President's Biography

Valerie Bell is President of Bell Alliances International Inc., a Canadian company that specializes in building alliances, joint ventures, or a wide range of other types of business partnerships between Asian and North American businesses in the food, natural products, dietary supplement and health and beauty aids markets.

Mrs. Bell is the immediate past President and CEO of the Canadian Health Food Association, Canada's largest not for profit trade association for natural health products, whole foods and organic products.

Earlier, as a consultant, she specialized in conducting confidential due diligence reviews and providing strategic advice and counsel to clients on the management, operations, and global sales and marketing potential of new biotechnologies, functional foods and nutraceuticals to clients around the world.

As one of these projects, she launched H.J. Heinz's prepared baby foods nationally in China to the number one market position against 13 major domestic and international competitors. While working full time in the Asia Pacific region, she also consulted on a wide range of marketing issues and other joint venture projects with Heinz' area, regional and local teams in China, Taiwan and Thailand.

Previous to this, she led Heinz Canada's infant feeding business to 100% market share, managed the successful acquisitions of Earth's Best baby food and Pablum infant cereals for them, and won a very successful dumping case against Gerber Canada. She also chaired H.J. Heinz's global nutraceutical and functional food committee and was a member of their global infant feeding steering committee at the same time.

She also previously led marketing and business development teams of Canada's largest ingredient company supplying over 4,500 individual and custom made products to dairy, foodservice, bakery and confectionery industries around the world. While there, she created and launched a wide range of new product innovations to consumer product company customers including the world's first asceptic fruit processing technology for dairy and bakery industries and the revolutionary use of plastic film pouch pack packaging technology for foodservice salad dressings, ice cream syrups and toppings, pie fillings and peanut butter. Mrs. Bell has received or been nominated for more Canadian Grand Prix New Product Awards from the Canadian grocery industry than any other individual Canadian marketer in the history of those awards.

She also has extensive experience in strategic and market planning, market research, public relations, nutritional communications, international trade, and managing sales and marketing teams both domestically and internationally for several other Fortune 500 firms including Kellogg's, Coca-Cola Ltd., and Mars Inc. Her work has been featured in the new Principles of Marketing textbook by Philip Kottler, Gary Armstrong and Peggy Cunningham.

Mrs. Bell is currently a member of the national Board of Directors of AFMNet, Canada's National Center for Excellence in Advanced Food Materials and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the US based Dietary Supplement Education Association (DSEA), the Belgian based International Association of Dietary Supplement Associations (IADSA), Cevena Bioproducts Inc. an agricultural bioscience ingredient company in Edmonton, Alberta, the Canadian Dietetic Association and the ALS Society of Canada. She has also served as a board member and executive committee member of numerous other national and international health professional, trade and not for profit associations.

Mrs. Bell studied dietetics and biology at Acadia University and the University of Manitoba.