9th Annual Leadership Summit: Virtual Edition June 22 – 24, 2021 www.menusofchange.org PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES OMER ALKALAY is culinary director of Google Israel, working under Yarzin-Sella. Yarzin-Sella provides culinary solutions for the world’s leading high-tech companies. Omer discovered his passion for cooking while on vacation in New Zealand, where he bonded with a chef mentor, who took him on an exciting, two-year journey, focused on local sourcing. Upon his return to Israel, Oelleymer was presented with the opportunity to lead as executive chef in opening a new fine-dining restaurant, Chloelys, at Hilton Tel-Aviv. Omer’s cooking approach is to keep his dishes simple and fresh, providing the stage for the ingredients to speak. Omer maintains close contact with his growers, in order to keep up with best agricultural practices yielding top ingredients, allowing him to maintain balanced and delicious dishes. As a chef at Yarzin-Sella for Google, Omer has found a great marriage between his approach to cooking and the food program at Google. (Tel Aviv, Israel) MICHIEL BAKKER, MS, MBA is vice president of global workplace programs for Real Estate & Workplace Services, Google’s renowned workplace programs and services such as food, transportation, events, sustainability, and fitness and well-being. Michiel is focused on providing integrated workplace services and experiences that enable Google and Googlers to thrive. He is also focused on supporting the growth of Google through the scalability of the programs and innovating the future of workplace services. From 2012 to 2017, he led Google’s Food program, supporting all foodservice-related activities and initiatives for Google’s global community as well as developing internal and external partnerships to explore and tackle the challenges and opportunities in the broader food system. Before joining Google, Michiel spent 17 great years with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. in various roles. He continues to be very involved in the ever-evolving and growing intersection of food, health, and sustainability through various roles and organizations around the world such as The Culinary Institute of America’s Menus of Change Business Leadership Council; the EAT Forum Advisory Board; and the Yale School of Management Center for Customer Insights' Advisory Board. He holds a bachelor of business administration degree from the Hotel Management School Maastricht (The Netherlands), an MBA from the University of Bradford (UK), a master of hospitality administration degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a master’s degree in real estate and construction management from the University of Denver, Colorado. (Los Gatos, CA) Most people know RICK BAYLESS from winning the title of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, besting the world-class competition with his authentic Mexican cuisine. His highly rated, Emmy-nominated public television series, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, is broadcast coast to coast and his nine cookbooks have earned multiple high-profile accolades. Located in Chicago, Rick's Frontera Grill and Topolobampo have each received the “Outstanding Restaurant” designation from the James 2021 CIA-Harvard Menus of Change® Leadership Summit: Virtual Edition Presenter Biographies | Updated May 29, 2021| Page 1 of 21 Beard Foundation — an unprecedented feat for side-by-side restaurants. His wildly popular fast- casual Xoco has been drawing big crowds since 2009, and Tortas Frontera at Chicago’s O’Hare airport has changed the face of airport dining for good. In 2016, he opened Frontera Cocina in Disney Springs. In 2018, Rick opened Bar Sótano, a Oaxacan-inspired mezcal bar with modern Mexican bar food in the basement of Frontera Grill. Also in 2018, he opened Tortazo, a fast-casual restaurant located in Chicago's iconic Willis Tower. Always a philanthropist, Rick and his staff established the Frontera Farmer Foundation in 2003 to support small Midwestern farms. To date, the Foundation has awarded nearly 200 grants totaling nearly $3 million. He also launched the Frontera Scholarship, a culinary school scholarship for Mexican-American students in Chicago and in 2019 founded Impact Culinary Training, a restaurant job readiness program on the city’s west side. The Government of Mexico has bestowed on Rick the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle–the highest decoration bestowed on foreigners whose work has benefitted Mexico and its people. (Chicago, IL) JACKIE BERTOLDO, MPH, RDN is assistant director of nutrition & food choice architecture at Stanford University. As Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises’ resident nutrition and behavior change expert, Jackie is a leader in translating research into practical strategies for guiding food policy and practice. She works collaboratively with academics, chefs, university administrators, and operational staff to study the food environment and design transformative dining experiences that promote healthier, more sustainable eating practices for the Stanford community and beyond. She is also pursuing her doctorate in public health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as a fellow with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, specializing in nutrition and food systems. (Stanford, CA) @StanfordDining MEGAN BLOOMER, PHD has served as the vice president of sustainability and CSR for The Cheesecake Factory Inc. since the creation of the department in 2014. In this role, Megan creates and manages the strategic planning for all social justice and environmental stewardship endeavors for The Cheesecake Factory and its subsidiaries, domestically and internationally. Named one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® for seven consecutive years, The Cheesecake Factory owns and operates 294 restaurants throughout the United States and Canada under brands including The Cheesecake Factory®, North Italia® and a collection within the Fox Restaurant Concepts subsidiary. Internationally, 26 The Cheesecake Factory® restaurants operate under licensing agreements. The company employs more than 46,000 staff members. Megan has a bachelor of science in environmental studies, a master of science in environmental policy and management, a master of business administration with an emphasis in sustainable marketing, and PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies. She has studied across the world, from the urban jungle of Manhattan to the rainforest of Queensland, Australia and her work spans Fortune 500 companies, governmental organizations, academia, and non-profits. Megan’s doctoral dissertation explored the intersection of leadership and communication and she continued this work in a TEDx Talk and a TED2019 workshop. She was also awarded a 2019 Fortune Best Places to Work for All Leadership Award for Innovation. In her free time (when there is any), Megan volunteers for several dog rescues. Megan enjoys traveling and finding great “hole-in-the-wall” food spots. As a queer woman, it is important to Megan to spend time mentoring and coaching LGBTQ youth and young adults in her community. (Los Angeles, CA) 2021 CIA-Harvard Menus of Change® Leadership Summit: Virtual Edition Presenter Biographies | Updated May 29, 2021| Page 2 of 21 ANNA BOHBOT is the global food program manager at LinkedIn, where she influences nutrition, marketing, communication, sustainability, sourcing, food operations, and food service design, as well as onsite food education/engagement programs. She is also an alum of the University of California Berkeley, a certified holistic nutrition consultant, and the founder of “Women in Tech” a networking group with other female leaders in the corporate and university dining industry. Anna joined LinkedIn in 2013 and has managed food service operations in the San Francisco Bay Area LinkedIn offices, feeding over 5,000 people daily. She is passionate about sustainable, just food systems and accessibility to fresh, local, and seasonal food, and has worked and volunteered with organizations such as Pie Ranch, CUESA, Kitchen Table Advisors, The Lexicon Group of Sustainability, and the IFMA B&I Foodservice Advisory Council. Anna previously owned a boutique catering business, where she taught healthy cooking classes and nutrition workshops for the American Heart Association in Spanish and English. Anna's recipes have been featured in two books and she has co-authored three cookbooks focusing on healthy diets. In her free time, Anna enjoys traveling, being active, and going to the beach with her husband and three boys. (Santa Cruz, CA) AARON BROWN is an associate professor of baking and pastry at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Before graduating from Portland’s Western Culinary Institute, Aaron worked as a cook, kitchen manager, caterer, pastry cook and baker. After an apprenticeship at Grand Central Bakery in Seattle, Aaron opened his own artisan bread bakery. He later worked as head baker and pastry chef at Il Fornaio in Portland, Las Vegas, and finally in Denver. Before coming to work at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in 2004, Aaron started Big River Breads, a wholesale artisan bakery in Corvallis, Oregon. At Greystone, Aaron started the Café Operations class for the Baking and Pastry AOS program and opened the Illy Café on the Greystone campus where he also teaches general baking skills, baking science, gastronomy, bread baking, and specialty baking classes. (Napa, CA) EDWARD G. BROWN '83 is the president of Restaurant Services for Restaurant Associates, a role he was promoted to in January 2018. In addition to his new