Melanie Whitman is RQA’s Vice President, Crisis & Risk Management, joining the RQA Team in November 2015. Melanie holds an undergraduate degree in Organizational Leadership and an MBA in Consulting, Operations, and Innovation and Technology. She has more than 25 years strong industry experience covering food and consumer products, most recently as Global Operations Corporate Compliance Manager for Wolverine Worldwide, and at Cabela’s Incorporated as Senior Manager, Integrity & Compliance. Previously Melanie was Risk Manager, Business Continuity / Auditing and Supply Quality Specialist / Auditor Diageo North America. She is a Certified HACCP Auditor (CHA/FSQA), Certified Manager of Quality / Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), and a Certified Quality Improvement Associate (CQIA) from the American Society for Quality. Melanie is an FDA FSMA PCQI for Human and Animal Food, IA VA and FSVP Lead Instructor. Melanie was responsible for risk management and factory audit programs in the Americas portfolio of facilities (factory, DC, offices, distilleries) for $17B world-leading manufacturer of premium beverages. She supervised internal and third-party response teams in responding to customer, in-market and manufacturing quality concerns, and led product recall planning and corporate response. She has developed and delivered training programs for instructors, employees and managers on safety, security, risk assessment, Code of Conduct and other topics. Additional experience included corporate quality systems implementation projects across North America, planning and execution of gap analysis audits for wholly owned, third-party and supplier manufacturing facilities, and distribution centers in the U.S. and internationally. Melanie has directed strategy and operations for teams globally, responsible for benchmarking level assessments to gain insight, inform, and align resources for corporate compliance strategy. She engaged business functions to ensure global compliance operations were effective in meeting customer compliance (Disney, Target, etc.), licensee, and wholesale business compliance needs related to manufacturing code/social compliance and consumer product safety for $3B multinational leather, footwear and apparel company. She led an initiative to renovate the global supplier due diligence audit program for $3.7B multinational retail and finance company to ensure compliance throughout the supply chain. She developed and coached an audit team in executing factory audits and strategy for improvement, identifying risks and proposing improvements in Europe, Asia and the Americas.