Board of Directors Members

Joshua Baisley, B.Sc. Honors, Vice President Clinical Design & Delivery, joined Nutrasource in 2013, bringing 12 years of clinical, pre-clinical and regulatory natural health product experience. He also has four years’ experience in early stage antibody/biologic development. Josh is currently an IPA board member and has actively participated in both the Scientific and Education & Communication committees.  He is also the current co-chair for the IPA Technology and Standards Committee.  Josh has also presented on probiotic clinical trial design and regulatory pathways to market at various industry conferences and tradeshows.  With depth in regulatory filings and management of clinical trials, he understands clinical operations and regulatory thinking which has led to his respected relationship with Health Canada’s Non-Prescription and Natural Health Products Directorate as well as Therapeutic Products Directorate. From 2011 to 2014 he was a member of Health Canada’s “Canada Vigilance Expert Working Group”, representing the supplement industry toward harmonization of safety reporting for supplements, drugs and biologics.  Josh completed his undergraduate studies and the University of Guelph, specializing in microbiology and he also holds a certificate in regulatory affairs.

Formerly president and CEO of Ganeden, Michael is an executive, officer and board member for various natural products, healthcare, bioinformatics and technology related startups, turnarounds and early to mid-stage companies. Built large, distributed business development, sales, operations and marketing teams and programs to generate maximum value for shareholders and strategic partners. Completed IP out-licenses, acquisitions, divestitures and capital acquisition for a variety of organizations.

Marco Caspani has been working in the health ingredients industry for more than 18 years. With a degree in food science he has covered several roles in different Companies until he joined CSL in 2012, a company that since 1948 studies, develops and produces strains for the food and pharmaceutical Industries. In his role of General Manager, Marco defines and executes the strategies and leads the Company to become a global recognized probiotic manufacturer.

Francesco Girardo is the Sales Director for Probiotical, in Italy, focused on the international market. He has 16 years of experience in the probiotic field, managing at first an R&D laboratory developing research in the combination of probiotics and oligoelements and afterwards outlicensing patents in the Sales Dept. of Probiotical. Francesco has experience in management, fundraising, European projects and marketing and sales.

As an internationally recognized scientist and business leader, Najla Guthrie has left an indelible mark on nutritional science and the nutraceutical industry. Over the past 22 years, she has published over 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has been recognized as an influential expert within her industry. As one of the founders and current President/CEO at KGK Science, Najla has developed and strengthened the organization’s integrated research expertise, which now maintains a reputation for world-class nutraceutical and cannabis science. Najla is also a lobbyist for the advancement of regulations and policy changes for the supplement and cannabis industries.

More than 22 years of professional experience – Product / Process Development (Innovation / R&D), Starting-up New Business, Acquisitions / Integrations, Global Strategy Definition and General Management – in Life Sciences (Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Food supplements, Functional Foods, Cosmetics and Crop protection). As a current member of the Global Consumer Healthcare R&D Leadership team at Sanofi I have worldwide responsibilities for driving science-based innovations resulting in sustainable and industry leading growth in the area of Sleep & Nutritional Health (energy-, stress- and mobility management). In addition, I am currently in charge of the global Sanofi probiotic / microbiome technology platform serving all categories, i.e., Pain, Allergy and Cough & Cold, Digestive - and Sleep & Nutritional Health.

Michael H. Lee, MS, MBA, is Senior Director of Product Development at Garden of Life, LLC, a subsidiary of Nestle. Mr. Lee has been formulating probiotic-based products for 14+ years, a well as other supplements and functional foods. He solidified Garden of Life/Atrium’s IPA membership in 2009 and currently serves the IPA as a BOD member (since 2011), as well as Executive Committee Member & Treasurer (since 2012). He received his MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management (AZ, USA) and MS and BS in biological sciences from South Korea.

Seema Mody is Sr. Director of R&D at i-Health, consumer division of DSM with over 20 years of experience in food, pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industry. At i-Health, she is responsible for driving innovation and leading global new products and claims development with major focus in probiotic space. With her extensive background in pharmaceutical industry, she is passionate about bringing scientific integrity as well as manufacturing and quality standards to probiotics in dietary supplement space. She holds MS in Food Sciences and MS in Nutrition and Dietetics.

Marc Philouze is the General Manager of Gnosis by Lesaffre, the Human Health business unit of Lesaffre, a leading company in fermentation for the production of nutritional yeasts, probiotics, and beneficial molecules obtained from microorganisms. For more than 15 years, Marc Philouze has occupied leadership positions in various pharmaceutical, supplement and food companies, both in the US and in Europe. Most recently, Marc was the CEO of DianaPlantSciences that earned an Innovation Award from the Nutrition Business Journal, and an advisor to several ingredient suppliers as the Managing Principal at Advibio, llc.

Dr Emma Pretswell serves as P&G R&D Director in the NA Personal Healthcare organization leading development for household brands including Vicks, Align, Metamucil, New Chapter and Pepto.  Emma has extensive experience in global business & organization development, holding significant roles in business leadership teams.  She is a passionate and motivated R&D thought leader delivering breakthrough innovation to exceed consumer expectations.  Her specialties include upstream development and product execution to market in full compliance with regulatory, safety and quality standards.  Emma is an organization developer including training and mentoring to maximize people development.  Emma has served as a committee member with CHPA and Dir-AG.

Matt Schueller has been a member of the probiotics and dietary supplement industry for 25+ years having come into the industry just before DSHEA was passed in 1994. During that time, he has served in many roles within Enzymatic Therapy/Nature’s Way including Innovation, Marketing, Sales, Strategy & Business Development.  He enjoys representing the voice of the branded manufacturers within the IPA Board. There has been a tremendous change and growth in our industry over those years and he has seen the impact that credible trade organizations can have in supporting the growth of the industry. He enjoys serving with IPA and helping to support future growth, he has been on the IPA board since 2018.

Since 1995, Joachim is Managing Director of SymbioPharm GmbH, which started with probiotic drugs in 1954 and has since continually expanded its product range by food supplements, medical devices and cosmetics based on probiotic bacteria. In 1998, he also became Managing Director of SymbioVaccin GmbH, a company producing individual autovaccines, derived from patient’s own bacteria. Joachim received his MBA from the University of Mannheim, Germany and studied economics in Florence, Italy, followed by a 5-year employment with Delton AG (consulting and M & A). Joachim is also Board Member of PRI.