Tyler Williams is the founder and Chief Technical Officer of Cannabis Safety & Quality (CSQ). Over the years Tyler has diligently worked with various industry stakeholders and conducted sample audits on several cannabis cultivators and manufacturers to ensure the CSQ audit requirements meet the needs of this new and booming industry. In addition to being a part of the NCIA, Tyler is also involved with the Florida Hemp Council and the National Industrial Hemp Council.
Before founding CSQ, Tyler was the Vice President of Operations for ASI, one of the leading food safety auditing, training, and consulting companies in the U.S. In this position Tyler was responsible for the certification process of over 3000+ audits annually and managed ASI’s employees and contracted auditors around the world. In addition to managing the day-to-day operations of ASI, Tyler also trained and consulted several different major food and beverage companies around the world to help improve their food safety practices.
In 2019, Tyler started a non-profit organization called Show Me Food Safety. This organization provides resources to small food manufacturers and growers in Missouri to help improve their food safety practices and get on the shelves of local grocery stores.
To ensure transparency and involvement from the cannabis industry, the CSQ Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is meant to make recommendations on numerous technical topics such as Certification Requirements, Guidance Documents, Audit Requirements, and revisions.
President – Demos Global Group, Inc. Tania Martinez
Tania Martinez is the Vice President of an Officially Accredited FDA organization for the FSMA food Safety Program (Demos Global Group). Expert in Product Regulatory Compliance, Food Safety and Preventive Control for Food, fish, seafood and fishery products, Dietary Supplements. PhD in Food Safety. Juris Doctor Degree in the State of Florida and Spain. 30 years of experience in Good Manufacturer Practices Manual, food, fish, seafood and fishery products and dietary supplement product safety, ingredients, import’s regulations to the US. ToT for HF, PSA Lead Trainer for PSA, TTT for the Fish, Seafood and Fishery Alliance-FDA, LI for AF, SA, TTT for the International HACCP Alliance, BPCS. Invite Professor at several universities in Latin America and Europe. Off Counsel of Several regional and local governments in Europe.
My experience has shown me that proven methods and systems work; ones that have been developed effectively through years of implementing efficient and repeatable operations, based on defined quality principles, from small scale to commercial operations. I have seen facilities through the lens of auditing existing procedures, as well as through the lens of implementing new systems from scratch. I help save clients time and money on operations, both pre-op during permit acquisition and post-op through quality assurance system implementation.
My work on multiple technical advisory committees has helped me understand the best practices being implemented, and the landscape of future trends related to quality assurance standards, food safety practices, and cannabis operations. My committee and advisory work includes: Appointed in 2014 to serve as U.S. Cannabis Advisor to Canadian CSE listed company, Elected to the U.S. TAG (ISO/TC) 207 (TAG 207) on Environmental Management & The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) ANSI Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) Z1 to document consensus on proposed American National Standards (ANS) in the field of Environmental Management, and Elected to the Cannabis Technical Advisory Committee for SQF International Food Safety Standard in 2019.
Executive Director, Clean Label Project (Co-Chair)
Jaclyn Bowen MPH, MS is a food and consumer product quality and safety systems engineer and executive director of Clean Label Project, a national non-profit and standards organization with the mission to bring truth and transparency to food and consumer product labeling. Through data, science, and benchmarking, Clean Label Project uses retail sampling and testing to benchmark product quality and purity of America’s best-selling food and consumer products, conduct consumer investigations and peer-reviewed studies, and award Clean Label Project’s coveted evidence-based Purity Award. Before Clean Label Project, Jackie worked for the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre, NSF International, on food safety and water quality standards for 15 years. Jackie holds a Bachelor of Science in environmental biology, a Master of Science in quality engineering, and a Master of Public Health in management and policy.
Chief Compliance Officer, Green Scientific Labs
Rafael Bombonato is the Chief Compliance Officer at Green Scientific Labs, a cannabis testing laboratory located in the Ft. Lauderdale – FL where he is responsible for the Compliance and Quality departments. Previously, Rafael served as Corporate Quality Manager at Curaleaf, a vertically integrated medical cannabis company headquartered at Wakefield – MA, where he started as Quality and Compliance Manager for Curaleaf FL and then migrated his expertise to the corporate level, where he managed the Quality Control laboratories, quality initiatives in manufacturing and cultivation, and support of Regulatory Submissions for Curaleaf nationwide. Rafael’s is dedicated to product quality, safety, and efficacy. His thorough experience in Quality Management Systems allowed him to successfully design and implement the Quality Management Systems that awarded Curaleaf Florida, LLC. the first SQF Level II certificate in the industry. Previously, Rafael served as Quality Assurance Analyst and Auditor at Teva Pharmaceuticals, as a QA Supervisor and Senior Microbiologist at Nature’s Bounty, and a Microbiologist for R.L. Schreiber. Rafael has over 10 years of quality assurance and product safety experience in the food, dietary supplement, pharmaceutical, and for the last four years in the Medical Cannabis industry. Rafael holds a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology, Microbiology, and Biotechnology and a master’s degree in Business Administration. Rafael is also a Quality Auditor, HACCP trained, SQF Practitioner, and is involved in policy, regulation, and guideline development throughout all aspects of the Cannabis industry.
Chief Relations Officer (CRO), RizePoint
Matt Regusci has a long career in the auditing world. He co-founded Azzule, an online compliance supply chain data management company, which is the parent company of PrimusGFS, a GFSI food safety standard.
After Azzule, Regusci became an owner at WQS, a certification body that does thousands of audits annually across the Western Hemisphere.
Matt Regusci is currently the Chief Relationship Officer at RizePoint. His primary focus is all about finding the right quality management system solutions for quality, safety, and compliance professionals.
As a father of seven kids, Regusci understands the value of safe quality product and has made it his life’s mission to provide compliance transparency within the world’s supply chain.
Quality Systems Director, Cresco Labs
Emily is a quality and food safety professional with more than 15 years of experience in quality systems and auditing and more than 10 years of food experience. She has experience implementing and auditing many different standards including SQF, FSSC 22000, ISO 9001, etc.
Prior to joining Cresco Labs, Emily worked for a couple large food manufacturers in positions such as a corporate quality contact for all plants in North America, Corporate Quality and Food Safety Auditor (including internal audits and supplier audits) and most recently as a plant quality manager.
Emily is an ASQ Certified Auditor and ASQ Certified Food Safety Auditor, HACCP Certified and an SQF Practitioner.
Quality Manager, Curaleaf
James Guernsey is the Quality Manager for Curaleaf New York.
Curaleaf NY, located in Ravena, is a cannabis cultivation and processing site currently serving the Medical Cannabis market. At this site, James is responsible for the Cannabis Safety and Quality program.
James started with Curaleaf in January of 2021 and has taken his knowledge of manufacturing quality and, in just under 10 months-time, implemented a Cannabis Safety and Quality program resulting not only in the only CSQ certification for all of Curaleaf, but also the highest-rated CSQ-compliant system in the country. James is working closely with the NYS Office of Cannabis Management(OCM) to prepare Curaleaf for the transition of the New York Medical Cannabis market into the Adult-Use Cannabis market.
James entered the Cannabis industry excited to have the opportunity to work in a budding industry that is still trying to integrate Quality Systems. He particularly enjoys the enthusiasm from colleagues across the industry and the social responsibility developments that Curaleaf and NYS have brought to the Cannabis industry.
James has over 10 years of Quality Control and Quality Assurance experience, holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, an ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor Certification from Bureau Veritas, and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Previously, James served as Quality Engineer in the Life-Sciences division at Saint-Gobain, and a Quality Chemist/Quality Control Lab Supervisor for the chemical intermediate manufacturing company SI Group.