Brooke Switzer
Brooke Switzer is the Director, Global Public Policy at iHerb where she delivers the strategic direction for government relations, industry affairs, and public policy. She currently leads the public policy team on a variety of U.S. and international regulatory matters across a range of topics including accessible health and nutrition, e-commerce, digital services, ESG, and cross-border trade. Brooke is an international relations and public affairs specialist with over 20 years of experience developing strategic communications and advocacy campaigns for the private sector, nonprofit foundations, and trade associations. Brooke is pursuing a doctorate of law and policy from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and holds an MBA from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, and Bachelors of Business Administration from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tim Gerke
Tim Gerke is a noteworthy leader of positive disruption who specializes in strategies harmonizing people, process, and technology to take organizations to the next level in growth and profitability. With a passion to drive success for all stakeholders in human and animal health, Tim loves innovating business strategies that focus on an overall proactive approach in making sustainable health a centerpiece to a better world.
Tim has over 25 years of successful execution on this mission in executive and leadership roles with Fortune 500 companies like Bayer and Deloitte, preparing him to be a dynamic change agent for small to mid-size companies hungry to strengthen their position in the marketplace. In the last decade Tim has led the repositioning, rebuilding, and turnaround of several companies who were then sold in premium transactions to private equity including FoodScience with the DaVinci, VetriScience, and Pet Naturals brands sold to Wind Point Partners, Clinics Choice as part of the VetsPlus , Inc sold to DW Healthcare Partners, and most recently rejuvenating the Allergy Research Group, Nutricology, NutriLink and Clinical Education, UK to be sold as an attractive portfolio to WM Partners. Tim has partnered with numerous companies to reorganize sales and marketing strategy and leadership development, while also consulting to update and clear regulatory hurdles for several contract manufacturers for both pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products.
Tim is a sought-after speaker for organizations, groups, associations, and non-profits because of his innovative strategies for building effective leadership and culture. Tim has facilitated hundreds of forums on critical human skills such as trust, emotional intelligence, change management, conflict resolution, and effective communication.
Tim is committed to finding the next innovations that will advance the cause of optimal health for a world in need.
Bob Messerschmidt
Bob is the Founder and CEO of Cor Health in San Diego, CA. Cor Health is developing technologies to track inflammation and the impact of lifestyle choices. We call this Self Health. Bob is formerly Director of Platform Architecture, and Watch architect. He is an Inventor & Entrepreneur with 3 exits in tech and health tech. Bob's career spans more than 25 years in the field of instrumentation for spectroscopy. He was awarded the Williams-Wright Award in 1996 for outstanding contributions to infrared spectroscopy. He is the author or co-author of 12 articles and book chapters and co-editor of one book on infrared micro-spectroscopy, holds 62 issued and pending US patents. He is past president of the Coblentz Society, past president of the Rio Grande section of the SAS, a past-president of the Southwestern Connecticut section of the Optical Society of America, and a member of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. In his spare time he makes wine, pizza and sourdough. He and his family live in San Diego California.
Quinn Kennedy
Dr. Quinn Kennedy earned a PhD in Psychology and completed postdoctoral training in Cognitive Aging, both at Stanford University. She is the Director of Aging Research at neuroFit. Previously, Dr. Kennedy was a Research Associate Professor and Director of the Healthcare Modeling & Simulation Education Programs at the Naval Postgraduate School, where she was the recipient of the Richard Hamming Interdisciplinary Research Achievement Award. Dr. Kennedy’s 20+ years of research in adult aging has been recognized through multiple awards, grants, and peer reviewed journal publications including Psychological Science, Psychology of Aging, and Journals of Gerontology. With her collaborators, her work has been featured on Channel 2 news, NPR, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Science. Dr. Kennedy is a popular speaker on healthy cognitive aging and is a guest contributor to Psychology Today.
Rick Weiss
Dean Kelly
Susan Roddy
Ms. Roddy is a senior member of Houlihan Lokey’s Consumer, Food & Retail Group, leading the firm’s Consumer Health and Personal Care practice. Her focus areas include health & wellness and personal care, including women’s health and intimacy, healthy aging and mom & baby.
Ms. Roddy has nearly two decades of corporate finance experience, with a particular passion for advising high-growth consumer brands. Her recent work includes the sales of Zesty Paws to H&H Group, Nuun to Nestlé Health Science, SmartyPants to Unilever, Care/of to Bayer, and Zarbee’s to Johnson & Johnson. She also has significant expertise in corporate carve-outs and divestitures, as well as contract manufacturing and private label across sectors.
Before joining Houlihan Lokey, Ms. Roddy worked in Corporate Strategy & Development at PepsiCo, where she led deal execution in Europe and was responsible for executing the company’s strategy to expand into good-for-you and better-for-you food & beverage categories. Prior to that, she worked in Investment Banking for Deutsche Bank and as an accountant for Ernst & Young.
Ms. Roddy holds a B.S. in Accounting from Bucknell University and an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. She was previously a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Pennsylvania (expired).
Mark Lacey
