2012

Jarod leads corporate and brand digital communication initiatives. He manages WhiteWaveʼs reputation in the digital space, and is helping reshape how the company communicates inside and out.    

David Walker currently serves as the Buyer for Bakery at Sam’s Club, which is a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. In his current role, he is responsible for the procurement of more than 140 products, the prediction of future bakery trends, as well as developing items to capitalize on restaurant and retail trends. He leads the Sam’s Club sustainable palm oil initiative, which ensures all palm oil used in private brand items is sustainably sourced, and he was instrumental in incorporating Fair Trade Certified ingredients into a variety of baked goods.

Douglas Gayeton is a writer, photographer, filmmaker and gentleman farmer living in Petaluma, California where he directs the Lexicon of Sustainability project.  Since the early 90’s he has created award-winning work at the boundaries of traditional and converging media for HBO, MSN, MTV, Napster, Electronic Arts, Vivendi, National Geographic and PBS.  Author of “SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town”, he lectures frequently on art, technology and sustainability.  His information artworks have been printed in Time, Orion and other magazines and are held in museum and private collection

Gemma Gorham is the Chairperson, and one of the founding members, of the newly formed Rhode Island Food Policy Council, Project Director at Brown University’s Institute for Community Health Promotion, and founder of ‘Fresh To You’—a unique, public-private partnership program that brings discount, fresh fruit and vegetable markets to low-income communities and worksites throughout Rhode Island.

Steve Demos is the natural foods trailblazer and visionary behind NextFoods and its GoodBelly brand.

A progressive entrepreneur with more than 30 years experience in creating and marketing environmentally and socially-conscious foods, Demos is also the founder and former president of White Wave Inc. (Silk Brand), the largest producer and marketer of soy-based products in the U.S.  He founded White Wave in 1977, where he lead all aspects of strategic planning, operations, product conception and development, and branding until it was sold to Dean Foods in 2005 for $296 million.

Curt Ellis is a creator of the hit documentaries KING CORN, THE GREENING OF SOUTHIE, BIG RIVER and TRUCK FARM, co-founder of the national AmeriCorps program FOODCORPS, and a passionate campaigner for changing the way America’s next generation eats, builds, and lives.  

Since graduating from Yale in 2002, Curt has constructed green homes in Oregon and the Adirondacks, launched the award-winning documentary and advocacy company Wicked Delicate, grown 10,000 pounds of genetically modified corn, and lived to tell the tale.

Rich is in charge of strategy, analytics, research, retention, acquisition, and interactive service offerings.  He manages strategy and the email marketing practice with a full-service (targeting, listening, measurement, apps) email solution team, from deployment to eCRM integration.  The team of digital strategists that Rich manages are experts in social, email, site, and mobile marketing.

Steven Sashen is the developer and CEO of Xero Shoes, Original Barefootware. Steven started the "Barefoot... PLUS!" sandal business in late 2009; he had returned to sprinting 2 years earlier, at age 45, and experienced almost continuous injuries. An experiment with running barefoot cured the injuries and improved his times. Knowing about the Tarahumara indians in Mexico, who run hundreds of miles in sandals made of tire scraps lashed to their feet, Steven created a high-tech upgrade of that product and launched it online.

Wendy is the Social Media Manager for Udi’s Gluten Free Foods. She is responsible for the strategy, innovation and daily management of Udi’s social communities including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, and their blogger-run community. Since starting with the company in August 2011, she has doubled the company’s social media following and maintained a 20%+ engagement rate each month within key communities.

James has always been involved in helping organizations create public personas and expert leadership. He cut his professional teeth working his way up in public relations agencies, eventually becoming a partner at high tech agency that received an Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Company award.

Having read The Cluetrain Manifesto, he became fascinated with how Markets are Conversations and Search Engines are Media.