ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS:

American National Standards Institute (ANSI), Ann Arbor, Mich.
Kevan Lawlor, president and CEO of NSF International, was elected chair of the board of directors. NSF has a 70-year legacy of developing ANSI standards and offering conformity assessment services for the construction, food, water, health sciences and consumer goods industries. Most recently, Lawlor served as the vice chair of ANSI’s board and chaired its audit committee.Lawlor’s 30 years of leadership at NSF include chief financial officer, senior vice president of food safety and president of NSF International Strategic Registrations (NSF-ISR).

PROCESSORS/RETAILERS/DISTRIBUTORS:

Smithfield Foods, Inc., Smithfield, Va.
Robert Manly IV, executive vice president and chief synergy officer, retired from the company, effective Jan. 30. Manly maintained a distinguished career over four decades in the pork, beef and livestock industries. After working for a variety of other companies, he came to Smithfield to serve as executive vice president of Smithfield Foods from 1986-1996.His roles also included president and COO of Smithfield Packing Co. from 1994-1995 and member of the board of directors. Manly then served as president of Premium Standard Farms for 10 years, later rejoining Smithfield Foods as an executive vice president in 2006.

Sargento Foods Inc., Plymouth, Wis.
Phil Delpierre was appointed vice president of research and development. Delpierre joined Sargento in 2005 as director of research and development with a focus on natural cheese, and was named senior director of research and development in 2014. Before joining Sargento, he worked at Kraft Foods in its desserts, Post cereal and cheese divisions.

Target Corp., Minneapolis
Mike McNamara will assume the role of executive vice president and chief information officer, replacing Bob DeRodes, who is retiring. McNamara will further advance Target’s digital transformation and help Target become a leading omni-channel retailer. He comes from Tesco PLC, where he worked for more than 15 years. In 2011, McNamara was named the global supermarket chain’s chief information officer, and was instrumental in modernizing and advancing Tesco’s IT and supply chain worldwide.

Schwan’s Food Service, Inc., subsidiary of The Schwan Food Co., Bloomington, Minn.
Al Gomez was named vice president, chief customer officer, responsible for sales to K12 schools, colleges and universities, restaurants, healthcare facilities, entertainment venues and contract management customers. Gomez joined the company in 2013 as vice president of sales for national accounts. Previously, he held sales leadership roles at General Mills, Pillsbury and Bama Cos.

OSI Group, Aurora, Ill.
Dr. Kenneth Petersen was hired as senior vice president, quality assurance, food safety and regulatory affairs, responsible for leading OSI’s corporate quality assurance and food safety function and serving as the chair of OSI’s global quality council. Previously, he was president of the division of regulatory compliance at IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group, and was assistant administrator for the office of field operations in the food safety and inspection service (FSIS) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he oversaw an 8,000-person public health workforce conducting inspections, HACCP verifications, recalls and enforcement at 6,200 domestic meat, poultry and processed egg product businesses.

Danish Crown, Europe
CEO Jesper Friis was terminated, effective Feb. 1. Friis joined the company just over two years ago, responsible for pork production, however the company sites an inability to see eye-to-eye on management resulted in an immediate termination. Overall management responsibility was transferred to group CEO Kjeld Johannesen, while the day-to-day management is by other management staff.

SUPPLIERS:

KUKA, Germany
Stefan Lampa will become chief executive officer of KUKA Roboter GmbH and will lead KUKA robotics division. He has been in the robotics business for over 25 years, last serving as global head for robots and applications at ABB. Dr. Christian Schlögel will be taking on the roles of chief technology officer for research and development at KUKA Roboter GmbH and chief technology manager at KUKA AG. Before joining KUKA, Schlögel was global head of software development at Wincor Nixdorf, and maintains over 20 years of experience in software-related fields. Meanwhile, Manfred Gundel will be taking on responsibility for operations management for the global customer services division, bringing more than 25 years of corporate experience to this role. Additionally, Dr. Bernd Liepert was named chief innovation officer, responsible for expanding innovations at KUKA.

JLS Automation, York, Pa.
Karen Bowser was named director of finance and administration, responsible for overseeing accounting, human resources, administration and material control.

KOM International, Canada
Keith Swiednickiwas appointed president and CEO, taking over for Allan Kohl, who moved up as chairman. Swiednicki has been with KOM for over 30 years managing over 500 supply chain projects.

Linx Printing Technologies, UK
John Tierney joined as marketing director, bringing with a wealth of best practice expertise to further strengthen Linx’s extensive distributor network. Tierney maintains extensive experience in business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing roles, and has held a number of marketing and product management positions in technical and engineering companies, most recently at Gilbarco Veeder Root. Ruaridh Nicolson was appointed channel development director. Nicholson maintains over 20 years’ experience in global sales and marketing, having worked for a number of international organizations, most recently as sales and marketing manager for Teknek, an ITW company. John Schmidt takes on the role of channel development manager for EMEA. Schmidt worked for a number of companies, including Xerox and Fujitsu, and was most recently sales manager of EMEA and CIS regions for Ricoh. Lastly, Raghu Vangipuram is the new distribution sales manager for India. He has experience in both sales and service before developing his career in channel management. Previously, he was business development manager for Avery Dennison.

Supreme Group USA, Reston, Va.
James Jaska was appointed new president of Supreme's defense and government Services (DGS) division and CEO of Supreme USA, responsible for ensuring the efficient and effective delivery of DGS contracts worldwide. Jaska has more than 30 years' experience in senior leadership roles for a variety of global enterprises around the world, including Tetra Tech Inc., Honeywell and Alliant Techsystems Inc. Most recently, Jaska spent 10 years with AECOM Technology Corp., where he held a number of senior roles, including group chief executive and president of Americas and government. Meanwhile, Mike Devoto was appointed senior vice president for Supreme's food-related business line, responsible for the expansion of Supreme's contract portfolio, as well as geographic expansion. Devoto has spent more than 20 years in C-level management positions in logistics, supply chain and foodservice organizations such as Theodor WilleIntertrade, Reinhart Foodservice, the IJ company and Kelsan.

Appleton Group LLC, Rosemont, Ill.
Victor Hoang was named director, global project operations, responsible for leading a team of project managers, proposal managers, engineers and administrators responsible for executing large customer projects. Hoang joined Emerson in August 2014 to support project management as part of the Appleton Group Performance team. Prior to working at Emerson, he held positions in project management, project sales, engineering and operations management and product line management with companies such as Eaton Crouse-Hinds, Honeywell Analytics, Draeger Safety and Yokogawa Corporation of America.

Matrix Technologies, Inc., Maumee, Ohio
Greg Pfleghaar, Scott Byrne andGerald Francis were named shareholders.Pfleghaar is department manager in the industrial systems division and a technical expert in plant floor control systems design. Bryne is department manager of the power, instrumentation and controls department. Byrne began his career at Matrix Technologies in 2000, and boasts extensive experience in the design of electrical and control systems in multiple industries, most recently focusing extensively on field network design for a major oil refinery. And, Francis is a senior project manager, maintaining extensive experience in the design of industrial facilities and processes and tasked with managing larger and more complex multi-discipline projects.

Paragon Software Systems, Inc., Dallas
Danvers Dai joined the business development team in Shanghai, working closely with Paragon’s UK team to explore new business opportunities in mainland China. Liz Zheng joined the company’s Dorking-based support team.