clare has been working on several projects since she started, including resistant starch in feline nutrition, hydrolyzed and plant protein in canine nutrition, and extrusion effects on protein quality.

Carolyn Kennedy

EAS Consulting Group’s Carolyn Kennedy works with pet food companies on new and innovative product development and formulae, helping them to meet market needs and demands. As an independent consultant, she assists with brand management and nutritional support, incorporating new trends into pet food lines in compliance with AAFCO regulations. Carolyn organizes lab testing, analysis and procedures to ensure products comply with required criteria and offers complete regulatory reviews relating to new products, product challenges and industry changes.

Samuel Kiprotich

Thembi Machaba

Thembi Machaba has over 20 years of experience in the Human Resources and Organization Effectiveness field. She has held a number of functional leadership roles within FMCG organizations, and across different geographies. Thembi is an accomplished senior executive with specific experience in Human Capital Strategy, Organization Design and Talent Management.  She has designed and led large scale business transformation projects and has extensive knowledge and experience working with Executive and Senior Management teams in formulating strategy, identifying and managing their capability challenges and developing appropriate Human Resource programs.

Thembi currently holds the role of Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Freshpet in Pennsylvania. She is most passionate about creating sustainable solutions to complex and recurring business challenges and bringing simplicity to organizational chaos. She has a great appreciation for the role leadership plays in shaping and directing the culture and performance of any organization.

Thembi holds a Bachelor of Social Science degree in Economics and Industrial Psychology from the University of  Kwazulu-Natal , South Africa.

Erin Mies

Erin Mies is Co-Founder of People Spark Consulting, where she works with business leaders in ag. and food manu. throughout the U.S. to develop straightforward, practical solutions to help businesses grow sustainably. In this role, she works with businesses on supervisor and leadership development and practical change management. She began her career with General Mills, working in several manufacturing facilities as HR leader. She then spent several years with Land O’Lakes, Purina Animal Nutrition as a HR leader. 

Erin and her co-founding business partner Kristen Ireland are frequent guest speakers on practical HR and change management topics. Their first book will be released 2022. 

Erin is also an adjunct instructor and career consultant with the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s School of Labor and Employment Relations. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wittenberg University and her Master of HR and Industrial Relations, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Todd Renner

Pawan Singh

Pawan graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Business. In Fall 2020, she began her Master's degree in companion animal nutrition with Dr. Anna Kate Shoveller. The focus of Pawan's research is grain-free diets for dogs, specifically the implications that varying levels of pulse inclusion have on canine metabolic health parameters and cardiac function. This year at AFIA, she will be presenting data from a six-month feeding trial that investigated the effects of pulse inclusion ranging from zero to forty-five percent in canine diets on echocardiographic and blood cardiac parameters.

Gina Tumbarello