ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS:
Idaho Potato Commission, Eagle, Idaho
Produce veteran Mike Krage joined as retail promotion director-Northeast/Midwest, replacing Dave Rhodes, who is returning to his retail roots as director of produce and floral for Fresh Encounter. Krage maintains more than 30 years of retail and wholesale produce industry experience, and will utilize category management, promotions and other marketing support tools to assist category managers and buyers in the Northeast and Midwest. Krage has worked at Supervalu/UNFI, Winn-Dixie and Albertsons, handling everything from operations to sales and merchandising to category management, served as one of the first board members for the Southeast Produce Council and was on the retail board of directors for United Fresh.

California State Board of Food and Agriculture, Sacramento, Calif.
Christopher Valadez, incoming president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, joined the board of directors.

PROCESSORS/RETAILERS/DISTRIBUTORS:
Pete Pappas & Sons, Jessup, Md.
Don Martin was promoted to vice president of sales. As a result, John Garin joined as general manager. Garin maintains 20 years of experience in the produce industry. He’s a third-generation tomato re-packer with experience in project management, analysis and business growth.

The Kroger Co., Cincinnati
Dana Zurcher was named president of the Columbus division, effective May 1, succeeding Dan De La Rosa, who was recently named president of the King Soopers division. Zurcher, currently president of the Dallas division, has been named president of the Columbus division, will oversee 118 stores and more than 21,000 associates throughout central and northwest Ohio, as well as southeast Michigan and the Ohio River Valley. Zurcher began her career with Kroger in 1985 in store management. She served in a number of roles while in the Central division, including store and district management and merchandising. In 2002, she moved to Phoenix as a district manager in the Fry's division. In 2008, she was promoted to director of operations for the Ralphs division. She was then promoted to vice president of operations for the Mid-South division in 2011, and was later named to the same role in 2013 for the Southwest division. In 2015, she was named the first president of the Dallas division, her current role, when the Southwest division was divided into Dallas and Houston. She is also the executive leader of Kroger's Women's EDGE associate resource group, and resides on the boards of the Western Association of Food Chains and the North Texas Food Bank. Tom Schwilke was named president of the Dallas division, effective May 1, succeeding Zurcher. The Dallas division comprises 110 stores across Dallas/Fort Worth, Northwest Louisiana and East Texas. Schwilke maintains 35 years of merchandising and retail leadership experience. Most recently, he was the president and general manager of the NorCal division of Safeway Inc., where he oversaw 283 stores and 35,000 associates. Prior to that role, he held a number of national leadership positions within the company, including president and general manager of perishables and group vice president of produce and floral. From 2008-2010, he was the president and general manager of Safeway Inc.'s Texas division, responsible for overall operations of 111 Tom Thumb and Randalls stores in Dallas, Houston and Austin.

Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), Rosemont, Ill.
Krysta Harden was named executive vice president of global environmental strategy, tasked with driving the dairy checkoff’s environmental sustainability strategy and collaborating with DMI and Innovation Center leadership to define an inspiring vision, strategy and plan forward for U.S. dairy’s environmental commitment. She will also provide executive leadership on the Innovation Center’s Environmental Stewardship Committee. Harden most recently served as senior vice president of external affairs and chief sustainability officer for Corteva Agriscience, an agriculture division of DowDuPont. Before joining DuPont, Harden spent nearly 3 years as deputy secretary for Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, helping to shape food and agriculture policy.

Allen Lund Co., La Cañada Flintridge Calif.
Bob Rose, manager ALC San Francisco, was promoted to vice president produce sales. Rose has been with the company for 33 years. Tracey Lewin, manager ALC Los Angeles, was promoted to vice president brokerage operations. Lewin joined the company over 30 years ago. And, Lenny Sciarappa, manager ALC Boston, was promoted to vice president brokerage operations. Sciarappa has been with the company for 23 years.

BCfresh, Canada
Produce veteran Dawn Gray was elected to the board of directors. Gray is a 40-year veteran in the global produce industry, and has worked with such produce companies as The Oppenheimer Group, Turners and Growers ENZA International, Frieda’s Inc., Vanguard International, The Autenrieth Co., World Wide Fruit (UK), BC Hot House Foods, Central California Orange Growers Cooperative and Sunkist Growers Inc.

Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich.
Amit Banati was named chief financial officer, succeeding Fareed Khan, who announced plans to leave the company, effective July 1. Banati joined Kellogg in March 2012 as president Asia Pacific, and his responsibilities expanded into the Asia Pacific, Africa and Middle East (AMEA) region in July 2018. Under his leadership, AMEA stabilized developed markets, and expanded Kellogg's portfolio and presence in emerging markets. Prior to Kellogg, he began his career in finance at Procter & Gamble, before moving to Cadbury Schweppes, where he was chief financial officer of Cadbury Schweppes Asia Pacific.  Thereafter, he served in a variety of general management roles at Cadbury Schweppes, Kraft Foods and Mondelez. Khan came to Kellogg in February 2017, following stints as chief financial officer at US Foods and United Stationers, as well as in a variety of finance, business and leadership roles at USG Corp. Prior to those experiences, he spent several years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. Khan also played a key role in the completion of the Project K and Zero-Based Budgeting programs, and helped to drive the adoption of a new strategy, which included revitalizing key brands through targeted investment and re-shaping Kellogg's portfolio through mergers and acquisitions. 

Cali’flour Foods, Chico, Calif.
Mike Anderson was named new chief executive officer, following investments from Sunrise Strategic Partners, Trilantic North America and CircleUp Growth Partners. Anderson maintains more than 30 years of experience in consumer packaged goods. He most recently served as head of business development at Factory LLC, and prior to that, served for 16 years as president of NS Sales.

FOODSERVICE:
Eatwith, Paris, France
Ken Frohling will join the team as global head of business development, effective immediately, responsible for developing and expanding partnerships with the travel industry, content and media partners. Frohling maintains more than 25 years of experience in travel and experience-focused business development and sales. Previously, he was vice president of global partnerships for TripAdvisor Attractions, and a member of the executive management team at Viator.com, which was acquired by TripAdvisor in 2014. During his 12-year tenure at Viator.com, he managed an expansive global network of more than 2,000 distribution partners, from major international airlines to online travel agencies and hotel companies. He’s also served as a strategic advisor at Tiqets.com; country manager Americas for Cendant Corp.; director of sales at Atinera; and regional sales manager at Renaissance Cruises.

CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. (CKE), Franklin, Tenn.
The parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s promoted Mike Woida to president of its international division, where he will oversee all international operations for the nearly 1,000 international locations of restaurants spanning 43 countries. A 40-year industry veteran, Woida began his career with Burger Chef Systems in 1976, and continued growth within the company following its acquisition by Hardee’s Food Systems in 1982. Since 1993, Woida has been a senior leader of CKE’s international division, and has been instrumental in the company’s global development.

Brinker International, Inc., Dallas, Texas
Prashant Ranade joined the board of directors. Ranade most recently served as executive co-chairman of the board for Syntel, Inc., which was acquired by Atos S.E. Ranade spent the last 8 years of his career at Syntel, with increasing responsibility from president and CEO to executive co-chairman of the board. Prior to that, he served as president and CEO of Siemens Logistics and Assembly, where he turned the business around through a customer-focused strategy. His career started at Siemens, where he gained experience in R&D, marketing, finance and operations.

SUPPLIERS:
Consolidated Container Co., Atlanta
Patrick Lynch was appointed chief financial officer, succeeding Richard Sehring. Lynch most recently served as executive vice president and CFO of Darling Ingredients, where he was responsible for all aspects of finance operations, as well as managing numerous non-financial areas, including information technology, human resources and communications. Lynch also spent 20 years at Interface, where he assumed progressive responsibility in the finance organization, including as senior vice president and CFO for 15 years of his tenure.

Ryan Cos. US, Inc., Minneapolis
Lisa Kro was named chief financial and administrative officer, taking over for Brian Murray, who was named chief executive officer. Kro will oversee all financial, administrative and fiscal management of the company’s operations, including financial disciplines, accounting, human resources, legal and risk management and information systems. Kro most recently was the co-founder and managing partner of Mill City Capital, where she worked in identifying, executing and managing private equity investment opportunities in core Midwest markets across many industries.

Polypack, Inc., Pinellas Park, Fla.
Richard Gardner was named North American sales division manager, focusing on the dairy industry. Gardner maintains over 10 years of sales experience, expertise and knowledge in capital equipment.

eatsa, San Francisco
Adam Brotman was appointed chief executive officer, effective immediately. Tim Young, former CEO and co-founder, will continue to lead product innovation and technology development as chief technology officer. Brotman most recently served as president, co-CEO and chief experience officer at J.Crew, where he was responsible for launching its first-ever loyalty program. Prior to that, he spent a decade in various leadership roles at Starbucks, where he served as executive vice president of global retail operations and chief digital officer, and was integral in developing and driving much of the company’s best-in-class digital platforms, such as loyalty, mobile apps, mobile payment, mobile ordering, customer data-driven personalized marketing, promoted and social media strategies, digital partnerships and more. He was also responsible for store operations, covering such areas as order fulfillment operations, deployment, store technology operations, labor scheduling and more. Brotman was also co-founder and CEO at PlayNetwork, prior to his time with Starbucks. Brotman maintains deep industry expertise across the restaurant and retail technology industry.

RELEX Solutions, Atlanta
Frank Lord was tapped as chief revenue officer, tasked with overseeing global sales processes and bringing market approaches into alignment to drive growth. He will also assume responsibility for sales, pre-sales, account management, alliances and the sales operations teams. Lord previously served as chief revenue officer for Aptos Retail, where he led the sales, account management and partner alliances teams. During his tenure at Aptos, the company announced growth of over 80%, acquired TXT Retail, added many major retailer customers and expanded into several new markets. Lord maintains over 20 years of leadership in retail software sales and global market experience, especially in the North American and EMEA markets.

FLEXSPACE, Charleston, S.C.
Brendan Jones joined as director of operations, responsible for leading the company’s operational strategy, project management, supplier management (both domestic and international) and management of internal teams. Previously, Jones was at Soft-tex International, where he managed all aspects of the company’s new South Carolina warehouse facility. There, he was the primary architect of the company’s inbound and outbound growth while also managing a 20-plus person team across five functional areas. Jones maintains experience in all aspects of project, operations, vendor and people management. 

Urban Crop Solutions, Miami, Fla.
Tom Debusschere was tapped the new chief executive officer. Co-founder Maarten Vandecruys will continue to lead the R&D division and international business development. Over the last 10 years, Debusschere has led Deceuninck Group and Balta Group.

Food Safety Net Services (FSNS), San Antonio, Texas
Barry Carpenter joined as senior advisor for regulatory affairs and client relations, assisting FSNS customers and their management team in working with FSIS, FDA and trade organizations. Carpenter maintains a wealth of leadership experience from various companies and organizations in the meat industry. Prior to joining FSNS, Carpenter worked for the USDA as senior executive service. Before that, he was named USDA’s deputy administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Livestock and Seed Program. In the area of international marketing, he represented the United States on the United Nations Committee on Agriculture from 1990-2006, and chaired the meetings of the Specialized Section on the Standardization of Meat from 1994-2006. He also served as administrator of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the ISO Subcommittee, and represented the International Meat Secretariat to enhance consumer demand for meat products on an international scale. In 2007, Carpenter was selected as chief executive officer of the National Meat Association (NMA), where he led the merger of NMA with the North American Meat Processors Association to form the North American Meat Association (NAMA) in 2012. In 2014, he led the merger of the American Meat Institute and NAMA to form the North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute). He then became chief executive officer of NMA, NAMA and the Meat Institute, acting as a strong voice with USDA, USTR and Congress on issues affecting the meat industry. He also worked with government regulators on significant issues facing the meat industry, including new food safety regulations, marketing, competition regulations, immigration reform and trade.