Archives: Speakers

Josh Halpern is the Chief Executive Officer for Big Chicken. Josh is a dynamic, partnership-focused, thought leader with a robust career in streamlining efficiency, driving innovation, building diverse engaged teams, and growing economic results across the CPG, retail, and restaurant verticals. Most recently, Josh served as the Chief Sales Officer for FIFCO USA, the 8th largest US brewing company, where he was responsible for commercial operations and building top and bottom-line results for Off-Premise, On-Premise, and company-owned brewpubs. Prior, Josh led the Anheuser-Busch InBev, On-Premise and Small Format channels in the US, and Shopper Marketing globally. During his tenure at Anheuser-Busch InBev, Josh built the strategy for licensed, branded experiential zones leading to 46 restaurants and bars in stadiums, airports, and hotels, including the iconic “Beer Park by Budweiser” at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. He was also responsible for Anheuser-Busch’s pilots in the QSR space resulting in piloted distribution at Starbucks, and a beer-as-ingredient Budweiser Beer Cheeseburger at Hardees/Carl’s Jr. Halpern has held roles at Reckitt Benckiser, Just Born Candy, Clorox, and Procter and Gamble growing brands in 50+ categories. Josh leads from a partnership-first perspective, unlocking growth for the company, suppliers, customers, and business partners. As a result, his teams have won “Vendor of the Year” honors from many restaurants and retailers including: Buffalo Wild Wings, Hilton, Twin Peaks, HMS Host, Centerplate, Hooters, Hard Rock Café, Outback Steakhouse, Murphy USA, Circle K and more. Halpern is known to incorporate his business and financial acumen while using big data to solve complex problems while focusing on efficiencies. He is a certified Six-Sigma Green Belt. Josh believes in giving back to the industry. He currently sits on the boards of the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Supplier Board, and Niagara University’s Food Marketing Center of Excellence. Prior, Josh has served on the boards for the International Foodservice Manufacturer’s Association (IFMA), and the National Restaurant Association’s Military Foundation. Halpern holds an MBA from Babson College and a BS from Cornell University. Josh and his wife are the proud parents of three amazing boys and live in the New York Metro Area.

Scott Heim is President of Middleby Ventless Cooking Solutions, Bluezone® Air Purification and Evo America. He is driving the new product innovations and marketing efforts for all the Middleby commercial brands seeking to leverage the growing ventless cooking platform. He is concentrating on educating designers, architects and customers on a variety of ventless concepts, especially focusing on ways to create pockets of F&B revenue in non-traditional locations and even in historical buildings. Heim is directing the launch of Bluezone by Middleby, an active air purification device that uses UV-C germicidal light to destroy molds, bacteria and virus contaminants. Prior to joining Evo in 2012, he created a consumer packaged goods firm which was successful in a very competitive retail market.

Achilleas has 12+ years of experience in software industry involving software demonstrations, managing a team of 15+ developers, hands-on coding in Microsoft .Net platform and Business Intelligence Suites like QlikSense. He has enjoyed a progressive career in diverse roles including responsibilities of a Sales Engineer, Team Manager, Software Engineer and Business Intelligence Analyst in various industries like Banking, Retail and now the Pharmaceutical industry with eClinical Solutions.

Jorge Ferrer Raventos serves as a Senior Solutions Engineer for OneTrust GRC– a purpose-built software designed to operationalize integrated risk management. In his role, Jorge advises companies throughout their risk management implementations to establish processes to support operations and align with their enterprise objectives, including adopting industry best practices and adhering to requirements relating to relevant standards, frameworks, and laws (e.g. ISO, NIST, SIG and  more). Jorge works with clients to realize the extent of their risk exposure, helping clients to map their digital infrastructure, assess risks, combat threats, monitor ongoing performance, and document evidence throughout the risk lifecycle.

Charles Allen serves as the GRC Sales Manager in EMEA for OneTrust GRC– a purpose-built software designed to operationalize integrated risk management. In his role, Charles advises companies throughout their risk management implementations to establish processes to support operations and align with their enterprise objectives, including adopting industry best practices and adhering to requirements relating to relevant standards, frameworks, and laws (e.g. ISO, NIST, SIG and  more). Charles works with clients to realize the extent of their risk exposure, helping clients to map their digital infrastructure, assess risks, combat threats, monitor ongoing performance, and document evidence throughout the risk lifecycle.

Mr. Jonathan D. Tower is the Founder and Managing Partner of Arctaris, an impact firm which manages the Arctaris Opportunity Zone Funds (2019 & 2020), the Arctaris Impact Fund, LP (2018), and three predecessor Arctaris impact funds. He invests in growth-oriented operating businesses and infrastructure, with heavy emphasis on underserved and underrepresented communities. Based in Boston and founded in 2009, Arctaris has partnered with the Kresge Foundation, Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter’s Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and multiple other foundation, federal and state government agency partners to make investments in Opportunity Zones and other underserved areas, with the aim of delivering market-rate returns alongside social impact.

Jonathan has over 15 years of industry experience, investing in private equity and private debt, including three interim Chief Executive Officer roles in private equity-backed companies. He has invested and worked closely with portfolio companies in the manufacturing, technology, and services industries to achieve their growth objectives, including Capterra (acquired by Gartner), Verid (acquired by EMC), QuoteShip (acquired by ICGE), Moguldom Media (acquired by InteractiveOne), and Xoom (IPO and subsequent acquisition by PayPal).

Prior to co-founding Arctaris in 2009, Jonathan was a Managing Director, Operating Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Dutchess Capital. He held responsibilities both in private equity deal execution and maximizing value in portfolio companies, working with management teams to develop growth or turnaround strategies. At Fidelity Ventures, Jonathan executed private equity and venture capital investments, focusing on the enterprise technology, security and communications sectors, including the firm’s investment in Xoom, which held an initial public offering and was acquired by Pay Pal for more than $1 billion.

At IBM, Jonathan was a member of the Corporate Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions and Debt Capital Markets groups, where he facilitated the issuance of more than $2 billion in term debt, launched the company’s credit derivative hedging program, managed $250 million of A/R factoring transactions, led venture investments in five expansion-stage technology businesses, and supported two business units in divestitures that generated $300 million in profit. Prior thereto, Jonathan was Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development at Vodium.com, which was acquired by Vcall.com. From 1996 to 1999, he was a Financial Journalist at Bloomberg News. Jonathan has published articles on corporate finance, derivatives and risk management in Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Magazine, International Herald Tribune, and the New York Times. Jonathan received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 2002 and B.A. in English and Mathematics from Georgetown University in 1996.

Martin Suter has been Senior Vide President – Product at Smart Communications since January 2021. In this role, the Swiss native is responsible for the product management of the entire product portfolio. Suter is considered a renowned expert in topics such as Client Reporting Solutions, Digital Advisory or Customer Communication Managenet. The same applies to his role as a thought leader and driving force in connection with customer communication management strategies. He regularly demonstrates his extensive thought leadership knowledge as a speaker at various forums and events such as the Avaloq Community Conference, the Temenos Community Forum or the SAP Forum. In recent years, he has also built an excellent reputation as an intellectual sparring partner for market research companies such as Gartner, Aspire, Celent or Madison Advisors and a great reputation as a leader of various task forces supporting customer projects.

Prior to the acquisition by Smart Communications, Suter held the position of Member of the Executive Board at Assentis. In this role he focused on product management, marketing and pre-sales. Suter has extensive experience in projects with major clients such as Credit Suisse, UBS, Fiducia GAD, NRW.Bank, Swiss Life and Swiss Re, Wüstenrot, and St. Galler Kantonalbank. He lives in Rotkreuz and holds a degree as Dipl. Ing. FH in Information Technology.