Speaker Biographies

Don Black
Nova Scotia Farmers' Markets

With a background in learning and communication for community-based economic development in Nova Scotia, Don Black works with the member markets of Farmers' Markets of Nova Scotia Cooperative as coordinator for the marketing and development program.

Alain Bosse
Pictou Lodge

Currently the General Manager of the Pictou Lodge Resort and Pictou Lodge Development.

Alain has 24 years experience in the Hospitality Industry with the last 10 Years as General Manager of Pictou Lodge Resort, Director of Food and Beverage Operation for Maritime Inns and Resorts and a Member of the Management Committee of Maritime Inns and Resorts. Previous senior management experience includes General Manager and Corporate Food and Beverage Manager for the Wandlyn Inns.

His Motto: Putting my employee first and never asking my employees to do something I am not willing to do myself.

Barry Boutilier
Nova Scotia Economic Development

Barry Boutilier is the Manager of supplier Development for Nova Scotia Economic Development, Procurement Services. The Supplier Development Program was introduced to provide outreach and education services to the public. This includes helping suppliers make the right government contacts to promote and sell their goods or services. The program also helps suppliers find out about tender opportunities and encourages them to bid on government contracts. Supplier Development program partners with Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture staff to identify opportunities to introduce Nova Scotia goods and produce to institutional buyers such as School Boards, Health Authorities, Correctional facilities and Universities. Over the next few months the Supplier Development program will play a key role in the development of a Sustainable Procurement Policy. It is expected that the new policy will identify opportunities within existing Trade Agreements to leverage the purchase of local and regional food products.

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Jeanne Cruikshank
Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors

Jeanne is Vice President, Atlantic Region, for the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, whose member company’s retail 80 percent of all groceries sold to Canadians. As Vice President, she is instrumental in the development of public policy initiatives, trade relationships, human resource and business issues that affect members and their stakeholders in Atlantic Canada and Nationally.

Jeanne has been a catalyst in improving the access and quality of consumer information about food products. She helped launch Canada’s Food Biotechnology Communications Network, and served as voluntary chair. She has also spearheaded the CCGD’s leading efforts to develop a national standard for labelling foods from biotechnology. She has worked in the development and implementation of the Nutrition Facts, Nutrient Content and Health Claims Regulations.

Jeanne serves on many boards and ministerial advisory committees on a range of diverse food industry issues across Canada. She is active in community and professional associations, and her contributions have been recognized with various awards, including the Women of Excellence for Corporate Management and the Professions presented by the Canadian Progress Club.

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Jim Daigle
Agri-Growers Ltd.

Jim is the CEO of Agri-Growers Ltd., a company made up of 8 farms based in the Annapolis Valley shipping approximately 20 million pounds of produce annually to the three major grocery chains. He is responsible for the marketing and distribution from the head office and distribution center in Port Williams, N.S.

Born in the valley, Jim joined his father (who had been in the produce business since 1948) in the family business in 1973 after graduating from Acadia University. The family business continued to grow and in 1995 Agri-Growers Ltd. was formed.

Jim is a CEO who believes that in order to understand the business fully you must be able to do all aspects of the business from marketing and conducting board meetings to driving the forklift in the warehouse when needed.

Paul Gérin
Canada Business - Nova Scotia

The Canada Business Service Centre is your first point of contact for information on government programs, services and regulations for business. Whether you are thinking about starting, growing or exiting a business, they have a wide variety of resources to assist you.

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The Vice President of Masstown Market Limited in Masstown, Nova Scotia. He grew up on the family farm and from an early age was involved in planting, harvesting and retailing. Laurie graduated from Dalhousie University in 1987 with a BSc in Biology and married Lisa two years later and they now have three sons.

Laurie is an icon in the local food movement and has been committed to supporting local business and local producers for many years. He is very active in the community and in business. He is the Past President of the Colchester Credit Union, Progressive Association of Retailers (PAR), and the Truro and District Chamber of Commerce. He is the current President of the Nova Scotia Chambers of Commerce and sits on the Board of Directors for the Colchester Regional Development Agency (CoRDA) and the Nova Scotia Association of Regional Development Authorities. Laurie also sat on the Ministers advisory committee for Select Nova Scotia, representing the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers.

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Fred Kilcup
The City Market of Halifax Cooperative Ltd.

Fred is the manager of The City Market of Halifax Cooperative Limited. Fred created this position in September 1991 in partnership with three levels of government and transformed the market into a thriving vendor owned and controlled cooperative with over 200 vendors. He also ran a successful production pottery business with his wife and partner for 15 years until 2001. For 20 years prior to that Fred worked in the retail/wholesale food and drug business with major retailers Willett Foods; opening whole sale cash and carry operations in Moncton New Brunswick & Windsor Ontario and managing retail stores for Dominion Stores, Lawton's Drugs and Shoppers Drug Mart in the Halifax area.

Mr. Kilcup published a best selling book, Halifax Farmers' Market Chasing The Dawn and was instrumental in founding Farmers' Markets Nova Scotia Cooperative, a provincial net work of ten farmers' markets. Mr. Kilcup is currently developing a world class next generation farmers' market at the Seaport on the Halifax waterfront.

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Ralph C. Martin
Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

The Founding Director of the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC). His responsibilities include investigating funding opportunities to conduct the research and education of OACC. He maintains responsibilities as a Professor in the Plant and Animal Sciences Department of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC).

While growing up on a beef and hog farm in his Mennonite community in Southern Ontario, Ralph learned many farm skills as he did in numerous 4-H clubs. His formal education includes a B.A. with philosophy and liberal arts courses. During his M.Sc. and Ph.D studies he developed a keen interest in intercropping. His love of teaching grew unexpectedly when he began teaching at NSAC, in 1990. He thanks all his students for teaching him too.

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Barbara MacLeod
PEI ADAPT Council

Barbara MacLeod took on the challenging role of Value Chain Coordinator in October 2007. Reporting to PEI ADAPT Council’s Value Chain Advisory Committee, she acts as a catalyst between producers and industry to promote agribusiness opportunities.

Prior to joining PEI ADAPT Council Barb spent 15 years as an entrepreneur. She founded and co-founded specialty retail stores in Charlottetown, Summerside, and Halifax. While running her businesses Barb consulted to the retail industry by analyzing consumer behavior and providing sales training for major retailers across PEI.

Barb returned to university in 2002 to pursue a Bachelor of Science Degree. Upon graduation in 2007 she embarked on a career in the agriculture industry. Her diverse background brings an extensive knowledge of business, consumer behavior, marketing, and the science of Agri-Health to her role as Value Chain Coordinator.

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Lil MacPherson
The Wooden Monkey

Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Lil has always had a passion for environmental issues. Many have said that she is ahead of her time!

After spending 25 years in the food service industry, Lil was inspired in 2004 to follow her life long dream to open a restaurant which would bring to Halifax the most environmentally conscious restaurant it’s ever had. This restaurant is called The Wooden Monkey. The Wooden Monkey strives to offer local and organic food, as well as trying to operate on an environmentally conscious level. Lil’s vision of providing healthy and organic living has come to life and is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds.

The Wooden Monkey has recently been honored by the Halifax business community as being “The Best New Business of the Year”. This award demonstrates that passion, dreams and a lot of hard work can bring recognition to important issues that, through awareness, can bring us all to a more sustainable and environmentally sound world!

Andy Nulman
Guest Speaker

While young in spirit and snappy in dress, Andy Nulman has been creating and leading major media projects for over three decades.

Andy used to be best known as the co-founder and CEO of the world-renowned Just For Laughs Festival, which he helped grow from a two-night affair to its current status as the top event of its kind on earth, launching talent like Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey and Dave Chappelle.

These days, he’s celebrated as a pioneer in the burgeoning mobile media space. In 1999, Andy co-founded Airborne Entertainment with Garner Bornstein, and sold 85% to Japan’s Cybird for $110 million in 2005. As Airborne’s President and CMO, Andy has been instrumental in bringing superbrands like Maxim, Family Guy and the NHL to the mobile world. In 2006, Airborne was honored as North America’s 4th-Fastest Growing Tech Company in Deloitte and Touche’s Fast 50 ranking.

In his spare time, Andy is also an engaging speaker, oft-published author, inventive stage director, half-decent snowboarder, hot-and-cold hockey goalie, and prolific blogger on the art of Surprise.

Other accomplishments include being named one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40” business leaders by the Financial Post in 1997, voted one of the “Top 100 Montrealers of the 20th Century” by the Montreal Gazette in 2000, and honored as a distinguished recipient of the McGill Management Achievement Award in 2004.

His major disappointment is that he has only one life to live…but he’s working on a solution.

Steve Owen
National Research Council of Canada

Steve is an Industrial Technology Advisor with the Industrial Research Assistance Program of the National Research Council of Canada. He is a food scientist with 19 years experience assisting firms in areas of food manufacturing, product development, food safety, regulations and food business development.

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Janice Ruddock
Taste of Nova Scotia

Janice is Executive Director of the Taste of Nova Scotia. She is originally from a small Southwestern Ontario town called Glencoe and graduated from the University of Guelph in 1983 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Hotel and Food Administration.

She worked for a year in the General Manager training program for Kelseys Restaurants and had the opportunity to open their Ottawa location plus worked in the London and Kitchener restaurants.

Janice was promoted to Nova Scotia when she went with Kraft General Foods to be an account manager on the Sobeys account and she absolutely loved Nova Scotia! After a year in Nova Scotia, General Foods offered Janice a National position however, she said “no way”, and moved over to Ben’s Ltd. as a key account manager.

Janice worked with Ben’s for five years, the first 2 in sales and the last 3 as Marketing Manager. Then in 1993, she had the opportunity to start a company called Frontline Datamark Services which specialized in marketing services to Atlantic Canada consumer packaged goods companies. In 2 years, the company had grown to $5,000,000 and 250 employees. In 2000, Janice started Blaze Marketing Solutions with 2 other partners and continued on with solid contracts with Sobeys.

Today, Janice is absolutely thrilled to be a part of Taste of Nova Scotia, a well known and respected food marketing agency from Nova Scotia. She and her husband have a 13 year old son named Robbie and a 15 year old daughter named Shareen.

Mark Sawler
Sawler Gardens

The Production Manager at Sawler Gardens, Mark has been working in this role for almost 20 years. Sawler Grardens is a member of the Agri-Growers network and produce root vegetables. They supply carrots, onions, red beets, turnips and parsnips to the major retailers and farm markets. They also process peeled mini carrots.

Mike Scott

Mike has 25 years experience in the retail and packaged good industries, most recently as President Operations for Sobeys in Atlantic Canada, a $2.6 billion retail and wholesale division of Sobeys Inc. Prior to that he was President & CEO of Alfresh Beverages and spent 13 years with the Coca-Cola system in Canada and Europe in senior Sales & Marketing roles. Mike lives in Nova Scotia and is a graduate in Business Organisation and Marketing from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

With his diverse and direct experience both in Canada and internationally, Mike provides a unique perspective on the consumer, retail and business environment.

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Forrest Stegelin
University of Georgia

Forrest was born and raised on a Kansas crops and livestock diversified family farm. While in 4-H and FFA he did direct marketing of eggs, apples and apricots, assorted vegetables and white potatoes, and Christmas trees.

He has a B.S. in Animal Husbandry from Kansas State University, an MBA in Agribusiness Administration from University of Oklahoma, and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State University.

He served 5 years in USAF during Vietnam Conflict flying B-52s and has worked in meat packing industry as head of Marketing for Beef Division.

Forrest has 25 years of Cooperative Extension Service experience as state agribusiness economist specializing in marketing and management for Universities of Florida, Texas A&M, Kentucky, and Georgia, with specific commodity responsibilities to food and environmental horticulture.

He has served on the Board of Directors and as President of the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association.

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Michelle Strain
Mount Allison University

Michelle is the Director of Administrative Services at Mount Allison University and oversees the residence operation, dining and retail food operations, conference and event services, vending, concert hall and business contracts as well as the bookstore, printing, photocopying and mail operations and the insurance program. She has visited just under 40 campuses in Canada and the US over the past five years in search of innovation and improvements in all of her operations including the recent dining services RFP and contract award. The reliance on fresh food and local procurement contributed to an astonishing rise in customer satisfaction in the dining and retail food operations at Mount Allison.

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John Turenne
Sustainable Food Systems

Founder and President of Sustainable Food Systems, John was one of the lead innovators in sustainable food practices during the creation of the Yale Sustainable Food Project. Realizing the impact of food service decision-making on the world around us, John transformed a conservative university food service model, of which he has 25 years experience, to create a sustainable dining program through careful planning, teaching and development.

John Turenne continues as a leading innovator in bridging the gap between conventional and sustainable dining programs as a consultant working with institutions like the Culinary Institute of America, Harvard Medical School, The New Hampshire Department of Education, Kaiser Permanente as well as several public hospital and school systems.

John Turenne and Sustainable Food Systems continue to harvest national and international recognition.

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Sean Wise
Guest Speaker

Sean helps business dreams become profitable realities. He is one of Canada’s leading mentors for emerging growth companies and an expert in raising venture capital.

Seeking the best in business, the CBC recruited Wise as its industry advisor and online host for its hit reality show, Dragons' Den. Under Wise’s guidance, the show is searching for Canada’s most promising new business idea and the entrepreneur who can make it a success.

Since 2000, Wise has lectured at more than 100 boot camp financing forums and industry conferences. He has trained dozens of CEOs who have collectively raised more than $2.5 billion from a wide variety of investment sources. To date, more than 3,000 entrepreneurs have paid to hear him speak, giving rave reviews for his style and content.

Wise brings nine years of professional services and more than 15 years of entrepreneurial services to the platform, having helped found five business ventures of his own to date, the first at age 16. Academically, he studied engineering and economics at Carleton University before earning his law and MBA degrees from the University of Ottawa.

Wise helped found a leading accounting firm’s Venture Capital Advisory Group in Canada and now undertakes selective engagements from young tech companies looking for strategic guidance on capital raising and growth through his company, Wise Mentor Capital (WMC).

His areas of expertise include trade missions; reviewing business plans; negotiating term sheets; mentoring CEOs; and facilitating capital targeting and fundraising.

Wise also sits on the boards of several technology companies, as well as on the board of the Toronto Venture Group. He has chaired the Canadian Venture Forum selection committee and is a member of both the Canadian Venture Capital Association and the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Wise also writes a monthly column for The Globe and Mail, Wise Words: Lessons in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital.

Wise brings his intense, entertaining and direct approach of mentoring companies for high growth to the lecture circuit. Known for his ability to dissect complicated topics and reform them as easy to understand digestible modules, he has gathered quite a following of disciples, who swear by his lessons and best practices.

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