Prior to joining the confectionery industry, Ms. Bodor held positions in domestic and international regulatory compliance at McCormick & Company and the U.S. Dairy Export Council. She also spent four years conducting dietary risk assessments for the food and beverage industries with Technical Assessment Systems and then Environ International Corporation. Ms. Bodor holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a Bachelors degree in Food Science from Cornell University.

Robert Boutin

Knechtel, Inc.

Bob is the President of Knechtel, Inc., (www.Knechtel.com) of Skokie, Illinois USA. Knechtel is a 60 year old full service worldwide consultant to the confectionery, chocolate, chewing gum, snack, foods, and pharmaceutical industries. Services include concept generation/refinement, ingredient evaluations, stability studies, formulations, process and product development, engineering, feasibility and ROI studies, troubleshooting and training seminars.

Personally he holds various undergraduate and graduate degrees in Chemistry,  Mathematics, Marketing, and Business. His hobbies range from building custom cars to being a commercial pilot on weekends… he has 35+ years in the confectionery and foods industry focusing on R&D, manufacturing, and education.

Bob is the author of numerous articles in the foods area, holder of various patents (in such areas as medical devices, food, aerospace technology, and of course confections....), and recipient of the 2010 AACT Stroud Jordan award.

Bob enjoys and has taught course for the IFT, NCA, CMA, AOAC, PMCA, ABICAB, DMI, USDA and other industry associations worldwide..

He and Knechtel are active in many industry related gatherings.

Ivan Fabry

Retired, Droven-Fabry

Ivan Fabry has around 50 years of experience in the confectionery industry and since

retirement provide consulting service to candy companies. Previously he served as teacher and technical director at the ZDS Solingen (1960 – 1992) and as general manager at Drouven-Fabry Germany (1992 - 2004).

John Flanyak
Flanyak Scientific, LLC

John retired from the corporate world in June, 2011 and is currently owner of and President of his own consulting firm, calledFlanyak Scientific, LLC.

 John started his career with Quaker Oats in pet foods and cereal R&D. He then became a Senior Scientist with Miles Laboratories, where he developed meat analogs and textured vegetable protein products and received a patent forcholesterol free, high protein sausage link, sausage pattie and hamburger. John also worked on fabricated cholesterol and high protein egg, hot dog and milk replacements. Emphasis of this line was health, high protein, low sodium and cholesterol free. Next John worked for Brach in R&D and over the years held a number of operations positions including Night Superintendent, Plant Manager – Melrose Park, Day Superintendent - Chicago, Co Plant Manager – Chicago, Manager of Product Development, Director of Technical Services and Vice President of R&D/QA. John left Brach to become Vice President of Manufacturing for Goelitz Confectionery (a Jelly Belly Co), maker of Jelly Belly. He rejoined Brachs in 1992 where he led the company in R&D and newly regulated NLEA Act.  Brachs was sold to Farleys and Sathers in November of 2007 and John continued as Senior Director of R&D.

 John has held many technical industrial positions: Chairman, Chicago Section American Association of Candy Technologists: Chairman, National Confectioner’s Association Technical Committee: Part Time Institute of Food Technology Lecturer: Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Confectionery Course (from ‘91- 2000); nominated for Kettle Award in 1995: John regularly lectures to Cereal and Food Groups and represented Brachs on NCA Board of Trustees. John has published numerous articles in journals: “Effects of Sucrose in Confectionery Systems”, “Processing Technology of Malted Milk in Confections”, “Panning Technology – An Overview”: “Innovation” in Food Product Design: “Water Activity in Semi moist Foods” in Food Technology Journal.  John presented “New Products: From Concept to $” at a NPD Conference. John holds two patents: one for Liquid Filled Fruit Snacks and one for Meat Analogs and has a patent application pending for a trapeze style candy cane tray. An additional packaging patent is now pending.

 John enjoys investing, boating, fishing, working out, and reading. John has a BS in Chemistry from Lewis University and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Loyola University, Chicago. John resides with his wife of 40 years in Glen Ellyn, IL. They have 2 children and 8 grandchildren – all avid candy eaters.

Pam Gesford

Knechtel, Inc.

Pam is a Senior Consultant for Knechtel, Inc. where she works with clients on R&D projects as well as troubleshooting. She is an active member in the PMCA serving on the Program Committee as well as National AACT. She has taught for the PMCA Panning course, NCA Panning short course and Resident course as well as previously for the Triton College Confectionery Course.

Throughout her career, Pam has considered herself very privileged to work with and get to know the fine people who work in the candy industry. Pam began her career in the candy industry at Hershey Foods. Working in Product Development, she was involved in chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products from bench-top concept development to production start-ups. Pam, then, went on to become R&D Manager for the former Herman Goelitz Candy Co, now the Jelly Belly Candy Company. She formulated new flavors for the Jelly Belly line as well as numerous other confections for the Goelitz Confections brand. She also was Technical Service Manager for the Food & Confectionery division at Colorcon where she provided technical assistance to customers and led the product development efforts for new specialty products. Before joining Knechtel, Inc., Pam was also Technology Manager for Perfetti Van Melle USA, Inc where she ran both R&D and the Quality Assurance departments.

Pam graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology. She also attended additional food science courses at PSU.

Bernie Giblin

Sedex

Bernie Giblin is the Director of Global Operations for Sedex, The Supplier Ethical Data Exchange.  In this role he has overall responsibility for the worldwide operations of that for non-profit organization.

Giblin has broad experience in Ethical trade and Social audit and its business implications; he brings more than 25 years of business experience from Global Hospitality and Information Technology where he pioneered green and ethical operations within multinational brands.  He recently presented at the UN Global Compact for Human Rights.

Combining Business ethics and the bottom line profitability are strategic ambitions and through his role Giblin provides insight on the improvement of business relations through Ethical trade practice adoption across 22 industry sectors, ranging from Pharmaceutical through food processing.

Dr. Kenneth Gravois

LSU AgCenter

Dr. Kenneth Gravois grew up on the family sugarcane farm in St. James parish where his father and three brothers operate a 2,500 acre farm.  He received his PhD in plant breeding and genetics from Louisiana State University in December, 1988.  He spent nine years at the University of Arkansas working as a rice breeder where he participated in the release of seven rice varieties.  In 1997, Dr. Gravois returned to the LSU AgCenter as a professor of sugarcane breeding and genetics where he participated in the release of 11 sugarcane varieties and four energy cane varieties. He recently accepted a position of sugarcane specialist within the LSU AgCenter.

Rich Hartel

University of Wisconsin

Currently a Professor of Food Engineering, has been with the Department of Food Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1986. After receiving a Ph.D. degree in Agricultural and Chemical Engineering at Colorado State University, Dr. Hartel spent four years as a Research Chemical Engineer at Eastman Kodak, Co.

Dr. Hartel is the University of Wisconsin coordinator for the 2-week NCA-sponsored Resident Course on Candy Science and Technology. Besides teaching several food processing classes at the University of Wisconsin, he teaches an undergraduate elective course on Candy Science and Technology and is actively putting this course into a video on-line format.

His research, in general, relates to understanding and controlling phase transitions in foods, including confections. Phase transitions in fats, sugars (and sugar alcohols), ice and salts are all areas of study. Specific projects include (but are not limited to) understanding and controlling bloom formation in chocolate and compound coating, developing a science-based approach to controlling sugar crystallization in confections, studying moisture uptake of sugar glasses, and understanding how ice crystals form in an ice cream freezer.

Frank Jenkins

Jenkins Sugar Group

Frank Jenkins is President of Jenkins Sugar Group, Inc, a Wilton Connecticut-based sugar brokerage. Prior to founding Jenkins Sugar in 1993, Frank served as Vice President in the Merrill Lynch

Private Client Group in Manhattan and also worked on the sugar trading desk at Farr Man in New York. He has served as president of the Sugar Club of New York and is a regular speaker at sugar industry events, including the USDA Ag Outlook Forum, the Sugar Users Colloquium, the American Sugar Alliance Symposium and the Sugar Club Annual banquet in New York.. He graduated from Boston University with a BA in 1983.

Lauren B. A. Killian

The Hershey Company

Lauren Killian is a Lancaster County native who graduated from Dickinson College with Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics.  Lauren then went on to earn a Master of Science in Food Science from The Pennsylvania State University where she was funded by the Alfred Miklos PMCA Graduate Fellowship for Confectionery Research.  Shortly after graduation, Lauren joined The Hershey Company as a Research Scientist for the Americas/Asia Product Development group.  She is a member of PMCA, AACT and IFT and is excited about taking an active role in the confectionery industry.

Siela Maximova

Jim McGovern

JM Consulting

Jim McGovern is a 38 year candy manufacturing veteran experienced in quality, production, formulation and processing. He has had hands on work experience at Curtiss Candy Co. from ’73-‘81, Peerless Confection Company ’81-‘04 and Jelly Belly Candy Company ’04-‘11. He continues to serve with AACT (past President), and is a past PMCA Board Member and NCA Technical Committee Chair. Jim as given presentations at AACT Technical Sessions and  at the PMCA 2006 Production Conference. He is holder of the Stroud Jordan, Kettle Award and a member of the Candy Hall of Fame.  Jim currently consults to the industry as principal of JM Consulting.

Dr. Samuel Orisajo

Dr. Samuel Orisajo is a Principal Research Officer and a Research Plant Pathologist at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.  He has over 10 years’ research and training experience in crop protection involving integrated pest management.   He is a Cocoa Borlaug Fellow on sustainable pest management of cocoa.

Tony Prange

Baker Perkins Ltd.

Tony Prange is the Senior Applications Engineer at Baker Perkins in Peterborough, England. He is responsible for the development of confectionery products and process solutions. He has worked for Baker Perkins for 21 years and has supported many customers worldwide during equipment installation and product launches.