Committee Members

Paul Gepts is a faculty in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He holds an Ingénieur agronome degree of Gembloux Agro-Biotech (University of Liège, Belgium) and a PhD of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research and teaching focuses on crop biodiversity and its application to genetic conservation and breeding, with particular emphasis on Phaseolus beans. Research activities in his program range from field collections to the development of genomic tools for Phaseolus. More recently, he has led the development of the PhaseolusGenes database for marker discovery in bean marker-assisted selection.

Tino Breuer has been General Manager with the Ontario Bean Producers’ Marketing Board since May 2000.
He holds both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Agriculture from the University of Guelph and has been involved in the agricultural field since graduation.
Tino began his professional career as a commodity analyst and worked in the futures industry handling both hedging and speculative trading accounts. From there he moved into trading “the physicals”: grains, oilseeds, beans, pulses and other commodities - both as a broker and trader/merchandiser.
As part of his career path he held the position of Marketing Specialist with the Ontario Soybean Growers.
Prior to joining the Ontario Bean Producers’ Tino worked in the Bean industry, marketing dry edible beans into the global market place. 

Dr. Bowley helps to manage the University’s Plant Germplasm Intellectual Property, including licensing, technology option, transfer and allied agreements. An associate professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture, he received his B.Sc. (Agr.) and M.Sc. degrees at the University of Guelph and his PhD in plant breeding at the University of Kentucky. His research area is the genetic improvement of perennial forage crops with particular emphasis on the application of biotechnology within conventional breeding systems.
University of Guelph 102-150 Research Lane Guelph, Ontario N1G 4T2
tel: (519)-824-4120 ext 58704
email: sbowley@uoguelph.ca

Education: Ph.D (University of Saskatchewan); M.Sc. (University of Guelph); B.Sc. (University of Guelph)
Research: Pulse crop genomics and dry bean breeding.
Phone: (306) 966-4947
Email: k.bett@usask.ca
Website: http://knowpulse2.usask.ca/portal or http://agbio.usask.ca/index.php?mact=StaffListing,cntnt01,detail,1&cntnt01entry_id=97&cntnt01returnid=2697&page=2697
Selected Publications:

• H. Elsadr, L. Wright, K. P. Pauls and K.E. Bett. 2011. Characterization of seed coat post harvest darkening in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). Theor. Appl. Genet. DOI 10.1007/s00122-011-1683-8.P.
• Vijayan, I.A.P. Parkin, S. R. Karcz, K. McGowan, K. Vijayan, A. Vandenberg, K.E. Bett.  2011. Capturing cold stress related sequence diversity from a wild relative of common bean: Phaseolus angustissimus.  Genome, 54:1-9
• .Lasantha Ubayasena, Kirstin Bett, Bunyamin Tar’an, Thomas Warkentin. 2011. Genetic control and identification of QTLs associated with visual quality traits of field pea (Pisum sativum L.). Genome, 54:261-272.
• Grant Woronuk, Permual Vijayan, Serge Laberge, Bert Vandenberg and Kirstin Bett, 2010.  Transcriptomic Analysis of Chilling Stress inPhaseolus spp. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 69:95-104.
• M.A.S. Marles, A. Vandenberg, and K.E. Bett. 2008.  Polyphenol Oxidase Activity and differential Accumulation of Polyphenolics in Seed Coats of Pinto Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Characterize Post-Harvest Colour Changes. Journal Agriculture and Food Chemistry, Accepted.
• D.C. Junk-Knievel, A. Vandenberg, and K.E. Bett. 2008.  Slow Darkening in Pinto Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Seed Coats is Controlled by a Single Major Gene. Crop Science, 48:189-193.

Dan obtained a degree in Food Science at the University of Guelph and has been the QA Manager at Hensall District Co-op for the past 15 years. Before working for HDC Dan worked for over 20 years in a variety of roles in the food processing industry, most often involved with aspects of the primary processing of vegetables (canning, freezing and snack foods).
HDC assists with the project by providing access to the major end use canning companies as well as promoting the significance of the project.  HDC also provides materials needed for research activities. Coordinating with the end users on new variety testing and acceptance is very important to HDC.
Hensall District Cooperative Inc.
519 777 5743
dwilson@hdc.on.ca

Sandy Hushagen has been with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) since 2001 in the role of Commercialization Officer in the Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization. Prior to coming to AAFC, Sandy was the Manager of Business Development for the Lawson Health Research Institute, the research institute of the London Health Sciences Centre, and St. Joseph’s Health Care in London, Ontario.
Sandy has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Wilfrid Laurier University. She has participated actively in the Alliance for Commercialization of Canadian Technologies (ACCT), the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the Licensing Executives Society (LES) over her career in business development.