Archives: Speakers

Khalipha has been an investment specialist for over 11 years and holds an MBA from Cambridge. She is an experienced financial professional and has used this to help build the biggest ghost kitchen facility in South Africa, Jozi Cloud Kitchens.

Melanie Corey-Ferrini, the founder of Dynamik, has a wide range of unique and relevant expertise providing innovative thinking for each and every project. With ever-changing trends and consumer demands, projects require new approaches  unique to each project. Melanie’s talents as an experience creator and design planner, facilities and real estate strategist, project manager and architect with over 15 years of experience in multi-faceted projects provide clients a “go to” partner on all phases of a project – from idea through implementation. Melanie has worked with clients and their teams looking to create unique spatial adventures in culinary, retail, hospitality, and collaborative spaces. Melanie’s passion for understanding the markets that she works in by attending conferences such as Menus of Change, Re-Think Food, and other culinary and retail conferences, provides high-level expertise based on industry, market, demographic, and locational data. Working with clients to understand and create a solid business case through data-driven design and collaborating with globally minded team members to create a “dynamic” solution is what ignites Melanie’s passion.

President of FCSI Worldwide’s board of directors, Bill Caruso was the founder and chairman of WC & Partners, Inc., an international firm, with North American offices in Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Scottsdale and through a number of 2016 global alliance agreements, adding worldwide offices in Athens, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Santiago, Sao Paulo, San Salvador, and Vancouver. His project portfolio of personally completed work numbers well over 2,400 completed projects in 22 countries, over a continuous 45-year consulting career.

Caruso received his B.S. degree from Cornell University in 1970 and his MBA degree from the University of Colorado in 1972.  He is a Fellow and Past President of the Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI), a Past President of the Cornell Hotel Society, Past-President and past Chairman of the Cornell Hotel School Foundation, and is an elected life member of the Cornell University Council. He has lectured to numerous global audiences and has authored many published articles that outline important industry trends and issues, for many years.

Dr. Isaac R. Rodriguez-Chavez is a biomedical leader with expertise in Infectious Diseases, Viral Immunology, Viral Oncology, and Vaccinology. His experience covers the entire life cycle of medical products from basic, preclinical, interventional clinical research (phase I – IV), non-interventional clinical research, and post-marketing studies. Currently, he is a Senior Vice President,  Scientific & Clinical Affairs, and Head, Global Strategy Center of for DCTs and Digital Medicine at ICON plc. Past positions include FDA, CDER Senior Officer for Clinical Research, Regulatory Compliance, and Policy Development modernizing clinical research through DCTs enabled by DHTs. He published numerous articles and has been an invited speaker in 100+ global conferences. He holds leadership roles at DiME, IEEE, DTRA, HCMA, Global Genes, and DIA Global Forum. He is also involved with and a member of 14 professional associations. He has a Ph.D. in Virology and Immunology; a M.S. in Microbiology; a M.H.S. in Clinical Research; and a B.S. in Biology. He completed two postdoctoral training specialties in viral immunology and viral oncology combined with clinical research at the National Institute on Aging and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Juan Martinez is a 37-year industry veteran. Juan is Principal and Founder of Profitality Labor Guru, an Industrial Engineering Consulting Company that helps brands optimize their investment to drive better “unit economics”. This experience spans to over 100 different concepts across all menu and service system offerings. Juan is a licensed Professional Engineer, with a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech, and an MS in Engineering Management and PhD in Ergonomics from the University of Miami. He is a member of several professional organizations, including Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI), where he is a member of the “Board of Trustees”, as well as the Institute of Industrial Engineering (IIE). As an industry “thought leader” Juan frequently speaks at industry gatherings, and has written over 100 articles in foodservice and Industrial Engineering Journals, including a regular column in the Foodservice Equipment & Supplies web site.  Juan is also a Fellow of The Culinary Institute of America.

Charlie has a broad background of working in real estate and building fast growing start-up businesses. Charlie has been in the ghost-kitchen space since the very start having lead the ‘Roobox’ concept at Deliveroo, which later became known as ‘Deliveroo Editions’. This new concept allowed Deliveroo to connect great food and great restaurants wherever they needed, and proved to be a huge success. Charlie now heads up the Delivery Kitchen and Dark Store division at PKL, helping fast-moving delivery apps and operators open up and scale across the world.

Tiepu Liu, MD, PhD, is President of Global Biometrics at ClinChoice. He plans goals and strategies and manages organizational structure and operational standards and process. He leads experienced clinical development teams specialized in data management, biostatistics, and programming to provide high quality and timely services to global biopharmaceutical clients.

Dr. Liu served as a Biostatistician and Epidemiologist at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and led a Biostatistics and Epidemiology group at the University of Cincinnati. In his industry career, he has served as Director of Biostatistics at PPD, Executive Director of Statistics and Data Management at UBC, and Senior Director of Biostatistics at Graceway Pharmaceuticals and The Medicines Company.

Dr. Liu has published over 100 scientific papers. He has worked with numerous Data Monitoring Committees (DMCs) in various capacities, including serving as a voting statistician member and coordinating and presenting frequently to DMCs. Dr. Liu has led numerous clinical development programs in various therapeutic areas. He served as core lead in gaining global approval and successful commercialization of Arestin (minocycline), Zyclara (imiquimod), and Kengreal (cangrelor) interacting with various regulatory agencies, including FDA, EMA, PMDA, and NMPA.

Dr. Liu received his doctoral degree in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) after completing Medical and Public Health training at Tongji Medical University, China.

After graduating with honors from the California Culinary Academy, San Francisco, Joe co-founded Cosmopolitan Catering in Sunnyvale, CA. Joe left Cosmo in 2015 and started FoodSpace where he and his team consult as experts in kitchen design, foodservice management, food business growth strategy and mentorship.

Francesco is co-founder of Kuiri cloud kitchen and started in January 2021 with the first location, and as of now, they have two cloud kitchens in the city centre of Milan with 5 and 8 kitchens each, with more than 15 active brands. Cassera is part of the business development, international operation and intelligence officer at Kuri.