Food Lion’s Green Chairs PTI Leadership Council

Cathy Green, president of Food Lion, will chair a new 35-member Leadership Council of the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) and four new working groups have been named to lead the initiative.

Administered by the staffs of GS1 US, Produce Marketing Association (PMA), United Fresh Produce Association (UFPA) and Canadian Produce Marketing Association, PTI’s new Leadership Council is comprised of senior-level executives and recognized leaders in their respective segments of the fresh produce supply chain. The council, which will receive input from two stakeholder interest groups, includes seven retailers, five foodservice companies, 14 grower/shippers, four wholesalers/terminal markets, and the four administering associations.

Providing input to the council will be the PTI’s four new working groups, an interest group of association and commodity board representatives, and another interest group made up of GS1 member organizations.

“This new leadership structure, consisting of the supply chain-representative Leadership Council and volunteer-led working groups, will ensure a more inclusive process moving forward that will benefit the entire industry,” said Green. “Now we look forward to advancing the work by providing the tools and information the industry needs to be able to achieve the full benefits and value of chain-wide, electronic traceability.”

The Leadership Council held its first meeting at last weekend’s PMA Fresh Summit in Orlando, which provided updates on initial working-group meetings while discussing the path forward for the PTI.

Other council members joining Green on the newly formed PTI Leadership Council include:

Mike Antle, Tanimura & Antle
Dan Bates, Supervalu
Garry Bergstrom, Publix Super Markets
Todd Camel, Dole Fresh Vegetables
Ron Carkoski, Four Seasons Produce, Inc.
Bob Carpenter, GS1 US
Jim Corby, Food Lion
Rich Dachman, Sysco Corp.
Scott Danner, Liberty Fruit Co., Inc.
Matthew D’Arrigo, D'Arrigo Brothers Co. of New York, Inc.
Dan Dempster, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
Jim DiMenna, J.D. Marketing
Doug Grant, The Oppenheimer Group
Reggie Griffin, The Kroger Co.
Steve Grinstead, Pro*Act
Jorge Hernandez, U.S. Foodservice
Ana Hooper, Darden Restaurants
Derrick Jenkins, Wakefern Food Corporation
David Krause, Paramount Citrus
Emanuel Lazopoulos, Del Monte
Alec Leach, Taylor Farms California
Jim Lemke, C.H. Robinson Worldwide
Mike McLaughlin, Driscoll's
Bob Meek, Wada Farms
John Oxford, L&M Companies
Manolo Reyes, Wal-Mart
Bill Schuler, Castellini Co.
Bryan Silbermann, Produce Marketing Association
Will Steele, Frontera Produce Limited
Tom Stenzel, United Fresh Produce Association
Craig Steven, Chiquita Brands International
Pat Walsh, Food Marketing Institute
Geoff White, Safeway
Mike Wootton, Sunkist
Tim York, Markon Cooperative

Working group members include the following members as of Oct. 5 – population of these groups is still ongoing and interested persons can visit the PTI website at www.producetraceability.org for instructions on how to volunteer :

Implementation Working Group:
Steve Roosdahl, The Oppenheimer Group (Industry Co-Chair )
Ed Treacy, PMA (Association Co-Chair)
Kyle Davis, Publix Super Markets, Inc.
Mike Agostini, Wal-Mart Stores
Al Bates, Sun Pacific
Rick Burnes, Paramount Citrus
Phil Dammarell, The Kroger Company
Kyle Davis, Publix Super Markets
Mark Gastineau, Paramount Citrus
Amy Gates, Frontera Produce
Eric Gingrich, Earth Source Trading
Jack Hagler, Chiquita/Fresh Express
Jim Heil, The Giumarra Companies
Donald Held, TPE
Gary Lombardo, Premium Valley Produce
Mike McGee, L&M Companies
Scott McQuiston, Dawsons Orchards, Inc.
Mike Meagher, C.H. Robinson Worldwide
Bob Meek, Wada Farms Marketing Group
Teri Miller, Food Lion
Ernesto Nardone, Chelan Fresh
Sean Neubauer, Consumers Produce Co., Inc.
Alan Newton, Duda Farm Fresh Foods
Larry Nottingham – Pandol Brother, Inc.
John Papp, Jac Vandenberg, Inc.
S. Garrett Patricio, Westside Produce
Phil Penny, Pro*Act
Chris Puentes, Interfresh, Inc.
Larry Ray, Driscoll Strawberry Assoc., Inc.
Giuseppe Rubino, Mastronardi Produce
Kent Pomeroy, Westlake Produce
Craig Slate, IFCO Systems, N.A., Inc.
Michele Southall, GS1 US
Abel Valdez, Tanimura & Antle
Pat Walsh, FMI
Lucky Westwood, California Giant, Inc.
Gary Wishnatzki, Wishnatzki Farms

Technology Working Group:
Andrew Kennedy, FoodLogiQ (Industry Co-Chair)
Dan Vache, United Fresh Produce Association (Association Co-Chair)
Todd Baggett, Red Line Solutions
John Bailey, Top 10 Produce, LLC
Rick Bauer, Avery Dennison Printer Systems Division
Minor Bolanos, Virtual One Software
Scott Branch, Lowry Computer Products
Ray Connelly, Truetrac
Chris Davis, RedLine Solutions, Inc.
Mike Dodson, Lotpath, Inc.
Dave Donat, Pro Pro Inc.
Bob Driggers, Authentitrace, LLC
Elliot Grant, HarvestMark
Anderson Grogen Sr., Next Version Software, LLC (eProduce)
Rich Lacoy, Diagraph an ITW Company
Michael McCartney, QLM Consulting
Greg McNamara, Compac Sorting Equipment
Mark Miller, AFS Technologies
Angela Paymard, N2N Global
John Penizotto, PAR Logistics Mgmt. System
Ryan Schneider, FoodLink Online, LLC
Ted Schultze, Symbology, Inc.
Jeff Tazelaar, Lowry Computer Products
Colin Thurston, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Raymond Tong, ASCII
Patrick Trail, T3 Technologies
Rakesh Vazirani, TUV Rheinland
Charles Waud, WaudWare Incorporated
Ed Weber, ToolWorx Information Products, Inc.
Master Data Working Group:
Tom Casas, Tanimura & Antle (Industry Co-Chair)
Scott Brown, GS1 US (Association Co-Chair)
David Best, A. Duda & Sons
Jerry Campbell, DiMare Fresh
Dave Devlin, U.S. Foodservice
Kendra DiGirolamo, Driscoll’s
Mikelea Kelley, Tanimura & Antle
Larry Nottingham, Pandol
Larry Ray, Driscoll’s
Barbara Rodgers, Nunes Company
Steve Roosdahl, The Oppenheimer Group
Eric Skiles, Domex Superfresh Growers
Jacob Weed, Wilcox Fresh
Greg Zwanziger, Supervalu

Industry Communications Working Group:
Julia Stewart, PMA (Association Co-Chair)
Ray Gilmer, United Fresh
Jon Mellor, GS1 US
Christy Philips-Brown, Food Lion
Melanie Richer/Lianne Wand, CPMA
Karin Gardner, The Oppenheimer Group

Association Interest Group:
Mike Aerts, Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association
Travis Blacker, Idaho Grower Shippers Association
Dr. Kristian Moeller, GlobalGAP
Joel Nelsen, California Citrus Mutual
Christopher Valadez, California Grape & Tree Fruit League