Meetings and Events

Craig Morris

Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers CEO

CEO of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers

Craig Morris is a passionate advocate and ambassador for the U.S. food and agriculture industry and has dedicated his entire professional career to advancing the interests of various U.S. agricultural commodities. Craig currently serves as the chief executive officer for GAPP. By leveraging both new and existing partnerships and a keen sense of marketing know-how, Craig works to identify new markets and further develop relationships with the industry’s most critical customers to continue growing demand for Wild Alaska Pollock.

Craig previously served as the vice president of International Marketing for the National Pork Board (NPB). In this role, he oversaw the development and execution of NPB’s international marketing strategy.

Prior to this role, Craig served as a deputy administrator in the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service where he oversaw the Agency's marketing efforts for the meat, poultry, egg, fish, grain, and seed industries. Earlier work experience with the Agency included serving as an international marketing specialist, working to gain entry and build demand for U.S. meat products in foreign markets. Apart from government service, Craig served as the assistant vice president of Food Safety for Future Beef Operations, LLC, in Arkansas City, Kansas, and as the manager of Scientific and Technical Affairs for the American Meat Institute.

Craig received his Bachelor of Science degree with Distinction in Animal Science from Iowa State University and served as a regent’s graduate fellow while earning his Doctorate in Animal Science from Texas A&M University.

Mary Elizabeth Germaine

Wild Alaska Pollock Year-over-Year Research Reveal

Partner, Managing Director at Ketchum Analytics

Mary Elizabeth leads Ketchum’s research, measurement and analytics sector, Ketchum Analytics. Since joining the agency in 2001, she has been instrumental in growing the business from a handful of team members to well over 60 in 12 cities globally today.

With close to 20 years of experience as a marketing and communications researcher, Mary Elizabeth counsels clients on how to make the best use of data and analytics and derives insights to develop, measure and optimize strategic communication programs. Her work spans all stages of the communications process – from planning to testing to evaluation. She is responsible for the development of a variety of Ketchum’s proprietary tools, including those used for measurement, audience profiling, strategy and creative testing, optimization, as well as the agency’s strategic planning process among others. Her remit is to infuse data and analytics across all aspects of the Agency’s work.

Her background is in the area of corporate reputation research. When she first joined Ketchum, she launched and managed Ketchum Reputation Lab which is a proprietary specialization of the group. In the Lab, the team uses analytics as the basis for the development of corporate reputation programs. Work in this space includes the following clients: Takeda, Janssen, Novartis, NBCUniversal, Kohler, Hilton Worldwide, Michelin, Dow, ConAgra, White Wave Foods, Best Buy, Newmont, Genentech, Sears, Nokia, and Cox Communications. 

Prior to joining Ketchum, she was a Senior Project Manager at Roper Starch Worldwide. While at Roper she worked in the Public Affairs division managing custom research for a variety of clients. She was also responsible for the design, analysis, and reporting of the Fortune/Roper Corporate Reputation Index. 

She has also worked as Senior Project Director at Capstone Research where she managed sales tracking studies for tobacco and food companies. These studies looked at how various promotions and point of sale/purchase materials affected overall sales. Her responsibilities also included quality control management of 1000 vendors nationwide. She received a B.A. in Psychology and History from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

Mary Elizabeth is a thought leader within the research space, and regularly speaks about data and it's use within communications at various conferences and events. Some recent examples include moderating panel discussions at the AMEC Global Summit, regular speaking engagements with PRSA, including PRSA ICON, and Ragan Communications Conferences among others.

Christine Durkin

Partnership Panel Lead

GAPP Consultant

Christine Durkin is a skilled marketing professional who officially joined the GAPP team on April 1st, 2021. Durkin will serve as a Marketing Consultant working part-time for GAPP, helping to manage its Partnership Programs around the world and identifying new marketing opportunities. Durkin spent much of her career at Unilever, championing as the North America Marketing Director for major brands in the food industry, before moving to start-up Yummly as Head of Strategic Partnerships. She then moved into consulting roles where she was then discovered from her unique, extensive experience by GAPP.

John Connelly

What's in a Name: The Labeling Battle

President of National Fisheries Insitute (NFI)

John Connelly has helped lead the National Fisheries Institute since 2003.  In that role, he coordinates NFI members’ advocacy with Congress and various federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration.

Arlin Wasserman

Beyond Surimi: Other Opportunities for Wild Alaska Pollock

Founder and Managing Director of Changing Tastes

Arlin Wasserman is the founder and managing director of Changing Tastes. Over the past two decades, he has helped identify and catalyze some of the most significant shifts in the way business and consumers think about food. 

Wasserman’s accomplishments include working with General Mills to develop the first sustainability strategy for a major U.S. food company and creating a strategy to drive growth in the once nascent U.S. organic food industry, including raising awareness of antibiotic use in dairy and livestock production, and developing the Plant-Forward culinary strategy which is now is a major focus of culinary innovation in the western world.

Arlin previously served as Vice President of Sustainability at Sodexo, and as the executive champion for culinary and health and wellness efforts in the North American market. During his tenure, Dow Jones and the Financial Times recognized Sodexo as having the best sustainability performance among all publicly traded hospitality companies.

Learn more at www.changingtastes.net

Mike Campanile

Trident Seafoods

Mike currently works for Trident Seafoods as the Sr. Brand Manager for the Louis Kemp brand. Previously he has held brand and product marketing roles at Aqua Star, Oberto Sausage Company & Eddie Bauer.   He is also a graduate of NFI’s Future Leaders class of 2019.

Nick Mendoza

Founder of Neptune Snacks

Nick Mendoza is Founder & CEO of Neptune Snacks, a mission-driven brand bringing convenience to the seafood category with delicious, sustainable Wild Alaska Pollock Jerky and other ocean-based, shelf-stable snack foods. From an upbringing on a New Mexico cattle ranch, Nick found a career in seafood through studying Environmental and Marine Resources at Stanford University, followed by a graduate degree in Sustainable Aquaculture from the University of Stirling Institute of Aquaculture in Scotland.

Prior to Neptune, Nick developed food system and seafood supply chain expertise working in eight countries including a disruptive project that sparked industry-wide change in the $15B global shrimp farming industry, research with sustainable next-generation aquafeeds, and sailing on several trans-Pacific research expeditions as Marine Scientist at Stanford. He broadcasts his passion for introducing more consumers to sustainable seafood as a speaker, author, and passionate entrepreneur. 

Rich Lawrence

Category, Brand & Innovation Director at New England Seafood- Fish Said Fred

Graduate of Unilever Marketing Academy and former Unilever Companies Management Development Scheme Trainee. With 15 years Marketing Experience at Blue Chip Marketing Businesses: Unilever, L’Oreal & PepsiCo before joining Weetabix as Head of Brand.

Managed Scale Brands:

• Lays Asia-Pacific ($10bn)
• Walkers UK (£600m)
• Weetabix UK (£150m)

Created & Seeded low budget Challenger Brands:

• Naked Juice (PepsiCo)
• Leap & Fish Said Fred (NESI)

Has been at NESI since 2016 and on the Operating Board since 2020. Has responsibility for leading the business across Product Marketing, Brands, Consumer & Category Insight and New Product Development

Amin Nabli

COO at Aquamar

An accomplished, results-driven international senior sales leader with over 13 years of experience in the consumer packaged industry. Expertise in Sales Leadership, Account Management, Business Development, Category Management, Trade Marketing, Consumer Marketing, and Distributor-Based Markets.