Dan Bena is currently the Director of Sustainability, Health, Safety, and Environment for the international division of PepsiCo, and was formerly the Director of Technical Insight and Communication, where he served as liaison between technical functions, government affairs, public policy, and field operations to develop key messaging to internal and external stakeholder groups. He is now helping to lead the company’s international Sustainability efforts across their beverage and foods operations, serving consumers in nearly 200 countries. Dan serves as Chair of the Washington-based American Beverage Association’s Water Resources Committee, and has been an active participant in various ABA Task Forces. He has been active in the International Society of Beverage Technologists (ISBT), as demonstrated by such offices as past Secretary of the Computer Applications Committee, founder and Chair of the Emerging Scientific Interests Subcommittee, and—most recently—founder and Co-chair of the Subcommittee for Sustainable Development. He recently completed a three-year elected term on the ISBT Board of Directors, and has been presented with the ISBT “Best Paper” Award on two occasions, for papers addressing the environment and sustainable development.
Dan also serves on the Board-sponsored Public Health Committee of the Safe Water Network, which is a not-for-profit organization for which PepsiCo was a founding member, dedicated to providing sustainable community-level solutions to provide safe drinking water in developing economies. Bena is also on the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine, and has served as an Associate Referee for the International Commission on Uniform Methods in Sugar Analysis (ICUMSA), contributed monographs to the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), and reviewed manuscripts for the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CODEX). Dan is also in the Water Core Working Group of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), served as reviewer and contributor to the Agricultural Ecosystems: Facts and Trends white paper from WBCSD, and was a member of the Advisory Board for development of the WBCSD Water Resource Risk Tool, which was launched to great acclaim at Stockholm World Water Week in August of 2007. Bena also serves on the Water Planning Board of the World Economic Forum, and the Steering Committee of the United Nations CEO Water Mandate. In 2009, he was invited by the mayor of his city to serve on a new Sustainability Advisory Board. The city is one of only three nationwide selected to pilot a new sustainability planing tool kit.
Bena has spoken in many venues addressing Sustainable Development, including his recent opening keynote address for the World Brewing Congress in August, 2008 , his presentation to the Corporate Water Footprinting Conference in San Francisco in December, 2008, and his keynote address to the Soap and Detergent Association in January, 2009. In April, 2009, he participated in a provocative panel at the World Bank's Executive Development Program, entitled Inclusive Agribusiness: Fighting Poverty, Hunger, and Malnutrition. Dan enjoys academic guest lecturing, most recently for a "Difficult Dialogs" series at Northwestern University Kellogg School, and an Environmental Careers series at the Columbia University School of International Public Affairs. He has authored chapters for several texts from CRC, Blackwell Science, and Marcel Dekker in the areas of water treatment and chemistry, sanitation, and beverage production. He lives in New York with his wife of 21 years, Diane, a physician, and their dog.
He is a passionate and impactful public speaker serving an eclectic variety of topics. 100% of his speaking honorarium is donated to a variety of non-profit organizations which are dedicated to helping the planet and the people who borrow and depend on it.