Our Team
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Lone Jespersen Ph.D.
(Denmark/Canada/Switzerland)
Lone Jespersen is a published author, speaker, and the principal and founder of Cultivate SA.
Lone has worked to improve food safety through organizational culture improvements for almost 20 years since she started at Maple Leaf Foods in 2004. Lone chaired the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) technical working group, “A Culture of Food Safety”, chaired the International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) professional development group, “Food Safety Culture”, and was the technical author on the BSI PAS320 “Practical Guide to Food Safety Culture.” Lone holds a Ph.D. in Culture Enabled Food Safety from the University of Guelph, Canada and a Master in Mechanical Engineering from Syd Dansk University, Denmark. Lone serves as chair of the IFPTI board and a director on the STOP Foodborne Illness board.
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John Boyce
(Canada/USA)
John has over 40 years of experience in various aspects of food production, food safety, quality assurance, sanitation, training, and auditing. He spent 25 years with Trident Seafoods, starting as a crab fisherman and then working in roles as plant manager, corporate HR, regulatory compliance, national account sales, FSQA, and then as the Director of Training and Development for the company. John is now an independent food safety consultant based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He enjoys working with clients to help them ensure food-safe products and he’s an expert partner at Cultivate SA for assessing and changing food safety culture in food businesses.
John is a citizen of both the USA and Canada. He has a broad understanding of the cultures and food companies in this vast region.
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Sophie Tongyu Wu Ph.D.
(China/USA/UK)
Sophie is a Senior Research Assistant at the University of Central Lancashire and a Project Lead at Cultivate SA. Using validated, real-time technology and method triangulation, she seeks to improve food safety culture and assess the impact of food safety culture interventions in food manufacturing companies through a weekly change cycle. During her Ph.D. research at Purdue University, she investigated the relationships among food safety behaviors, climate, management styles, infrastructure designs, and sanitation practices in the context of Listeria control at retail.
When Sophie is not improving food safety culture, she writes poems and fairy tales, plays the piano, and hugs trees. She is a nominee for the Pushcart Poetry Prize.
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Shingai Nyarugwe Ph.D.
(Zimbabwe/Holland/UK)
Shingai is a Food Safety expert with an M.Sc. in Food Quality Management and a Ph.D. in Food Safety Culture. Her experience cuts across agricultural processing, the food and beverage industry (particularly dairy processing, bakery, meat processing, beverage processing) and food packaging, where she has held roles in research, quality assurance, and production.
Currently she is with the University of Central Lancashire where she is a lecturer in Food Safety Management, and a Project Lead at Cultivate SA. She is also an Associate Editor on People, Systems and Culture for Wiley (Food Safety Management in Practice).
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Bob Lijana
(USA)
Bob is an experienced subject-matter expert for food safety of RTE foods, prepared meals, and pasteurized juices having previously worked for P&G and Hans Kissle. He has over 35 years of rigorous science and technical expertise, and has held Director-level and VP-level positions in food safety, quality, and operations. Bob has ChE degrees from MIT and Berkeley, and is a Certified Food Scientist.
Bob has worked regularly with USDA and FDA around the enhanced regulations promulgated by FSMA, and due to advancing science (e.g., whole-genome sequencing). Bob is the Editor-In-Chief at Cultivate SA.
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Paola Lopez
(Mexico)
Paola is Leader in the food industry with more than 20 years of experience in senior positions and global groups representing international organizations in events such as COP 27, FAO codex, ISO, UNIDO, IDB and GFSI. She is a PhD candidate in Circular Economy from the Earth & Life University with whom she is co-founder of CEIBAA and the Head of Alimento Circular a NGO that seeks to contribute to the mitigation of the effects of climate change caused by food waste.
She was the first woman to lead an oil platform in Mexico, being president of the local group GFSI Mexico, achieving the signing of the first MOU between GFSI and SENASICA, participating in the global technical group for GFSI Food Safety Culture, being part of the TAC group from SQF of FMI, Technical Group of Biomerieux Nutrisciences, Global Leader of Quality and Safety for Sigma Alimento.