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Biography for each member of the committee of experts.
Committee of Experts Mandate
The Committee of Experts will assess applications made under the DIIF and provide funding recommendations for the projects.
To help with rendering their recommendation to accept or reject the applications, the Committee may seek additional expertise from other sources.
Member: Ian Craven
Expertise: financial statements and project funding
Biography
Ian Craven is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA CMA), has an MBA with a major in corporate finance and was a Professional Agrologist. Ian Craven has served on numerous boards and committees of these professional organizations locally and regionally.
Ian Craven has served clients for more than 30 years as a business advisor. His major focus has been in corporate finance, corporate strategy and governance. He was a partner at MNP for more than 22 years, retiring from the partnership in May of 2023.
He led engagements in MNP’s Management Consulting division in which most of his work was to support decision-making and financing for projects that needed large capital investments.
In agriculture, Ian Craven has worked in most sectors of the industry, particularly assessing projects in manufacturing and processing.
At the macro-industry level, he worked for many commodity organizations and governments, providing recommendations in the areas of cost of production, industry competitiveness, impact analysis, and program effectiveness.
Outside of agriculture, Ian Craven has worked on a wide range of capital projects including commercial real estate, manufacturing, as well as hospitality and recreational facility developments.
Member: Mary Ann Ferrer, Ph.D.
Expertise: dairy processing and technology
Biography
Mary Ann Ferrer, born and raised in Venezuela, earned her Ph.D. in Food Science at University of Guelph, Ontario, where she currently works as the coordinator and main instructor of the Cheese Makers Certificate program. Mary Ann Ferrer published several scientific papers related to membrane processes and their effects on casein micelles functionality. She is a co-creator of the Master’s in Dairy Technology Management and has written books and book chapters related to cheese and dairy science. In parallel with her academic career, Mary Ann Ferrer has served as a consultant for the food industry and its stakeholders, including governmental, NGOs and private businesses, with a focus in dairy processing.
Member: Al Mussell
Expertise: dairy markets
Biography
Al Mussell serves as the Research Director at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI) and the Research Lead, and founder, of Agri-Food Economic Systems.
Prior to establishing Agri-Food Economic Systems and joining CAPI, Al Mussell was Senior Research Associate at the George Morris Centre in Guelph, Ontario for fifteen years. His areas of research expertise are farm management and agricultural systems, agricultural marketing, and agri-food policies. Previously, he worked as an economist in the milk procurement division of Land O’Lakes, Inc. in Minnesota.
Al Mussell holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Guelph, and a doctorate in agricultural economics from the University of Minnesota, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is also an alumnus of the International Visitor Leadership Program of the US State Department. Al Mussell is a past president of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society and a past chair of the Ontario Pork Industry Council and has served on the Board of the Progressive Dairy Operators.
Member: Jean-Marc Neilson
Expertise: structure of the dairy industry
Biography
Jean-Marc Neilson holds a B.B.A. from Université du Québec à Montréal in marketing and international business and has held various positions in sales development and team management in different industries. In 2012, he became part of the dairy industry on the processing side, holding sales manager positions where he has increased company revenue while structuring and developing sales departments. Internationally, he has also been involved in the import and export of dairy products (ingredients and finished products). These various roles have allowed him to develop expertise among Canadian dairy processors and processors using dairy products and ingredients in Canada. More recently, he worked for the Conseil des industriels laitiers du Québec as deputy general manager, where he was involved in the regulatory aspects of the Quebec and Canadian dairy industry. In 2021, he joined Lactanet as National Director of Sales and Services.
Member: Yves Pouliot, Ph.D.
Expertise: dairy processing and technology
Biography
Yves Pouliot is a retired Full Professor from the Department of Food Sciences at Université Laval.
As a member of the STELA Dairy Research Centre, Yves Pouliot developed a research expertise on milk and dairy ingredients processing, more specifically on membrane separation processes. He has recently held the NSERC-Novalait industrial Research Chair on process efficiency in dairy technology. He also led numerous collaborative projects involving different processors from the Canadian dairy industry, Novalait Inc., and Dairy Farmers of Canada.