Speakers: West Coast Produce Expo 2023

Kevin Brooks

Kevin Brooks is an experienced enterprise software sales and marketing innovator. Prior to joining Procurant, he developed and led global ISV partner success at ServiceNow following the acquisition of DxContinuum, where he was vice president of sales and marketing. Prior to DxContinuum, he held executive leadership roles at Ariba and ADP, and he served as chief marketing officer at Ivalua, Inc. and iTradeNetwork, Inc. Kevin is also known for co-founding the procurement industry media site, Spend Matters, and as the board chair of Vanguard Music and Performing Arts in Santa Clara, Calif. Kevin was the commencement speaker at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., where he earned his Bachelor’s degree.

Jennifer Gonzalez

Jennifer is the Food Safety & Quality Assurance Manager at Northgate Markets. She has been at Northgate for 10 years. Before her current position, she was an Auditor for the company. In her current role, she is responsible for ensuring the company follows all Food Safety regulations, instilling a Food Safety Culture and ensuring Northgate provides safe food for their customers. Jennifer received her bachelor’s degree from CSULA in Sociology. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling , working out and spending time with her family.

Martha Montoya

Martha Montoya has over 30 years of worldwide food/agricultural and supply chain experience. Martha's career in the agricultural industry started while sourcing ingredients from the Americas to New Zealand, Australia and Asia. Formal education in chemistry and biology at LaSalle University and Javeriana University, and post-graduate courses at the University of Chicago, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, the Stanford University Entrepreneurial and Scalability program and the UC Davis Institute for Food, Ag & Health Entrepreneurship. Today she leads Agtools, a Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence award winner, a SaaS and enterprise firm that delivers global food & agricultural financial and market intelligence data. Agtools offers trusted official data from around the world, in real-time data for farmers and buyers to manage market volatility, increase profitability and reduce the world’s food waste and CO2 and SO2 footprint.

Janell Percy

Janell Percy is the executive director of Growing Coachella Valley. A not-for-profit organization that she and a group of farmers organized in 2015 to protect and promote Coachella Valley agriculture. Her previous work experience includes food safety coordinator for Ocean Mist Farms, crop consultant for Foster Gardner and pesticide enforcement officer for Indio’s Riverside County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office. She also taught Pesticide Laws and Regulations at College of the Desert and agriculture for sixth grade at Desert Christian Academy. Janell is a licensed California Pest Control Advisor and a member of the California Association of Pest Control Advisers. She is a long-time member of Coachella Valley California Women for Agriculture and a past president. She is currently a Trustee in the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District. She is on Coachella and Indio High School’s Agricultural Advisory Committees. She was involved with Desert Sandblasters 4-H Club for 17 years, served as club co-chair and was a leader many projects. Janell and her husband are part owners of a vegetable farm in Coachella. She is also a partner of her families’ farms in Ariz. and Colo.

Tom Stenzel

Tom Stenzel has served almost 30 years as president and CEO of the United Fresh Produce Association. Tom achieved a longtime goal for the fresh produce industry by helping launch the International Fresh Produce Association, a new association formed by the combination of United Fresh and the Produce Marketing Association. He served as Co-CEO of IFPA through March 2022, before forming his own consulting business, The Stenzel Group. He launched the United Fresh Start Foundation, a philanthropic arm committed to increasing children’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables and was a founding partner of the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools campaign. The campaign has donated salad bars to more than 6,000 schools across the country. He was honored as the 2002 Produce Man of the Year by The Packer newspaper and is the past Chairman of the International Federation for Produce Standards, a global body representing national produce associations around the world.

Molly Tabron

Molly Tabron is a director of supply for Robinson Fresh based in Eden Prairie, Minn.. With more than 15 years of experience in the fresh produce industry, Molly is responsible for the grower base across all fresh produce categories sold to retail, wholesale and foodservice verticals within her region. Having led the supply, finance and commodity analytics teams for Robinson Fresh, Molly is passionate about leveraging data with produce and logistics expertise to innovate and solve complex supply chain solutions for customers and growers.

Scott Wiggans

Scott Wiggans was born and raised in Albuquerque, N.M., where he started his career in produce at 17 years old working for Albertsons. Scott worked his way up from produce clerk to produce manager at Albertsons while going to school full time and working full time. After graduating from college, he made a move to the original Sunflower Farmers market in Albuquerque where he learned the “farmers market: style of high-volume low margin produce.” He stayed with Sunflower through the Sprouts merger and then stayed with Sprouts for a couple years before leaving to open his own small independent produce shop in Albuquerque. From there, he was presented a great opportunity to move to Chicago and help open all the Fresh Thyme Farmers market locations as a senior produce specialist. After opening over 70 stores for Fresh Thyme in 5 years, he moved to Florida to oversee the expansion plan and openings for the Lucky’s markets. In 2019, he was presented a great opportunity to move to southern California and become the produce director for the 5 Lazy Acres markets. He’s now the produce director for Bristol Farms, Lazy Acres in southern California and the New Leaf community markets in Northern California.

Steve Young

Steve Young is a Pro Football Hall of Famer and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, and an NFL analyst for ESPN. He travels with Monday Night Countdown during the NFL season and on several occasions has been part of ESPN’s season-opening doubleheader announcing team, in addition to contributing to ESPN’s annual Super Bowl coverage. Steve continues to build a successful private equity company, HGGC, where he is currently a partner, the chairman and co-founder. While being a Celebrity Ambassador with Childrens Miracle Network for almost 40 years, he is also Chairman of the Board for his Forever Young Foundation, lifting underserved communities and children all over the world. Steve co-authored the New York Times best-selling book, QB: My Life Behind the Spiral and has just written and published his latest book The Law of Love and in progress a part 2 of The Law of Love. A former Super Bowl MVP, Steve retired after 15 NFL seasons in 1999. Steve was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2005, and the 49ers organization retired his No. 8 in a special ceremony at Candlestick Park in 2008. Young retired as the highest-rated signal-caller in NFL history. He was the Super Bowl XXIX MVP and the league’s MVP in 1992 and 1994. A dual threat throughout his career, he amassed 33,124 passing yards and 232 passing touchdowns, while also totaling 4,239 rushing yards and 43 rushing touchdowns.