Dr. Omar Wali is the founder and President of American Halal Meat. As a wholesale halal meat distributor, he has made it his goal to ensure that Muslims in the Washington metropolitan area have access to affordable, high quality, certified halal meat.

Over the past three decades, Dr. Wali has seen firsthand the controversies surrounding what is halal, what isn’t halal, and what certifications to trust.   He has relied heavily on his degree in veterinary medicine, his experience as an international meat inspector, and his strong faith and belief in Allah to help guide the community in making choices that are good for their faith, and good for their dinner tables.

Dr. Mostafa Eldakdoky joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture in August (USDA) 1980 and FSIS in August 1986. Dr. Eldakdoky was among the first food technologist group hired by FSIS to work in the field at both large and small processing plants as Technologist in charge, in 1990 worked as a labels reviewer and currently as international issues analyst. During the time working with FSIS he has been detailed to Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) for six years, as International Marketing Specialist.

Dr. Eldakdoky has more than 36 years of experience in food safety, and international policy and marketing. He has been involved with international food safety and trade issues, used his combination of technical, language and cultural skills and provided technical, administrative, protocols advice and guidance to top-level managers such as Secretary and deputy secretary of Agriculture, and professionals in USDA, other Government agencies and privet organizations, especially on Middle East Countries.

Dr. Eldakdoky Received 35 Awards among them Deputy Secretary award for his food safety projects, with particular acknowledgment of his creative development of new approaches to technical assistant linking USDA technical skills to international food safety and his outstanding efforts to enhance U.S. market access during WTO Accessions Negotiations with Middle Eastern countries.

Also, Dr. Eldakdoky received Unsung Hero Award, in recognition of his projects in technical assistant, and in his seminars on Halal, the Islamic system of food processing, which emphasized both the importance of customs and communications in doing business in Muslim countries.

He wrote USDA Halal Policy and assisted FSIS in negotiation with Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries officials to have many U.S.  Poultry slaughter process in consistent with Islamic Law which generated a high level of concern among U.S. exporters.

Before coming to USA Dr. Eldakdoky began his career as food technologist and export specialist for the Egyptian Government, managed export and import department and maintained effective relations with importers, representatives of trade organizations, governmental agencies and foreign officials, and cooperated with units/divisions of US AID, FAO, and other UN agencies on matters concerning food safety and international requirements. 

Dr. Eldakdoky has several degrees in food technology, export, marketing and interpersonal communication from Cairo, New York and Taxes A&M universities.

Mr. Quintin Gray, President and CEO, Q. Gray and Associates, has more than 30 years’ experience helping U.S. companies market their food products in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe while serving as Agriculture Counselor at U.S. Embassies. This includes tours in Saudi Arabia as the Agricultural Trade Officer and in Dubai as the Agriculture Counselor. He currently is a Lead Instructor for the Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) in compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), helping food importers and exporters comply with U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations.

He is a highly sought-after speaker on various trade policy issues e.g. speaking on the Importance of International Trade Deals, the Impact of the Trump Administration withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, and on the potential impact of the United States, Mexico, Canada, Agreement (USMCA). He serves on advisory committees at Virginia International University, N.C. Agriculture and Technical State University, and as a Special Adviser for a U.S. Halal Certification Organization. He is fluent in French has some skills in Arabic and German.

Mr. Unger has been involved with accreditation since 1978. He served President since 1996, Vice President of A2LA since 1986 and Associate Manager of Laboratory Accreditation at the National Institute of Standards and Technology) since 1978.

Mr. Unger served as Chair of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) for 2010-2016. He is an author of many papers on accreditation, active participant in the establishment of ISO/IEC standards for accreditation and author of a book on Achieving Accreditation for Your Laboratory, 1992.

Mr. Unger currently consults with accreditation bodies and conformity assessment bodies to help them attain international recognition. Mr. Unger has a BS degree in systems engineering from Princeton University and a Master’s in environmental management from George Washington University.