​Conference Speakers


Sequine Ken.jpgKen Seguine 
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
UAS Labs

It has been my pleasure and privilege to work in the natural products industry for over 25 years with innovative and leading companies such as AVEDA, Intelligent Nutrients and now UAS Labs. I'm originally from Los Angeles and attended UCLA and UC Irvine, where I studied plant cell biology. I now make my home in Northwest Wisconsin on 80 beautiful, certified organic acres where my partner and I produce the first pumpkin seed oil made in the U.S. I also serve as secretary of the State of Wisconsin Organic Advisory Council as well as two Natural Products Association committees. 

Javes.jpgMichael Javes
Director of Operations & Business Development
Avoca, Inc.

Michael Javes has 20 years of experience as a process/project engineer, working for companies that included Harcros Chemical, PMC Specialties, and International Flavor and Fragrances. In addition, for the past 10 years, he has been director of operations and business development for Avoca, in Menominee Falls, Wisconsin. He has bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of New South Wales - Sydney, Australia.

Khalid Mahmood
Fellow, Emerging Science and Innovation,
Naturals Platform  
Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Inc.

Khalid is a J&J Consumer internal expert on discovery and development of Active Naturals® for all need states. He has built contractual mechanisms to access natural chemical diversity, which is deployed to screen molecular targets driving the discovery process. He works with internal and external stakeholders fueling the discovery process. He co-leads a cross-sector discovery program deploying natural chemistry assets and expertise with high throughput screening robots at Discovery Sciences, Janssen R&D.

Khalid joined Johnson & Johnson Consumer in 2007, starting J&J life from J&J Singapore. He relocated his family from Santa Clara, California, to Singapore and spent almost four years there, establishing Naturals Platform and the first version of a database (Tulip) to capture discovery-stage test articles and results. He returned to the U.S. in 2010 with a working program and a healthy pipeline of Active NaturalsÒ. Since then the scope of the Naturals Platform has broadened beyond skin care. He led an innovation program for two years, working with suppliers and internal stakeholders and driving supplier-enabled innovation, creating proof of concept with two successful technologies through supplier-led clinical proof of efficacy. Most recently, he organized and co-hosted a natural symposium, "New Frontiers for Natural Solutions," with an eye on future directions. The symposium was a cross-sector effort between ESI-Naturals Platform at Johnson & Johnson Consumer and Discovery Sciences at Janssen R&D.

Before joining J&J, Khalid had the opportunity to work for J&J projects through a collaborative research and development agreement with his previous employer. He also had significant exposure to manufacturing, analytical chemistry, and product development for products covered by Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) regulations. His earlier research was about synthetic methodologies for carbohydrate chemistry, free radical initiated cyclization reactions, and organic chemistry practiced at the Positron Emission Tomography imaging center of University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Mueller Mark.jpgMark Mueller
Founder, Chief Technology Officer and Board Member
Botanic Innovations

Mark Mueller combined a career in business and a lifelong interest in botany to start Botanic Innovations, LLC ,  a company  focused on  the exceptional nutrition and health attributes of cold-extracted raw plant  seed lipids and seed fibers.  Previously, he served as executive director  of the Northwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, and as a  director of  the University of Minnesota Duluth Business Innovation Office.  He began his professional career as a naturalist with the U.S. National Park Service where he studied the ecology of the wilderness Isle Royale National Park.  Mark has a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a graduate of the U.S. Navy Officers School.


Paul Fowler
Executive Director
Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology

Paul Fowler has more than a dozen years' experience in contract research and development of new products and opportunities from bio-based materials. He is networking with public- and private-sector organizations and companies to develop new sustainable technologies with commercial applications to benefit the economy and the environment. Paul has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and extensive knowledge of biobased, renewable materials and applications. Prior to his appointment as WIST executive director, he was director of the Welsh Institute for Natural Resources, a financially self-supporting unit at Bangor University in the UK.