Dr. Sylvain Charlebois

Professor, Food Distribution and Policy
Faculty of Management
Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab
Dalhousie University, Canada

Education:

PhD, Université de Sherbrooke (CANADA), 2005
MBA, Université du Québec à Montréal (CANADA), 2002
BComm, Royal Military College (CANADA), 1992

Profile

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, at the same university. He is as well the former Dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded.

Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability. Since 2020, he co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries. The podcast is ranked in the top 10 most listened management podcast in Canada.

Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. He has authored seven books on global food systems, notably one titled Poutine Nation, exploring the journey of the iconic Canadian dish from it’s humble beginning to international success. He has also published over 750 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic and professional publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.

Dr. Charlebois is an editor for the Trends in Food Science Technology journal. He works with many start-ups and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. He conducts policy analysis, evaluation, and demonstration projects for government agencies and major foundations focusing on agricultural policies and community development both in Canada and in development settings. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre’s Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces, in the United States, Brazil, Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, China, Great Britain, Finland and the Netherlands.

Email: sylvain.charlebois@dal.ca
Twitter: @FoodProfessor
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thefoodprofessor