ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS:
Pennsylvania Beef Council (PBC), Bedford, Pa.
Newly elected to the board of directors are Mike Kunsman, owner of Kunsman Beef Farm; Dustin Heeter, owner of Heritage Hill Farms; and George McQuiston, treasurer at Pennsylvania Cattlemen’s Association. Bobbi Dunn, owner of Dunn Farms, will serve as chairman, succeeding outgoing chairman, Darwin Nissley, owner of Nissley Brothers Farm, who led the board from 2016-2017. Chris Jeffcoat, owner of Angus Productions Inc., was elected vice chairperson. David Kearns, Jr., beef processing market representative, will serve as treasurer. And, Adam Kauf, independent dairy nutritionist with Donald Nutritional Consulting, Inc., was named secretary.

American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), Arlington, Va.
Newly elected to the board of directors are Andrew Boyle, co-president, Boyle Transportation; Benjamin McLean, chief executive officer, Ruan Transportation Management; Dennis Nash, chairman and CEO, Kenan Advantage Group; and James Reed, president and CEO, USA Truck. Also, Karen Rasmussen, president and CEO of HELP, Inc., was elected to chair the Research Advisory Committee, replacing Scott Mugno, who was nominated to lead OSHA.

Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, Washington, D.C.
Twenty-seven members were elected to the board; 25 will serve 3-year terms, and two will serve the remaining 1-year portion of vacant positions. Newly elected members are: Bruce Jackson, Lockesburg, Ark.; J. Kent Bamford, Haxton, Colo.; Cliff Coddington, Bradenton, Fla.; Jared Brackett, Filer, Idaho; Phil Perry, Oskaloosa, Kan.; Trista Brown Priest, Satanta, Kan.; Ryan Miller, Bardstown, Ky.; Leon James, Hurdland, Mo.; Turk Stovall, Billings, Mont.; Katie Cooper, Willow Creek, Mont.; Bill Baldwin, Mitchell, Neb.; Jim Eschliman, Ericson, Neb.; Raymond Erbele, Streeter, N.D.; Blayne Arthur, Stillwater, Okla.; Jimmy Taylor, Cheyenne, Okla.; Dick McElhaney, Hookstown, Pa.; Bill Slovek, Philip, S.D.; Jackie White Means, Van Horn, Texas; Jason Peeler, Floresville, Texas; Michael Wayne White, Vernon, Texas; Sean Jones, Massey, Md., Mid-Atlantic unit; Rob Von Der Lieth, Copperopolis, Calif., Southwest unit; Laurie Bryant, Burke, Va., importer; Rob Williams, Chase, Md., importer; Jeffrey Isenmann, Rochester Hills, Mich., importer; Nicholas Brander, Wilmette, Ill., importer (1-year term); and Steven Hobbs, Larkspur, Colo., importer (1-year term). Also, Scott Stuart was named new chief executive officer, effective Feb. 1, 2018, taking over for Polly Ruhland, who served as chief executive officer for six years before accepting a similar position at the United Soybean Board in November. Chief financial officer, Katherine Ayers, has been acting CEO during this transition. Stuart maintains an extensive background in the livestock industry, including board management and as a contractor to the beef board. He currently serves as President and CEO of the National Livestock Producers Association.

National Grocers Association, Arlington, Va.
Molly Pfaffenroth joined as senior manager of government relations, responsible for managing the association’s tax portfolio and assisting in healthcare, trade and nutrition issues. Pfaffenroth began her career as a sales and marketing manager at Fulper Family Farmstead. In 2014, she joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Communications, and worked on federal public policy as a legislative affairs assistant with the International Dairy Foods Association in 2015. Most recently, she served as public policy manager for the National Association for Biomedical Research.

Port of Manatee, Palmetto, Fla.
Manatee County commissioner Vanessa Baugh was re-elected to a second consecutive 1-year term as chairwoman of the Manatee County Port Authority, the governing board of Port Manatee. Baugh, who also was elected in mid-December to a 1-year term as chairwoman of the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization, has served on the Manatee County Port Authority board since 2012. Also elected to 1-year terms as officers are Stephen Jonsson, first vice chairman; Betsy Benac, second vice chairwoman; and Robin DiSabatino, third vice chairwoman.

PROCESSORS/RETAILERS/DISTRIBUTORS:
E S Foods, Woodbury, N.Y.
Scott Benne was appointed to the newly created position of vice president of business development, responsible for expanding the company’s K-12 business and growing other channels. In this position, he will be working with E S Foods' plants, bringing new products to market and helping the sales team to execute product introductions. Benne maintains over 20 years of marketing experience, including expertise in business planning and strategy, P&L management and customer and category marketing. For the past four years, Benne was vice president of marketing and business development at AdvancePierre Foods. From 2005-2013, he held marketing positions at Schwan's Food Co., including senior director of category marketing. Benne also serves on the board of directors for School Nutrition Foundation.

California Dairies, Inc. (CDI), Visalia, Calif.
Van Kramer was appointed senior vice president and CFO, focusing on the cooperatives’ financial, accounting, treasury, information technology and risk management functions. Most recently, Kramer served as chief financial officer for Adams Group Inc. Kramer maintains more than 30 years of financial management experience, including finance, accounting, financial planning, budgeting and analysis for dairy cooperatives and food industry companies alike. Previously, Kramer served as interim CFO for Glanbia Foods, Inc., where he managed finance and accounting functions as it underwent an extensive restructuring project. He also served as manager of cost accounting at Darigold, Inc. and production projects manager and plant controller at Leprino Foods.

CMI Orchards, Wenatchee, Wash.
Doug Culbertson joined as food safety manager, responsible for working closely with food safety managers at the company’s seven packing facilities in Washington to continuously improve food safety initiatives. Culbertson will be assuming the food safety position previous held by Bob Carter, who is retiring early 2018. Previously, Culbertson was quality assurance and food safety manager at National Frozen Foods. 

The Organic Produce Summit (OPS), Salinas, Calif.
Susan Canales was named president of the annual produce event dedicated exclusively to the organic fresh produce industry, responsible for overseeing all exhibitor and sponsor activities, while supporting the various educational components associated with OPS, including a series of field tours with organic fresh produce growers, shippers and processors. Canales has served as director of operations of OPS for the past two years.

Four Seasons Produce, Ephrata, Pa.
Long-time produce industry veterans, Wendell Hahn and Ray Taglialatela, announced plans to retire at the end of December. Hahn started his career with Four Seasons Produce in 1992 following stretches in produce leadership at Grand Union and Food-a-Rama. Upon joining Four Seasons Produce, Hahn was instrumental in helping build a formal program to serve independent retailers and regional chain stores, including the creation of a produce merchandising team to serve customers in the field. During his 25 years with Four Seasons Produce, he has also served in numerous roles, including retail services manager, director of sales, general manager and vice president of business development. He has also served on the board of the Eastern Produce Council for many years. Taglialatela joined Four Seasons Produce as a retail services manager in 2004 after maintaining produce leadership positions at Acme Markets, Genuardi’s Family Markets and Super Fresh.

Limoneira Co., Santa Paula, Calif.
Mark Palamountain was named chief financial officer, treasurer and corporate secretary, effective Jan. 8, 2018, replacing Joe Rumley, who resigned from this CFO position on Sept. 26 after serving in this role since 2010. Palamountain most recently served as Limoneira’s senior director of agriculture operations, and has been with the company since 2012. He has been instrumental in building and managing a deep pipeline of acquisition activities and acquired over 3,000 new acres, created and implemented Limoneira’s “Net Zero” renewable energy portfolio expansion, managed capital growth strategies and acreage redevelopment activities and worked directly with all investor relations activities. Prior to joining Limoneira, Palamountain was founder and CEO of Perpetual Power LLC. From 2003-2008, he served as a managing director, head of Nasdaq trading for Broadpoint Securities, where he was responsible for all trading desk management functions for a team of 25 traders. Between 2001-2003, Palamountain was principal at Thomas Weisel Partners, and from 1997-2001, he was a trader at JPMorgan Chase.  

Grant J. Hunt Co., Oakland, Calif.
Grant M. Hunt, the grandson of company founder Grant J. Hunt, Sr., announced his retirement, effective Jan. 1, 2018. The company’s long-term co-owners, Salvatore Rizzo and Maurice Protzen, are now the owners, with Rizzo being named president and Protzen as vice president. Hunt started his career Grant J. Hunt Co. in March 1980 as a salesperson. Under Hunt’s time as president, the company grew beyond California’s Bay Area, opening offices in the Pacific Northwest, and created a logistics company with offices in Oregon and California. Hunt has also served the produce industry in many different capacities over the years, including chairman of the Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) board in 1999, where he focused on driving consumption for produce and floral, expanding PMA’s global focus, helping members capitalize on a complex business environment and increasing member value through participation.

Land O’ Frost, Inc., Munster, Ind.
Mark Miller was appointed director of brand marketing, tasked with overseeing the growth and profitability of the company’s brands. Miller maintains 16 years’ experience, bringing wide-ranging expertise in brand marketing and product innovation. Previously, he was the director of marketing at Kellogg, responsible for revitalizing the Cheez-It brand and leading the growth development of Pringles. During his career, Miller also launched and grown brands for GlaxoSmithKline, JB Heinz and Ainsworth Pet Nutrition.

FOODSERVICE:
Domino's Pizza, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Joe Jordan, U.S. chief marketing officer, was promoted to executive vice president – international, effective April 2018, responsible for overseeing the company’s leadership team across Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions. As chief marketing officer for the past three years, Jordan helped grow Domino's U.S. business double digits in same-store sales in both 2015 and 2016 and nearly double digits through the first three quarters of 2017. In his time with the Domino's brand, he also led the launch of Domino's Handmade Pan Pizza, Specialty Chicken and salad products as well as the Domino's Marketing Advisory Council and Domino's National Advertising Fund Boards. Meanwhile, Art D'Elia joined as senior vice president - chief brand and innovation officer. Previously, D'Elia was chief marketing officer for Danone Dairy UBN, where he led marketing for Danone in the U.K., Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. D’Elia Art joined Danone U.S. in 2010 as director of marketing, and was named vice president of marketing in 2012, where he led brand marketing for the Oikos, Dannon, Danimals and packaged frozen yogurt businesses. Prior to Danone, he served as senior brand manager for PepsiCo, overseeing the Pepsi-Lipton joint venture. He also brings broad experience in brand management, including creative advertising development, media strategy and agency management and innovation.

SUPPLIERS:
SyncFab Co., San Francisco
Jeff Berwick, Simon Cocking, Peter Moricz and Steven Sprague joined the advisory board. Berwick has been a technology entrepreneur and investor since 1993, when he founded Stockhouse.com. He also founded The Dollar Vigilante in 2010 and became one of bitcoin's most prominent promoters when it was $3 in 2011. Cocking is senior editor at Irish Tech News, editor-in-chief at CryptoCoinNews and freelances for Sunday Business Post, Irish Times, Southern Star, IBM, G+D and other publications. He has advised 18 token sales to date, and is an accomplished public speaker at events, including TEDx, Web Summit and Dublin Tech Summit. Moricz is an investor, founder, mentor to startups and advisor to numerous blockchain token offerings, and mainly focusing on Europe. Sprague is the chief executive officer of Rivetz Corp. and one of the principle industry evangelists for the application of trusted computing technology and cyber security capabilities of modern devices. He maintains a strong technical foundation in the principles, capabilities and business models of incorporating trusted hardware into everyday computing, and is skilled at translating these concepts into laymen’s terms.

Flair Flexible Packaging Corp., Appleton, Wis.
Amanda Zick joined as sales support team leader, tasked with supporting sales, marketing and customer support teams in the ongoing development of programs that facilitate launching new and sustaining existing product lines. Zick maintains over a decade’s experience in customer and sales support, specifically with organizational, analytical and reporting skills, including earning Six-Sigma Green Belt certification for process improvement using the DMAIC Process, 5 Why’s and Root Cause Analysis.

CBRE, Los Angeles
The company’s Supply Chain Advisory practice now includes five experts, responsible for guiding clients in analyzing, designing, optimizing and improving their supply chains. Kelvin Sakai, director of supply chain advisory, specializes in supply chain strategy, supply chain network design, optimization, insource/outsource and business case development. Sakai previously worked for UTi Worldwide, Ernst & Young and Boeing Co. Rohan Patil, manager of supply chain advisory, will focus on project delivery, including advanced data analytics, network design, inventory optimization, transportation optimization, category management and demand planning. He previously worked in supply chain planning and analytics for Schneider Electric and Sysco Corp. Bruce Robertson, senior director and head of EMEA supply chain advisory, joins CBRE in the U.K. to lead CBRE supply chain advisory in EMEA. Robertson specializes in strategic supply chain alignment, 3PL selection, organization design, S&OP and program management. He previously worked in supply chain with LCP Consulting, The Linde Group and Gist Ltd. Shaun Murgatroyd, technical director of supply chain advisory, joins CBRE in the U.K. to support CBRE’s supply chain consulting services in distribution network design, inventory and transportation optimization. He previously worked in supply chain for Llamasoft Inc., S&V Management Consultants and Deloitte Consulting. Christine Miller, senior director of supply chain advisory, will lead the Asia Pacific region. She specializes in strategy development, supply chain solutions design, infrastructure strategy, 3PL selection and continuous improvement. She previously worked in supply chain with XAct Solutions, Damco and Maersk Line.

Northrop Grumman Corp., Falls Church, Va.
Yolanda Murphy was appointed vice president of communications for the company’s technology services sector, succeeding Alleace Gibbs, who will now serve as vice president of communications for the company’s mission systems sector, effective Jan. 1, 2018. In their new roles, Murphy and Gibbs will lead the communications teams of their respective sectors, and will be responsible for the development, integration and implementation of a broad range of communications activities. Murphy currently serves as the director of enterprise communications for Northrop Grumman’s aerospace systems sector, and was previously the director of communications for the airborne C4ISR and space ISR systems division in the mission systems sector. She was also a manager of communications and public relations for the advanced concepts and technologies division in the company’s former electronic systems sector. Gibbs is currently the vice president of communications for the company’s technology services sector. Previously, she was director of employee communications in the company’s former electronic systems sector. Gibbs has also held a number of communications leadership roles during her career.

IN MEMORIUM: E. HUNTER HARRISON, CSX CORP.

E. Hunter Harrison, president and CEO of CSX Corp., Jacksonville, Fla., passed away due to unexpectedly severe complications from a recent illness. 

Jim Foote, chief operating officer, was appointed acting CEO when Harrison was placed on medical leave, shortly before his death.