Background

Tejas Bhatt is currently the Senior Director of Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA) for Chipotle Mexican Grill where he oversees Chipotle’s supplier FSQA and traceability programs. He has interdisciplinary expertise and experience in food safety, computer science, and systems engineering and is passionate about addressing global issues like food security, safety, sustainability, and supply chains. He is also the founder and CEO of the digital food safety consultancy, AdvanTejas. Prior to that, he led the innovation and technology for global supply chain compliance at Walmart, where he applied emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, and IoT to tackle large-scale issues in food safety, responsible sourcing, trade, and sanctions compliance. Prior to joining Walmart, he was the Vice President of Science and Policy Initiatives at the Institute of Food Technologists and the Executive Director of its Global Food Traceability Center. He co-led the traceability pilots conducted by the US FDA under FSMA Section 204. Before entering the world of food safety, Tejas had a career in software development at Purdue University.

Education

BS in Computer Science from Purdue University

MS in Interdisciplinary Food Science from Purdue University

PhD in Systems Engineering from The George Washington University (on-going)