SUMMARY:

• Conclusive visionary regulatory and quality leader. Decades of operations and quality management success structuring and driving regulatory food safety and quality issues from Beverage to RTE foods.
• Quality evangelist with enterprising drive. Change agent for achievement of best practices and Voice of the Customer'.
• Direct support and regulatory agent for clients recovering from recalls.
• Poised for a strategic quality role driving product safety and quality operations: defining growth strategy, penetrating new markets, and instituting and optimizing best practice execution teams.
• Extensive network of contacts and relationships for immediate use, key to effectively liaising as the primary contact to state and Federal government bodies, as well as constituent segments.
• Reputation for fostering and managing relationships with top executives, and repeatedly delivering innovation and value to leverage those affiliations.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Confidential

QA Manager

• Family owned water bottling plant with multiple locations. Play a crucial role in business by ensuring that products meet customer and regulatory standards of quality and food safety. Plan, direct or coordinate quality assurance programs and formulate quality control policies. Work to improve an organization's efficiency and profitability by reducing waste. Passed two Level 3 edition7.2 SQF audits 95 and 92, respectively. Review statistical data from the production lines to identify quality problems. Analyze the data and recommend changes to production processes, packaging or quality controls to eliminate the problem. Regulatory (DEP, FDA, USDA) and customer contact with complaint resolution. PCQI for the bottling plant.

Confidential

QA and Sanitation Manager

• A family owned and run business for confectionery products. Hired to direct QA functions and sanitation. SQF Practitioner developed SQF level 3 programs to improve sales and minimize cost of lost quality.
• Led a owner/manager’s team to improve food safety and quality through training and monthly manager round table meetings. Wrote a vendor certification program with dash board with semiannual audits.
• Authored relevant SOP's for food safety, operations. Designed and implemented generic customer spec sheets and vendor certification in first 4 months. Passed recent Silliker GMP/Food Safety audit with a 98.6; 1.6 points higher than previous audit.
• Generated a discussion with family and crisis management team of 20 employees on the executive execution of a recall and conducted necessary training during a mock recall using ROSS ERP.
• Built a case documenting proactive value - added, best practices and SQF certification. Detailed GFSI completion industry wide and projected impact with certification. Pushed for increased strategic quality management reducing sales by family proxy. SQF certification scheduled for April 2014.

Confidential

QA and Sanitation Manager

• Held top responsibility for quality performance and food safety. Regulatory contact. Oversight of QA assistant and lab personnel. Implemented SAP for quality department
• Directed QA staff, sanitation, testing, and support. Standardization and SOP’s were initially absent; hands-on engagement for meeting client specifications. Introduced product line to Hershey Chocolate and added them to customer base.
• Plant SQF Practitioner and achieved level 3 certification in first year. Passed recertification in second year.
• Drove QA procedures and wrote SOP's to establish effective quality assurance program. Plant passed a 2 day intensive FDA inspection through swabs for Listeria and Salmonella. Initiated test plans and metrics.
• Passed all third party and customer audits with minor corrective and preventive actions, CAPA.

Confidential

SQF and Sanitation Manager

• Significantly contributed to the business operations, automation, and technology; enablement required to optimize project value. Conducted extensive testing with Process control authority at Rutgers’s University to get USDA approval for multiple food processes. Improve cost and reduced lost quality through daily panel taste testing.
• Initiated operational changes in food safety and HACCP programs for meat and seafood after a FDA recall. Championed the organization-wide deployment of quality program for salads, entrees and soups for multiple plant operations. Daily review of product with QA and worker organoleptic teams. Obtained Organic certification.
• Initiated Quality Strategic budget reducing yearly costs by $50,000. Conducts vendor audits as needed.
• SQF practitioner and achieved level 2 certification. Achieved organic status for plant. Passed two FDA, and a Silliker third party audits (scored 98) and USDA intensive document evaluation.

Confidential

Food safety consultant

• Initiated operational changes to fortune 100 and 500 companies driving food safety and HACCP changes through process changes and training following recalls. Implemented quality systems developed by QMI/ SAI.
• Sourced and wrote QMS, HACCP plans, SSOP, prerequisite support documents, quality purchasing programs and others to improve company quality and food safety programs. Point of regulatory contact for recalls.
• Subsequent audits by 3rd party audit companies achieved superior ratings. Worked with Kellogg, Murray’s meats, Godiva, Bell and Evans, Giordano Meats and FM Brown. Offered a position with ASK Foods to mediate food safety recall issues.

Confidential, Cambridge, MD

Director of Quality and Sanitation Manager

• Tenacious achiever targeting inefficiencies, minimizing expenses, increasing revenue and improve profitability teaching senior management staff to affect culture change. Maintain compliance with FDA/ USDC, and company standards. Improved repeat sales by 14% over previous year.
• Quality preventive activities designed to support continuous quality improvement and reduce cost of poor quality (COPQ) by 15%. Inspected and purchased fresh seafood.
• Submitted plan for lab certification/ validation program to support finished products and reduce outside lab costs by $150,000. Worked in R&D team to develop products for other species of fish.
• Member of a Customer Advisory Board investigating customer needs and expectations for future products. Excellent rating in NFPA and 5 major audits in 2005. Plant closed and sold in 2005.

Confidential, Burlington, NJ

Dir of Food Safety, OS and QA

• Directed functions of regulatory, food safety and quality. Implemented training and accountability of management team and 150 workers to improve bottom line and add to top line through CAPA. Customer service rep. Team Champion for TQM. Reduced LTA by 20%; added $650,000 to bottom line. Managed Occupational Safety and Industrial Hygiene program. Completed OSHA 40 hr course. Conducted all OS training from hearing management, fall prevention, forklift safety, LOTO, etc.
• Designed and implemented food safety protocol for pathogen control, PEM
• Advanced a yeast and mold preventative program for cheese cake through R&D. Process extended product shelf life by a month or more. Private company sold to Rich Products in 2004.