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Take a look at the 2021 agenda below, which featured experts from Colgate, RIFM, Boston Beer Co., Orchidia Fragrances, Dr. Squatch, Kalsec, Weller, Solvay, and more!
Biography coming soon.
With over 15 years of professional experience, Vera Koch is Vice President of Global Marketing for custom home hair color brands, eSalon and Colorsmith, and for the new personalized hair care brand AURA, leading global marketing, brand strategy and campaign development.
In her current role, Vera has been instrumental in leading the creative redesign for eSalon, its expansion into new markets, and the brand’s strategic pivots in response to a significant increase in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, among other notable achievements. Leveraging her wealth of creative and analytical expertise, Vera drove the marketing strategy and execution for the launch of Colorsmith in June 2020 - a first-to-market salon-grade, at-home custom hair color solution for men - followed by the debut of AURA in January 2021 - the first and only personalized hair care with pigment options.
Prior to working for eSalon, Colorsmith and AURA, Vera was Vice President of Global Marketing for PRAVANA where she was responsible for spearheading the creative campaign for one of the company’s fastest color line rebrands in the company’s history. She also served as Head of Marketing for Schwarzkopf Professional USA.
Vera is a graduate in International Business from the European Business School in Germany, the University of Queensland in Australia and CERAM Grande École in France. She also earned executive education degrees at the Harvard Business School and INSEAD Business School in the U.S.
Bio coming soon.
Rebecca Shurhay is the Marketing Analyst at Flavorchem, a global company specializing in the creation and manufacturing of flavor and color solutions for the food, beverage, and nutraceutical industries. She conducts market research and works with Flavorists, R&D, and Sales to help food and beverage brands innovate and create new product concepts based on the latest trends. Rebecca authors a monthly column focusing on the hottest topics in the industry and has presented webinars based on these findings. She was on the speaker panel at Flavors and Fragrances Online 2020 Conference and the Midwest IFT Symposium along with being featured on FoodNavigator¬ USA’s podcast. Rebecca earned her bachelor’s degree in Advertising from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I have worked at Mane for 11 years in Regulatory. My responsibilities include management of raw materials for compliance and review of flavors and seasonings for various Regulations and Customer demands.
I was chair of the FEMA Alcohol Tax Committee and I am the current chair of FEMA Regulatory Affairs Committee.
My biggest accomplishment in the Alcohol Tax Committee was the collaborative effort with TTB to come up with the Flavor unfitness worksheet.
I have a B.S. from Michigan State University and a Certificate in International Regulations and Food Law from Michigan State University.
Dr. Bates is a Senior Health Scientist and board-certified toxicologist with Cardno ChemRisk with seven years of consulting experience in toxicology and human health risk assessment. He has significant experience with health hazard evaluations, risk assessments, and safety data compilations and evaluations for regulatory purposes and food and environmental contamination events. He has worked extensively with flavor and fragrance ingredients used in various consumer products such as e-cigarettes and has substantial experience in respiratory toxicology regarding occupational exposures to various agents including 1,2-diketones (e.g., diacetyl) and respirable silica.
Dr. Bates helped conduct safety assessments for over 500 chemicals as part of development of a Threshold for Toxicological Concern (TTC) Tool for inhalation and systemic toxicological evaluations, which were utilized in published safety assessments of chemicals present in flavors and fragrances. He evaluated respiratory sensitization literature from approximately 200 separate chemicals for comprehensiveness and quality using systematic literature review and chemical clustering to identify a respiratory sensitizer as a “gold standard” to be compared against for chemicals that have been developed or are currently under development for use in flavors and fragrances.
Thai-Anh Hoang is the founder of clean family skincare brand, EmBeba, and a mom of two. Prior to her entrepreneurial journey, Thai-Anh led an international team for a Fortune 500 company, implementing data analytics software and services for CPG companies. She helped established brands optimize their data for strategic decision-making. She is also the co-founder of Orphans’ Future Alliance, a Southeast Asia non-profit organization dedicated to lifting orphans out of poverty through scholarship and activity-based mentoring. Thai-Anh also earned a spot on the 2021 Boston Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list.
Amy Marks-McGee is an award-winning creative marketing professional with over twenty-five years of success within the fragrance and flavor industry. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing Management from Baruch College in New York City.
Her work experience includes fine fragrance, air care, and personal care marketing for three leading fragrance houses. She has been recognized by Women in Flavor & Fragrance Commerce, Inc. for the 2011 Woman of the Year Award for her excellence in marketing and leadership.
Founded in 2006, Trendincite LLC is a creative service consultancy designed to help fragrance & flavor clients cull through, distill and translate pertinent trend information into tangible product directions. Trendincite LLC specializes in fragrance marketing and flavor marketing.
Shane T McDonald has a PhD in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a Certified Flavor Chemist and has been working in the Flavor Industry for over 25 years. Currently, Shane is Principal Flavor Chemist at Kalsec, Inc., a Kalamazoo Michigan based extractor of spices and herbs, where he works on spice and herb flavors, allium flavors, pungency, and flavors for beer.
Mania Bankova works at Colgate Palmolive as Manager Technology for the Global Flavors and Fragrance team.
Mania brings 15 years of experience in analysis of flavors, flavor materials, essential oils, flavor R&D for oral care products and most recently fragrances for consumer goods. Prior to that, she worked in academic research. Mania has a strong background in organic synthesis and instrumental analytical chemistry. Driven by her passion for continuous exploration and embracing new challenges, recently she is expanding her expertise in the field of flavor and fragrance regulations. In strong collaboration with the Regulatory Affairs, Legal Department and other key stakeholders, she leads transparency initiatives, monitors the regulatory landscape and develops strategies for portfolio adaptation for flavor and fragrances. Mania has successfully utilized her knowledge of ingredients and formulations for the implementation of complex compliance and disclosure programs globally. Mania plays a key role in aligning flavor and fragrance regulatory projects with the company's strategic initiatives for sustainability, product safety, transparency and consumer trust.
Mania holds a Master’s degree in organic chemistry from the University of Chemical Technology and PhD in drug release polymer chemistry from the Institute of Polymer Chemistry, Sofia Bulgaria. She had a Postdoctoral fellowship at Polytechnic University (New York University School of Engineering), New York.
Danielle Botelho, PhD is responsible for the RIFM safety assessment process and leading her team to build universal acceptance and trust in the safe use of fragrance materials through applied science and research. She received her PhD in Toxicology from Rutgers University. She has over 12 years of research experience specializing in nanotoxicology and pulmonary studies relating to molecular and physiological endpoints. She is passionate about communicating science and safety to a global audience.
Fred Hart is a Partner and Creative Director at Interact Boulder, a spirited and obsessive branding and packaging design firm that works closely with food and beverage brands. Located in Boulder CO, at the epicenter of the natural foods movement, Fred helps usher in the good food revolution and changing of the guards in CPG.
Fred’s CPG experience includes work in multiple bleeding and leading-edge food and beverage categories, as well as in automotive and household cleaning industries. Notable brands he’s worked with include Dogfish Head Brewery, Mondelez-owned Enjoy Life Foods, Monster Energy, and S.C Johnson brands Scrubbing Bubbles & Pledge.
When Fred’s not walking through grocery stores like they’re art museums, he’s actively disproving that white men can’t jump and exploring cities on foot.
Mary has worked for Solvay for 13 years in the R&I function. She has developed innovative products and supported customers with formulation development. As an application chemist, she started her career in Home and Personal care and moved to Aroma Performance in 2019 to support the re-launch of the VEC Laboratory with a focus on natural solutions on the Food and Fragrance industries applications.
Commercially-focused business developer with an engineering background. I have worked in tech and biotechnology since 2012 with an emphasis on realizing the impact of novel technologies in both new and established markets.
Matt Oscamou is co-founder of Weller, a leading brand of CBD infused beverage products that was founded in 2017. Prior to Weller, Matt founded and built the Frontier Snacks/Frontier Bites brand from the ground up, formulating the product lines and scaling the business to national retail distribution with premier retailers like Whole Foods, Safeway and Publix. Matt's entrepreneurial focus, coupled with a background in engineering have helped navigate the challenges of the new CBD market and develop products that are safe, consistent and effective. Over the course of his career, Matt has dug deep on product innovation and development to further enhance the brand.
Emma Schmalz is the Fragrance Development Manager at Dr.Squatch where she leads fragrance development across all product categories. She has 5+ years of experience working in Product & Fragrance Development for major brands such as Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, & Tom Ford. Also, she has experience in Advertising for Church & Dwight Brands and PR experience for Tom Ford. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from Saint Joesph’s University in Communications with a double minor in Marketings and Advertising.
