Melanie Neumann, J.D., M.S. is the president of Neumann Risk Services, LLC, (NRS) and executive vice president of Matrix Sciences. NRS is a holistic food safety risk management firm where business and brand protection converge with regulatory compliance and industry best practices.
NRS, backed by Matrix Sciences, is a trusted advisor to the food and beverage industry in food safety risk, recall and crisis management. Matrix Sciences is a new, dynamic group that is driving needed change and impacting the future of food safety, made up of well-established companies, each chosen for their expertise and reputation in the industry, notably Northland Laboratories of Chicago, IL and Green Bay, WI, Richter International of Columbus, OH, and NRS, of Chicago, IL.
Neumann provides regulatory, operational and brand reputation risk mitigation advice to the food and beverage industry, helping companies manage these various risks in today’s ever-changing risk landscape. She leverages her 19 years of industry experience as a food law attorney along with her Masters of Science in Food Safety to help clients manage the risks relating to each step in the supply chain, from supplier assessment and procurement, manufacturing, distribution and sale of food globally.
She interacts with regulators in response to investigations, enforcement actions and recalls in the wake of threatened and actual crises and works with companies proactively to identify strategies to prevent or reduce risks before they arise. Neumann helps her clients build programs to achieve a level of best practice—developing tools such as food safety risk maturity models, robust supply chain risk assessment and management programs and robust recall and crisis management programs—all through an enterprise risk management lens.
Neumann is a graduate of Mitchell-Hamline Law School for her juris doctorate degree, and Michigan State University for her M.S. in food safety. She has worked for multi-national food companies such as Hormel Foods, The Schwan Food Company, private law firms focusing on food law and intellectual property law, was instrumental in launching national food safety risk management practices for Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and boutique consulting firms.
She is an adjunct professor at Michigan State University and Northeastern University, and serves on advisory panels and boards of several notable organizations. Neumann is a frequent speaker on executive liability in food production and food regulations including FSMA regulations. Outside of her profession, she is an avid triathlete, to date completing 25 marathons and six Ironman triathlons.
