The Sustainable Food Lab is led by an Advisory Board drawn from the Food Lab member organizations and provides oversight to the Lab, establishes budget priorities, assists with fundraising, and shares the Food Lab stories with a broader audience.

The Food Lab Advisory Board: 

Jan Kees Vis

Co-Chair Sustainable Food Lab Advisory Board

Global Director Sustainable Sourcing Development, Unilever

Jan Kees Vis was trained as a chemist and received a PhD in Heterogeneous Catalysis in 1984.  He joined Unilever in 1985, at the Unilever Research Laboratory in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands.  He held several positions there, then moved to the foods business.  For more than 10 years he worked on Environmental Life Cycle Analysis, Environmental Management Systems, environmental auditing and standard setting, environmental training, environmental reporting and preparation of policy proposals on environmental issues.

Since beginning of 2001, he is Global Supply Chain Director Sustainable Agriculture for Unilever.

Jan Kees has been involved in, and holds or has held board positions in, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, Sustainable Food Laboratory and the Roundtable for Responsible Soy.

 Tensie Whelan, President Rainforest Alliance
Co-Chair Sustainable Food Lab Advisory Board

Tensie Whelan serves as president of the Rainforest Alliance.  She has been involved with the organization since 1990, first as a board member, and then later as a consultant, becoming the executive director in 2000.

Whelan has been working in the environmental field for more than 25 years, during which time she served as the vice president of conservation information at the National Audubon Society and executive director of the New York League of Conservation Voters.  Whelan also worked as a journalist and environmental communications consultant in Costa Rica, and was the managing editor of Ambio - an international environmental journal based in Stockholm. 

Whelan serves on the boards of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition and Social Accountability International, is a member of the advisory board for corporate social responsibility at Fortis, as well as the sustainable agriculture advisory board for Unilever, sits on the governing body of the U.N. Foundation’s World Heritage Alliance, and is the co-chair of the Advisory Board of the Sustainable Food Lab.  She holds an M.A. in International Communication from American University's School of International Service and a B.A. in Political Science from New York University. Whelan's published work includes one of the first books on ecofriendly tourism, Nature Tourism: Managing for the Environment (1991, Island Press). 

Michele Bruni,
Oxfam GB Sustainable Livelihood Lead for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The team Michele Bruni leads works primarily on market-based livelihoods, climate change adaptation and women economic leadership.

Before joining Oxfam he has worked five years at the World Bank and has extensive experience in development projects in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia. He holds a master’s degree in agricultural science and technology from the University of Perugia, and he is currently finalizing his PhD in Sustainable Rural Development. Michele leaves in Mexico with his wife and two kids under two.

Gord Kurbis, Pulse Canada 

Gord Is Director of Environment at Pulse Canada. He grew up on a farm on the Canadian prairies and went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied science and economics at the Universities of Manitoba and British Columbia.  After graduating, Gord specialized in commodity analysis and marketing, spending 12 years in the Canadian grain industry in the areas of marketing, market analysis, quality control and market access. In 2007, Gord was recruited to develop sustainability programming for Pulse Canada, Canada’s national trade association for grain legumes, commonly referred to as pulse crops.  Canada is the world’s largest international seller of pulses overall, with approximately 40% of world trade.  Gord is responsible for initiatives that seek to credibly measure environmental impacts and identify opportunities for improvement. 

Fredrick Payton, Director, AgroFrontera

As co-founder and executive director of AgroFrontera (a non-profit organization located in the Dominican Republic), Dr. Payton leads programs that enhance biodiversity conservation and improve the economic performance and social responsibility of local, national and international food systems, with particular focus on improving livelihoods of small-scale farmers and artisanal fishers.  Frederick worked at the Institute of Community and Area Development and the Office of International Agriculture at the University of Georgia in Athens, USA and was a senior scientist and interim director of the International Potato Center’s Central American and Caribbean regional office. Dr. Payton has served on the board of directors of Organic Farming Research Foundation, Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and Georgia Organics. He holds a Ph.D. (horticulture) from Cornell University.

Kevin Rabinovitch, Global Director of Sustainability, MARS 

Kevin Rabinovitch, Mars. Kevin is the Global Director of Sustainability for Mars, Inc.  In his role he develops and deploys strategies, goals, targets and policies relating to all aspects of sustainability for Mars’ full supply chain.  He also chairs the Sustainability sub-group of the Mars Scientific Advisory Council which advises Mars on the science behind our sustainability decisions throughout our entire supply chain.  Kevin has been with Mars for 17 years, 4 years in sustainability and the first 13 in R&D functions of multiple Mars business segments in the U.S. and Europe specializing in technology development, scale up and intellectual property.

Bill Vorley, Head Sustainable Markets Group, IIED

Bill Vorley principal researcher in the Sustainable Markets Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London. Bill is an ecologist by training, with experience in the agrifood systems, the governance of value chains, and sustainable business.His research interests center on market structure and governance, the position of small and family scale producers, the role of business in sustainable development, and the means to decouple food production and trade from the degradation of livelihoods and environment.  Prior to joining IIED in 1999, Bill worked at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, and spent many years in agribusiness after post-doctoral field research in Malaysia. He has a PhD from the University of Southampton, UK.

Craig Watson, VP of Agriculture Sustainability, SYSCO  

Craig Watson is Vice President of Agricultural Sustainability for SYSCO Corporation.  Mr. Watson received his Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science (1974) and his Master of Science in Meat Science (1976) from Iowa State University.  Most of Mr. Watson’s career was spent leading the Quality Assurance department into what it is today.    The Sysco Quality Assurance team is responsible for product development, global supplier approval, and the development and implementation of quality systems to ensure product consistency and food safety of approved sources of supply.  Most recently, Mr. Watson’s responsibilities have moved into the area of agricultural sustainability.  Areas of sustainable focus include seafood sustainability, life cycle assessment, global social audit review, integrated pest management, and local food procurement from small/medium sized family farms. 

Arlin Wasserman, VP for Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Sodexo

Arlin Wasserman is Vice President for Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility at Sodexo. He leads the company’s efforts in North America including sustainable food and agriculture practices, eco-efficiency and facilities management, community development, and health and wellbeing.

Arlin has also served as an advisor on community food and economic development issues to the United States Department of Agriculture, state agencies in the Midwest, and several of the nation’s largest private foundations and is the founder and principal of Changing Tastes, a consultancy that provides business planning, brand management, product development and marketing insights to Fortune 100 and start-up food companies working on issues of public health, food, environment and community development, as.

He was appointed to the State of Michigan’s Cardiovascular Health and Active Living by Design task forces, served as the Policy Director for the Michigan Land Use Institute and served on that state’s Pollution Prevention Strategy and Implementation Committee.

Arlin holds a Master of Science in Natural Resources and a Master of Public Health, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economics, all from the University of Michigan.