Global Cold Chain Alliance

Welcome Remarks

 

Julie Hanson, Director Europe, Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA)

 

Global Cold Chain Strategy and Update

 

Xavier Haspeslagh, GCCA European Logistics Council Chair and CEO, Stockhabo Belgium & France, Chairman of Constellation Cold Logistics 

 

For over 20 years, Xavier Haspeslagh has been a noteworthy leader in the temperature-controlled storage of food products, with a focus on frozen storage.  He was born into a Belgian family in which frozen vegetables, fruit and herbs hold no secrets.  Based on this experience he started himself from scratch with a company specialised in cold stores. Currently Xavier Haspeslagh is still CEO at Stockhabo Group with 235.000 pallet positions & 6 sites and he can also be credited with the creation of the European network Constellation Cold Logistics whose mission is to grow the industry and lead the cold chain. Hunting is his second passion, shared by his family for generations and supporting a wine farm in South Africa is his latest, but not his last adventure! 

His adage: ‘Always treat others as you would like to be treated yourself’.

Mike McClendon, GCCA Chairman and Global Ambassador to Lineage Logistics

 

 

Mr. McClendon is currently GCCA Chairman and Global Ambassador to Lineage Logistics. Previously, he served as President of Richmond Cold Storage where he assisted with building up the organization to the 12th largest public refrigerated warehousing (PRW) company in the US. He managed the sale of the company twice, the last time to Lineage Logistics. Mr. McClendon has over 20 years of experience in distribution and logistics. He co-founded the American International Agribusiness Alliance, an agribusiness firm specializing in emerging market business development. He is currently an active member of the IARW and served as the 2010 Chairman of the WFLO.(World Food Logistics Organization) which is a leading food distribution and logistics organization recognized around the globe. Mr. McClendon graduated from the University of Arkansas.

Greg Laurin, Global Cold Chain Foundation (GCCF) Chairman and President of Conestoga Cold Storage

 

 

Greg Laurin is a warehouse professional responsible for the management and operation of family owned Conestoga Cold Storage, a third party food logistics business with five facilities in Canada. Greg started his involvement with the family business at a young age. He began working full time in 1994 after graduating from the University of Western Ontario with a BA in political science. To help oversee the construction of Conestoga’s first warehouse outside of the Kitchener area, Greg transferred to Mississauga in 1995. This expansion would be the first of many for the company. The company has experienced rapid growth during Greg’s two decades with Conestoga’s management team. During his tenure, Greg has helped take the company from a single warehouse facility servicing local customers to a Canada-wide, five facility, fully automated distribution partner servicing customers worldwide.

 

Keynote: Interview with Ocado – Harnessing Technology To Transform Business

 

David Hardiman Evans, Senior Vice President, Global Business Development, Ocado

 

 

David was appointed Senior Vice President, Global Business Development for Ocado Solutions in July 2022. He is responsible for growing and maintaining both current and potential new partner relationships. David joined Ocado in January 2012 as Head of IR and Corporate Finance. In September 2017, he was appointed SVP North America for Ocado Solutions, where he led corporate partnership development activities in that region. Prior to Ocado, David was an investment banking Managing Director at DC Advisory Partners and Daiwa Capital Markets, advising companies on M&A, financing, strategy and other corporate finance matters. He is a Chartered Accountant, qualifying with Arthur Andersen as part of its Corporate Restructuring group before moving to Brunswick, the corporate communications consultancy.

 

Matthew Ott, President and CEO, Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA)

 

 

Matthew (Matt) Ott is President & CEO of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA). For the past two decades, he has worked with associations and their member companies on developing strategy and delivering results that has directly contributed to growth in membership, programs, events, education, and non-dues revenue.

Before joining GCCA, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Grocers Association and Executive Director of the NGA Foundation. During his time at NGA, the organization doubled their retail membership, quadrupled the number of associate members, doubled the revenue and attendance of NGA’s annual event (The NGA Show), and launched numerous programs that led to increased member value and non-dues revenue for the organization.

 

Energy Crisis and Alternative Power Generation

 

Paul Gibbons, Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Cold Holdings (CCH)

 

Paul Gibbons is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Cold Holdings (CCH) owned by African Investment Infrastructure Managers (AIIM) - the largest infrastructure Private Equity fund manager in Africa. He has been in the Cold Chain for 24 years in various roles from operations, finance, supply chain and customer management. Has designed and implemented Cold Supply Chains for 30+ FMCG food producers and 3 major retailers to internationally accepted standards. He has extensive experience in 3PL Cold Chain services including last mile cold transportation. Managed a customer base on behalf of a 3PL that included multinational customers such as McCain, Burger King, and Walmart based on international Cold Chain Standards. Notable career achievements: Chair of the Global Cold Chain Alliance’s Africa advisory council. Paul is extremely passionate about Cold Chain as it provides food security and infrastructure development across the world.

 

Raul Fores Valles, Regional Vice President, Lineage Southern Europe

 

Raul is born in 1977 in a small village close to Barcelona and spent also some time in the Netherlands in his childhood. He studied Economics at Universitat Rovira y Virgili and has also a MBA from ESADE – Logistics Business School. Raul spent all his career in logistics. His journey started in TNT in finance department and across the years, he moved to different operational and commercial roles and also lived in South Africa and Dubai. Prior joining to Lineage Logistics, he held managing director roles in Carmar and Agro. He is Regional Vice President -Southern Europe at Lineage Logistics as of July 2022.

Moderator: Shane Brennan, Chief Executive, Cold Chain Federation (CCF)

 

 

Shane Brennan is the Chief Executive of the Cold Chain Federation. CCF represents over 250 temperature controlled storage and distribution companies in the UK. Shane has led the Association through the past four years of Brexit changes and pandemic disruption. This has included working with Ministers, Government officials, other supply chain representatives, especially on issues to do supply chain resilience.

Digitisation, Blockchain, Transparency and Security: Towards A More Agile and Transparent Cold Chain

 

Sam Quintelier, Cargo Business Development Manager, Brussels Airport Company (BruCargo)

 

 

Sam Quintelier joined Brussels Airport Company almost five years ago as Cargo Business Development Manager. Since then, Sam developed a strategic focus on perishable and live animals where here ran multiple projects such as developing and launching the Animal Care & Inspection Centre as well as creating and scaling the perishable management application. Next to overall facilitating and supporting perishable flows at Brussels Airport as well as being a liaison towards regulatory bodies such FASFC and Customs.

Sam obtained a bachelor’s degree in logistics management and graduated from the University of Leuven with a master’s degree in Public Management and policy. Sam gained his first airfreight experience at Panalpina-Adelantex as business unit head of Special Logistics where he encountered perishables, live animals and special cargo.

Ingrid Vanstreels, Business Development Manager, International Relations & Networks – Shippers & Forwarders Antwerp Bruges Port Authority

 

 

Ingrid has built up operational and commercial experience within the logistic sector for 16 years. She started working as a forwarder on import and export operations, dealing with complex files handling goods movements to and from all regions in the world. 

As business changed rapidly the last decennia and customer needs where increasing due to high competition and growing transparency within the supply chain, there was a need to set up new tools and services. Ingrid assisted to create a business implementation and customer service team into the current forwarding organization. With a strong focus on developing new procedures and tools together with customers and stakeholders. 

She joined Port of Antwerp 5 years ago and works as Business development manager at Customer Relations department, within the team shippers and forwarders .Her strong expertise  helps her to understand the needs of the customers. Her mission is to promote the port of Antwerp – Bruges and to develop new business opportunities. 

Ingrid joined WISTA Belgium as a board member in 2020. WISTA, Women's International Shipping & Trading Association is a well-known international organization. Ingrid is a strong believer and supporter  of diversity in the maritime sector. She likes to connect with other members around the world.

 

Sonia Montes, Commercial Director, SEA-invest

Sonia Montes joined the SEA-invest group in 2020 as Commercial Director. With its Fruit & Food divisions BNFW, FCC, SAFT & FKZ, we are the market leaders in Belgium, Germany & South Africa and your partner in cold storage, logistics, handling and forwarding fruit & food. With an entrepreneurial spirit and 30+ years of experience, covering the complete range from Logistics, warehousing, forwarding, shipping and terminal handling Sonia brings a wide experience to the group and its stakeholders.

 

Joris Olbrechts, Director, Jodifrost

Joris Olbrechts is Director of Jodifrost, a third-party logistics company in Belgium, providing customized logistics solutions to its clients, both ambient and temperature controlled.

In addition to his role at Jodifrost, he is also Director of Jogrex, an import/export company in fruit and vegetables for the international food industry. With a sales office in Belgium and several production units in Asia, Jogrex has established itself as a reliable player in the international trade. Married to Elien and father of two, Jul and Fleur. He is also an avid snowboard enthusiast, and enjoys spending his free time on the slopes.

Reducing Carbon Footprint & Increasing Sustainability Across the Chain is Achievable

 

Marc Vilà, Infrastructures & Sustainability Area Director, Mercabarna

 

 

 

Marc Vilà Renaud is currently Infrastructures, Energy and Circular Economy Director at Mercabarna, the wholesale market based in Barcelona (Spain). He is in charge for managing major building, town planning and energy projects. Marc joined the company in 2020. Prior to Mercabarna, Marc worked in different companies, mainly focused on the construction area, services and health logistics. Occasionally, he works as associate professor in different universities. With a background in both Civil and Industrial Engineering (UPC Polytechnic University of Catalonia) and an Executive Leadership Programme (IESE Business School), he has more than 20 years of relevant experience in construction, critical infrastructures, and installation projects.

 

Jason Massey, CEO, Ndustrial

 

 

Jason Massey is Founder and CEO of Ndustrial. He has spent more than 20 years building and financing technology companies across a range of sectors from clean energy to electric transportation. For the last ten years, his focus has been on helping industrial companies save money by gaining real-time visibility into their Energy Intensity. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Jason has a passion for reducing global energy usage and, outside of Ndustrial, has worked on projects such as Richard Branson's Carbon War Room (now part of the Rocky Mountain Institute) and the launch of Al Gore's The Climate Project into China.

 

Global Cold Chain Growth and Development

 

Carlos Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer, Constellation Cold Logistics 

 

 

Carlos Rodriguez is the Chief Executive Officer of Constellation Cold. Carlos brings 30 years of experience in the supply chain and temperature-controlled logistics sector. Prior to joining Constellation, Carlos served as Co-Founder and CEO of AGRO Merchants Group and Board member of the IARW. Before building and integrating AGRO Merchants, Carlos was a member of the Americold Executive Team with responsibility for Solutions, Engineering, Planning & Development. Previous positions also included global functional responsibility in the automotive and high-tech logistics sectors. Carlos holds an MSc in Transport and Logistics from the School of Engineering & Technology Management, Liverpool JM University and served as Merchant Marine Officer and Navy Officer (Spanish Armed Forces).

Chris Creed, Managing Director, Vector Logistics

 

 

Chris has over 40 years experience in the FMCG industry. This was gained with blue chip companies such as Bristol Myers Squibb, Adcock Ingram, Capespan and RCL FOODS, serving in various general management, marketing and sales roles.  Prior to joining RCL FOODS, Chris was responsible for marketing and sales of Capespan (PTY) Ltd products in Europe and served as a Director of London-based Capespan plc.  After gaining valuable international experience, Chris joined the RCL FOODS Group in 2003. He then became the Rainbow Food Solutions Director in June 2005. In March 2007 Chris was appointed as Managing Director of Vector Logistics and is currently in this role.

 

Graham Harvey, Director, NewCold Advanced Logistics

 

 

Graham Harvey is currently the Global Vice-President Quality, Safety and Sustainability for NewCold. He has held a number of senior leadership roles in end-to-end supply chain management including the past 17 years in the Cold Chain. Previous roles were Managing Director Asia Pacific for Newcold and Vice President Integrated Supply Chain for McCain Foods both in APMEA and Continental Europe. Graham is currently Chairman of the Refrigerated Warehouse and Transport Association of Australia and recently joined the Board of the World Food Logistics Organisation.

 

Dan Kaplan, Director, Vertical Cold Storage & Rack Builders Inc. 

 

 

Dan Kaplan is currently a Senior Advisor for Platform Ventures in Kansas City, Missouri., where he assists in matters relating to acquisitions, development of greenfield facilities, legal and insurance, strategic planning and operations. He has over 30 years’ experience in the cold storage industry, previously serving as President of Cloverleaf Cold Storage Co. He is also the immediate Past Chairman of the Global Cold Chain Foundation (previously known as the World Food Logistics Organization).

 

Francisco Moura, CEO, IceStar 

 

 

CEO of IceStar since 2021, IARW’s board member since 2018 and GCCA Latin America’s board member since January/23. Former CEO of SuperFrio (2016-2021) and Comfrio (2010-2015), leaders in the brazilian cold storage market. Former President of ABIAF (Brazilian Cold Storage Association, 2017-2021), former GCCA Brazil’s board member (2021-2023). Author of the book “The History of Brazilian Cold Chain Logistics and changes in food production, trading and consumption”, a cornerstone in the  cold chain logistics literature (published in 2022). Industrial enginner (1999) and Master Degree stricto sensu in Logistics and Operations Management (2005), by University of São Paulo.

 

Viet Nguyen, Analyst, Cold Chain Logistics, Rabobank

 

 

Viet Nguyen is an analyst in Cold Chain Logistics at RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness. Prior to joining Rabobank, Viet worked in different logistics & supply chain positions at FMCG companies such as Heineken and Friesland Campina as well as conducted PhD research in data-driven logistics management at Wageningen University.”

 

Miriam van der Waal, Head of Operations, A-Insights