Jorge Hernandez is the Vice President of Quality Assurance for the Wendy’s Company. As such, he is responsible for the design, implementation and leadership of the Food Safety, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Compliance Programs that impact suppliers, distribution centers and 7250 restaurants in 33 Countries. Previously, Jorge was the Chief Food Safety Officer at Wholesome International, a restaurant company with concepts and brands in the US fast casual foodservice markets; the Senior Vice President for Food Safety and Quality Assurance at US FOODS, the second largest Distributor in the US; the Vice President of Food Safety and Risk Management at the National Restaurant Association; the Food Program Manager at the Illinois Department of Public Health and a Sanitarian at the Winnebago County Health Department in Illinois. Jorge has Degrees in Biology from Rockford University, Microbiology from the Centro de Estudios Medico-Biologicos in Mexico City, Mexico, Languages and Literature from la Universite de la Sorbonne, Paris, France and Executive Leadership from the Said School of Business at Oxford University in Oxford, England, Mr. Hernandez published a number of food safety and quality articles and, in 2019, received the first ever National Restaurant Association’s “Outstanding Food Safety Leader Award”. He also belongs to several national and international organizations and boards, including the National Restaurants Association Quality Assurance Executives, the Homeland Security Department’s Food and Agriculture Sector Council tasked with the coordination of activities for prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery systems to ensure the resiliency of the Nation’s food and agriculture critical infrastructure; QA Magazine; the Food Safety Summit; SQF Technical Advisory Committee; The Conference for Food Protection (CFP); The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), the Center for Produce Safety and the Food Safety Consortium.