Chad is the Vice President of Food Safety and Product Research with responsibilities for coordinating and supporting several food safety activities for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. These activities include food safety training, organizing the Listeria Research Consortium, and coordinating industry food safety best practice teams spanning several relevant topics. Chad also supports National Dairy Council research programs at major universities to drive dairy innovation and sales for U.S. dairy products and ingredients on behalf of U.S. dairy farmers. In addition, he supports cheese promotion as an invited judge for the World and US Championship Cheese Contests, coordinating the Collegiate Dairy Product Evaluation Contest, and through social media as "Chad the Cheese Guy.” Chad grew up on a small dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin and studied microbiology at University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. He spent the first 16 years of his career at Kraft Foods in several R&D and Quality roles.
