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Phil Kafarakis (born March 29, 1958) is a Greek-American food industry executive with expertise on global food production and innovation, food incubators and accelerators, supply chain, food safety and quality, labeling, marketing and regulation.

Life, Education, and Earlier Career
Kafarakis was born in Athens, Greece. Having emigrated with his family to the United States as a child, he was raised in Silver Spring, MD, a suburb of Washington, D.C. He earned his International Executive MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and was selected to address Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business International Executive MBA Class of 2009. The commencement address was made in historic Gaston Hall. Kafarakis has a BSBA from Northern Arizona University. He has served the Order of American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, is a member of Leadership 100, and was named an Archon of the Order of St. Andrew in the Eastern Orthodox Church in October of 2018.

Kafarakis has worked for over 35 years at the C-Suite level in the global food and beverage industry. He started his career in 1982 at Kraft, where he was an Oscar Mayer Foodservice sales representative. Thereafter, he led the foodservice businesses at McCormick & Co., where his teams were recipients of the Gold award at the 2007 SYSCO Annual Supplier Recognition Ceremony; the Silver award at the 2010 SYSCO Annual Supplier Recognition awards; and the Ben E. Keith Top Supplier of the Year Award. He was responsible for the creation and launch of McCormick for Chefs; Cargill. There, he was asked to develop Brand Management Solutions, LLC; Jones Dairy Farm, where he created new business through competitive partnerships, developed promotional programs by implementing guerilla marketing tactics, and had responsibility for growing the global business in Asia. He continues to serve the food industry beyond his direct leadership responsibilities and is a current member of the ASAE’s Key Industry Associations Committee, serves as an advisor to the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association. He has also served on the board of Meals on Wheels.

Prior to his appointment as President of the Specialty Food Association (SFA) in 2016, Kafarakis served as the Chief Innovation & Member Advancement Officer at the National Restaurant Association (NRA), a business association for the U.S. restaurant industry. During this time, the NRA expanded member products and engagement programming by building an Insurance Exchange to assist members with ACA legislation; acquired National Registry of Food Safety Professionals to extend the ServSafe® program; and increased allied membership. Kafarakis created the Signature Leadership Keynote of the National Restaurant Association Show, currently still in place, the “Reality Gets Real” panel at the NRA Show, and several restaurant industry tech insights panels. He was created Start-Up Alley to showcase emerging industry startups, and oversaw the introduction of future tech leadership and an entertainment venue to engage attendees at the NRA Restaurant Innovation Summit.

Present
As president of the nonprofit Specialty Food Association (SFA), Kafarakis is an advocate and spokesman for the $140 billion U.S. specialty food industry, which is currently gaining market share. A recognized food industry expert, he is a frequent guest at food industry events, and his opinions are tapped by local and foreign media reporters on topics such as suppliers, food industry mergers and acquisitions, executive leadership, what conglomerates can learn from smaller food manufacturers, and restaurant expansion. His editorials have appeared in Progressive Grocer, Food Dive, The Hill, Food Engineering, Ivey Business Journal, SmartBrief, and Food Quality & Safety Magazine, and he contributes a column to Target Marketing. Kafarakis has also been a guest speaker at the Navy Foodservice Ashore Solutions Conference as well as having facilitated and presented on topics such as the future of the U.S. food market, disruptive innovation, effective entrepreneurship, and transformational strategy at conferences across the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Since 2017, Kafarakis has helped develop the SFA’s Forward2022 strategic plan, creating the LevelUP premier experience for industry buyers at SFA events both domestic and global, and producing the “Disrupt or Be Disrupted” panel series at the Fancy Food Shows to highlight young entrepreneurs. He has established national partnerships with other food industry associations to benefit SFA members, and global partnerships between SFA and FMI, the National Grocer’s Association, SIAL/Comexposium in Paris, CIBUS/Parma, TUTTOFOOD/Milano, Enterprise Greece, the American Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, and Seeds&Chips.

Kafarakis has also been involved in legislative and regulatory policy, and he has provided comments on behalf of the industry to the U.S. Trade Representative on organic and GMO definitions. He is currently engaged in rebranding the Specialty Food Association and inviting new talent to contemporize SFA’s presence in the global food space.

Publications
Kafarakis has contributed a number of op-eds and commentary pieces on the state of the food industry.

• In turmoil around bid for P&G seat, Peltz challenges risk-adverse culture Marketing Dive, November 17, 2017

• Big Food has been missing something big: Shifting consumer preferences Food Dive, December 1, 2017

• Americans' tastes are changing, Big Sugar needs to change along with it] The Hill, December 8, 2017 |Big Food has been missing something big: Shifting consumer preferences (Part II) Food Dive, January 1, 2018 |Incubate, accelerate, acquire... or just keep knocking-off? Food Dive, March 7, 2018 |GMA Must Change or Die Progressive Grocer, March 7, 2018 |Marijuana as a Food Additive: Explosive Growth Likely Food Quality & Safety, March 8, 2018 |Reinventing Big Food Ivey Business Journal, May/June 2018 |Can food take lessons from other industries? Food Dive, May 30, 2018 |Disruption 101: Speed to Shelf and What We Can Learn From Specialty Food Startups Progressive Grocer, August 17, 2018 |How to Leverage the Consumer-Connected Marketing Tactics of Specialty Food Target Marketing, September 27, 2018 |Hot new products and food trends consumers are craving Food Dive, October 8, 2018 |Why Do Consumers Crave Specialty Foods? They Connect With the Customer Target Marketing, November 19, 2018|undefined

Examination of Key Food Trends
Kafarakis has been a student and critic of the big food brands, calling for new models of leadership, change in traditional new product development, and innovation in their consumer marketing approach. Simultaneously, he has been a vocal proponent of educating and guiding small food startups and incubators to get to economic scale while implementing high production processing techniques, practicing safety, hygiene, and conforming to regulatory labeling standards. Kafarakis has conducted ongoing, expansive research on food products in the market—including new products, innovative products, and food categories as they emerge—tracking their performance and market share as well as the changing ways they are consumed. He is a leading voice on the meatless and environmentally conscious movements in the specialty food industry. Kafarakis also researches and writes on changing U.S. consumer tastes.

In one controversial area of disruptive change, Kafarakis has been a proponent of safe and sustainable methods for producing and packaging cannabis. His national research on the topic led to an article outlining best practices for cannabis production plants.

Contribution to the Advancement of the Food Industry
Through the vehicle of the semiannual SFA Fancy Food Show in New York and San Francisco, Kafarakis has been instrumental in convening and encouraging innovators and startup companies in the small food space to expand and shape the American palate, grow, and act responsibly toward the planet. He champions M&A with big food companies which, he believes, encourages larger companies as well as grocers to “do everything better”—becoming more responsive to consumer tastes and demands, acting more sustainably by offering smaller and more locally made foods, and continuing to innovate new products and new ways to get them to consumers.

Through Kafarakis’ leadership, the Fancy Food Shows have gone through a dramatic transformation, admitting only B2B attendees that are qualified food buyers across all segments of the industry. His creation of the LevelUP program launched new engagement between buyers and members of the SFA manufacturing community.

In the press, Kafarakis has consistently kept pressure on big food companies to rethink their business models to include if not adopt the more sustainable, consumer-centric strategies of smaller specialty food startups. His research through SFA tracks industry trends at macro and micro levels, providing a benchmark on where consumer tastes are in the market at any given time.

Kafarakis has also been an advocate and spokesperson for bringing new international products and tastes to the U.S., most notably championing Italian food and Greek food and culture by welcoming Greece-based food companies to U.S. specialty food events, and by traveling to Greece [see Thessaloniki Summit] and Italy to speak with companies to prepare them for the American market and disruption.