Food and Beverage Expert Witnesses

This qualified expert has been involved in the field of medical technologies for over forty years and is experienced with matters concerning FDA compliance on which he has authored several articles and papers and given talks on FDA compliance worldwide. He is also the vice president of a private medical technologies firm, making him intimately qualified to comment on the case at hand.

This expert is a recognized authority and consultant in the hotel industry. He operates his hotel, hospitality and consulting practice specializing in operational audits and the effectiveness of hotel franchising agreements and litigation support assignments. Prior to forming his hotel consulting firm, this expert was the Product Line Manager for Hotel/Motel Operations at the International Telephone & Telegraph Co. overseeing the Sheraton Corporation of America. His previous experience includes working as the General Manager of the Summit Hotel (762 Rooms), General Manager of the Drake Hotel (680 Rooms) and Resident Manager of the Americana Hotel (1842 Rooms), all in New York City. He serves on the Board of Advisors and lectures at the NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management. He is a member of the prestigious International Society of Hospitality Consultants and is certified as a Master Hotel Supplier by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. He served for eleven years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City Club of New York. He is one of the most widely published authors in the hospitality field. His insightful articles on various hotel subjects have been published in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Lodging Hospitality, Hotel & Motel Management, AAHOA Lodging Business, and posted on the Hotel Interactive and Hotel Online websites.

This expert is currently the Founder/Co-Owner of a privately held restaurant development company which employs more than 3000 people in the state of New York. The fast food component includes 21 fast food restaurants and 46 casual dining restaurants. It is one of the largest franchise groups in the casual dining franchise chain and overall the 81st largest restaurants franchise company in the United States.

This expert has been working with supermarket inventory for over 15 years. He worked as an Inventory Controller for Save-A-Lot for a number of years, where he was responsible for daily monitoring and maintenance of inventory adjustments, shipping, and receiving, and he was also a member of the Safety Committee. Currently, this expert is a Shift Manager at a major food warehouse, overseeing day to day warehouse operations including supervision, shipping, receiving, and transportation. He supervises over 50 employees daily and trains and evaluates them, and he is responsible for all processes, equipment, and safety of the warehouse. This expert is trained in both OSHA Safety and Wiese Industrial Safety and is certified to train on Caterpillar, Linde, Raymond, and Crown fork trucks.

This highly qualified expert has over 25 years of experience in food service consulting with over 15 years of experience in foodservice distribution and operations management. He holds an A.A. in Foodservice Management from Iowa State University. A member of both the Foodservice Consultants Society International and the Construction Specifications Institute, he has published a book on food services operations and is a past President of the FCSI World-Wide Board. He also worked as Managing Director for a restaurant buying group that consisted of over 350 member restaurants. He currently works as President for a foodservice management consulting company.

This highly qualified expert has over 20+ years experience directing food stamp programs. Former positions include Regional Food Stamp Program Director, Administrator Review Officer, EBT Project Director, and EBT Regional Implementation Manager. He has directed over 200 regional and field office staff involved in state agency policy support and food retailer management. He has adjudicated administrative appeals for food retailers participating in the Food Stamp Program and developed administrative review guidelines and trained Food Nutrition Service agency review officers. This expert has extensive experience managing Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) projects through the full system life cycle and also has national experience serving as a principal in building and directing multi-state and federal EBT consortium. He also has significant experience as a grants and contracts manager for non-profits in the health delivery and education spheres of interest. He earned his BA at the University of Maryland.

This highly qualified expert has 25+ years of experience in the Food & Consumer Products Industry. He is a certified management consultant and received his M.B.A. in Marketing from Iona College. He started working as a Senior Partner and Director of Case & Company and furthered his career as the Vice President for Cresap's Food and Consumer Products Practice. This expert is recognized for creating the Integrated Buying and Inventory System (IBIS), a buying and inventory management computer system which combined turn, promotion and forward into a single order of purchase. He has presented for several national food organizations and is an active member of the Strategic Leadership Forum and Institute of Management Council among many others. He has extensive experience with supply chain, operations and strategy, serving as an advisor regarding modeling the costs of food service industries and manufacturing. Currently, he is the President and Founder of a general management consulting firm that focuses on the needs of the Food and Consumer Products Industry. His clientele includes Retailers, Wholesalers, Manufacturers and Distributors worldwide.

This expert is recognized as one of the country's top food safety trainers and has 25+ years experience as a food safety consultant in the food industry. Currently, he has recently retired as president and founder of an independent food service practice which provides consulting and training to food service and lodging companies throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. The expert was involved in the creation of the ServSafe instructional series which is endorsed by the National Restaurant Association. This expert is a member several professional organizations including the Central Atlantic States Association of Food and Drug Official and Florida Association for Food Protection. Former positions have included Chair and Professor of Hospitality Management at Essex Community College, President and Chairman of the Board of the Council on Hotel. This expert earned a BS from Kent State University, a MS from The Johns Hopkins University, and an honorary Doctorate of Food Service from the National Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers.

This expert's experience focuses on process design to achieve maximum efficiency and optimum food product quality. He has served as an expert in a variety of situations dealing primarily with process and equipment design. Several of the cases have involved patent litigation, including detailed review of documents, development of expert reports, appearance at depositions and testimony before juries. He graduated with a BS and MS from The Ohio State University, and a PhD from Michigan State University. His educational background emphasized the application of engineering principles and concepts to the processing of foods. This expert has held teaching positions at multiple large universities such as Michigan State University, University of Missouri, and Rutgers. He has served on multiple boards for food processing professionals, as well as been the director of multiple centers devoted to the study of food process engineering. Additionally he has published multiple textbooks and encylcopedias on food engineering and food process engineering. HE has been awarded with lifetime achivement awards as well as research awards for his work in food process engineering. He currently is a professor of food engineering at a major university, and is He is involved in teaching and research in the area of food engineering, with a focus on sustainability of the food system, and specifically on improvement in process efficiencies while enhancing product quality.

This expert trains on all phases of the food service operation. He is a certified ServSafe Instructor, Registered Examination Proctor, Certified SURE HACCP Food Safety Trainer, and Certified SURE HACCP Food Safety Manager. The SURE HACCP Food Safety Manager Certification is approved by the International HACCP Alliance. Prior to his food safety experience, he worked at a variety of hospitals in the Midwest as Director of Nutrition Service.

This expert in toxicology had a 22-year career in regulatory positions at the Food and Drug Administration. The expert joined the FDA in 1977 and served as the Special Assistant to the Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and as the Director of Division of Toxicological Research. Following retirement from Federal service, he was also the State Toxicologist, Chemical Terrorism Laboratory Director, and State Counterterrorism Coordinator working within the Alabama Department of Public Health. He has a B.S. in Biology from Wake Forest University, an M.S. in Physiology from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from West Virginia University. The expert also later earned an M.S. in Applied Human Behavior from Johns Hopkins University, where he completed a Fellowship in Organizational Development and Community Systems. He is a Member of the American College of Toxicology, the National Environmental Health Association, and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. The expert left his FDA position at the end of 1999 and his Alabama Department of Health role in early 2010.

This expert has 15 years experience in the food and beverage industry. He is a seasoned expert in all aspects of the hospitality world, including but not limited to management, acquisition, development, and financing. He has advanced and overseen the strategic business plans of numerous fine dine, high volume, quick service, and multi-unit food and beverage outlets across the Western United States. Prior to founding his hospitality consulting firm, he was with Paramount Pictures, where he served as the General Manager of Dining Services, overseeing and managing outlets servicing individuals ranging from the blue collar to Hollywood elites. Throughout his career, he has contributed to a wide variety of outlets such as quick service restaurants, full service bars and restaurants, hotel bars and lounges.

This food service professional has a tremendous degree of expertise in multi-unit operations, cafe design and unit flow, having worked in establishments ranging from large multi-unit food operations to small boutique restaurants and beachside bars. For several years he served as the general manager of beach bars on Long Island and currently operates a 140 seat sports pub in the New York metro area.

This expert has over 40 years of food science and packaging industry experience and held the Cryovac Chair at Clemson University as the first endowed professorship in packaging science in the U.S. He is a Fellow of Institute of Packaging Professionals and Institute of Food Technologists. He has presented at six World Food Congresses two World Packaging Congresses, the 1st Save Food Congress and was a delegate at the World Food Summit: five years later. He has been working to reduce food loss and waste worldwide since 1992. He also served on a subcommittee of the National Academy of Sciences-Institute of Medicine, to develop a high energy, nutrient-dense emergency relief ration.

This expert has 40 years experience in packaging, materials technology, management, strategic planning and R&D working for resin producers, converters, and food companies. He currently provides consulting services for the plastics industry in regards to food packaging, protective packaging, plastics processing and plastics resins.

This expert has a wide ranging expertise in organic chemistry, polymers, and materials science. He earned his doctorate at the California Institute of Technology and gained post-graduate experience at AT&T Bell Laboratories. His current research includes the synthesis, physical characterization, and application of dendritic and hyperbranched polymers and materials for marine applications, such as repellents for sharks and dolphins, sea lamprey control agents, and anti-fouling agents, food chemistry and cosmetic chemistry.

Robert Marcarelli is a well-known and respected chef, manager and restaurant consultant known throughout the Connecticut area. He has over fifteen years of hands-on business experience in restaurants, retail, catering, and the hospitality industry and over 20 years in business management. Robert’s experiences of working in the front and back of the house are what give him the competitive edge in our consulting field. Those skills, and specifically, his passion for taking an individual’s vision and developing it into a business plan, design, and brand name, set Robert apart in the industry. That was the driving force behind his past endeavors, including starting Pi LLC. Restaurant Consulting in 2005. Robert has been personally involved in various complex and of-the-moment hospitality concepts. His experience ranges from quick serve to fine dining, such as: a High Volume Brick Oven Pizza Restaurant, Gourmet Markets, Night Clubs, Banquet Facilities, an award winning Italian Bistro and Wine Bar, Connecticut’s First Green Certified Restaurant, a national known Soda Manufacturing Company, a NY TIMES rated “Excellent” Seafood Restaurant and more. He brings with him a deep knowledge of current food trends, award winning hospitality and of course, the network of Connecticut’s business leaders, leading Restaurant Groups, and the Industry’s best: Chefs, Managers and Professional Staff he has built lasting relationships with during his years of practice.

This expert earned his Ph.D in Hospitality and Tourism Management at Purdue University. His research interests focus on the areas technology and foodservice; he has successfully published works in Hospitality Review Journal and Journal of Foodservice Business Research. His teaching experience include food and beverage management and hospitality management.

This expert on Resturant Operations has 34 years of experience in all segments of the hospitality industry. He obtained his BS in Hospitality from Florida International University and held various managerial positions as well as director positions for a Pizza Chains before moving on to more senior positions in the Food and Beverage Industry. He currently works as the Director of Operations at a seafood restaurant company.

This restaurant industry expert has 30+ years of experience in hospitality. He earned a B.S. in Restaurant Management from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and an M.B.A. in Hospitality from Lynn University. His experience ranges from corporate training to independent entrepreneurship. Presently he operates a thriving consulting buesiness and currently serves as the Lead Restaurant Instructor in Restaurant and Bar Management for Florida International University. Feigenheimer was recently awarded the NAC Eminent Scholar Chair at FIU. In addition, this expert is recognized as an expert restaurant witness with experience in cases ranging from Dram Shop, contract issues, landlord tenant issues to slip, trip and falls.