Wednesday October 15- Thursday October 17, 2025
Washington, D.C
Food Contact Conference US is the key event to attend if you're looking for the latest information on regulatory requirements, innovations and emerging opportunities, and market trends impacting the food contact industry.
This event brings together the entire food contact supply chain, including suppliers, manufacturers, researchers, government agencies, academics, end users, and more. Unlike other events in this sector, food contact conference US focuses on direct communication through the supply chain, breaking down barriers and leading to crucial networking and education that will push the industry forward. The face-to-face networking offered can't be replicated from the office - form relationships that will be beneficial to you during the conference and beyond.
Bio Coming Soon!
Ruud Overbeek, Ph.D., is the Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Strategic Relationships at FoodChain ID. He is responsible for FoodChain ID’s strategic growth through mergers and acquisitions as well as maintaining the foundational relationships with FoodChain ID’s key customers and partners. Dr. Overbeek also leads the company’s high priority sustainability initiatives, including programs that support the industry through regenerative certification and carbon footprint assessments.
Dr. Overbeek joined FoodChain ID through the acquisition of Decernis LLC in June 2019, where he was strategically leading their expansion of market position and outreach, in addition to serving on the Decernis Board of Directors. Previously Dr. Overbeek held the positions of Global Vice President at Intertek, Vice President at Avantium, and Technology Development Manager at ABB. He is also a Non-Executive Director at Edloomio BV.
Dr. Overbeek holds a Doctorate, Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Utrecht University.
Andrea began her career working in labs, first as a research assistant with the Institute for Genomic Research and then with Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC. Her undergraduate degree is in Biology from University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia. After attending law school at George Washington University, she was an attorney for many years with Emord & Associates PC in the Washington, D.C. area, representing clients regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (and related agencies). After leaving private practice, Andrea was Legal Counsel with Celltex Therapeutics, a ground-breaking stem cell company in Houston, TX. Next, Andrea was Regulatory Director, Associate General Counsel with Innophos, Inc, a manufacturing company supplying ingredients to the food, dietary supplement, pharmaceutical and technical industries around the globe. Currently Andrea is Food Law Counsel with Campbell Soup Company working primarily with its Quality, Regulatory, R&D, and Marketing teams on some of the most iconic brands in the United States.
Bio Coming Soon!
Dr. Greg Curtzwiler is an Assistant Professor in the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium at Iowa State University and a partner in Ideopak, LLC. His research is focused on developing new sustainable materials for adhesives, coatings, and polymers in the packaging and automotive industries including bio-based, compostable, and recycled polymers. He has expertise in polymers and coatings and surface analysis using a variety of instrumentation. Greg has 40+ publications and nine patents to his credit regarding food packaging, sustainable polymers, and nanotechnology.
Dr. Pearson received his B.S. in Chemistry from Montana State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. Dr. Pearson joined Aspen Research in 1997 from a post-doctoral position at the University of Minnesota. His prior professional experience includes positions as a Research Chemist and Production Superintendent for Celanese Chemical Corporation. Dr. Pearson has extensive experience in gas chromatographic analysis of volatile and semi-volatile compounds, has coordinated many studies of off gassing phenomena at elevated process temperatures, and is an expert at coupling analytical results back to their process chemistry. He is an industry recognized expert in Extractables and Leachables techniques whose studies have been instrumental in assisting risk professionals in providing guidance for companies navigating in various regulatory arenas.
Dr. Jason Schmidt is currently the Senior Director of Regulatory affairs at Danimer Scientific, focusing primarily on global food-contact matters and related advocacy. Jason obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara and began his career in consumer product and biotech Research and Development, gradually shifting to a full-time regulatory role. Jason has worked almost exclusively in the food-contact area for the past 12 years. Prior to joining Danimer, Jason worked for DuPont Industrial Biosciences where he served as the Global Food-contact Manager for Biomaterials. Prior to his work at DuPont, Jason was a Senior Staff Scientist at Keller and Heckman LLP where he assisted clients with various regulatory matters, including work on more than forty FDA food-contact notifications.
Ron Osborn is currently a Principal Scientist for the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, at their Global Innovation Center in Chicago, IL. He is a member of the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs group and is primarily responsible for the Safety and Regulatory Compliance assessments of food contact materials. Additional responsibilities include safety evaluations of the seasonal add-on items marketed with Wrigley products and leading the development of Wrigley’s Packaging Compliance Management System. Prior to his current position, Ron had a successful 20 year career in the analytical laboratory.
Stephen Klump is the Global Manager, Food Contact Regulatory Compliance at PPG Industries in the Product Stewardship Department. This role currently focuses on food contact applications for PPG’s Kitchen & Industrial Bakeware division.
Dr. Klump has more than 16 years’ experience in the food contact material safety and compliance space. Prior to PPG, Dr. Klump got his start in packaging food safety with a three year assignment at Nestlé’s Research Center in Lausanne Switzerland. There, he developed analytical testing methods for packaging chemical migrants. Subsequently, Dr. Klump held regional and global responsibilities in the packaging safety and compliance program at Nestlé.
Dr. Klump earned a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Ohio State University in the USA. Before this, he earned an MS in Inorganic Chemistry from St. Louis University. Stephen started his professional career with BASF in the automotive coatings division. Currently, Dr. Klump lives and works in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
Biography coming soon.
Mr. Kenny is an experienced regulatory attorney who has worked and consulted for nearly 30 years in the food and consumer products space. A food contact and food additive Subject Matter Expert, Mr. Kenny founded Decernis LLC in 2003, which grew to eventually cover food and consumer products regulations for every country in the world.
Decernis was acquired in June 2019 and Mr. Kenny became a member of the Executive Leadership Team at FoodChain ID in 2020 as SVP Compliance Services. In his final two years, Mr. Kenny worked with industry leaders to build out Packaging Sustainability product- and service offerings for FoodChain ID. He retired from FoodChain ID in April 2024 but continues to consult for them on a part-time basis.
Mr. Kenny recently founded a new online product safety and regulatory training company called Invenimus LLC, which will offer both in person and online global courses on all matters of chemical product safety, food and cosmetics packaging and regulatory compliance.
Alistair manages the Food Packaging Safety Section within Smithers. This involves advising clients on the safety legislation which applies to food packaging in a wide range of different countries throughout the world and coordinating work programmes to ensure that clients' products meet these requirements. His expertise spans all the EU countries, USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Israel, Russia and all the South American countries.
Alistair graduated with a degree and PhD in Chemistry from Birmingham University. After working for BP and the Department of Health, he joined Smithers in 1994, taking up his current position in 1995.
