ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS:
The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF), Washington, D.C.
Rob Gifford was promoted to president, effective July 1. During Gifford’s tenure at the foundation, its ProStart high school culinary and restaurant management program grew by more than 50%, now reaching 150,000 students nationwide annually. The foundation also introduced a growing array of new programs designed to attract, empower and advance the industry’s workforce. Dawn Sweeney, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, will remain chief executive officer of the foundation. 

ASHRAE, Atlanta
The organization installed new 2019-2020 officers and directors. Darryl Boyce, special advisor to the assistant vice president of finance and administration for Carleton University, was elected president. Elected officers who will serve 1-year terms include Charles Gulledge III, senior mechanical engineer, Environmental Air Systems LLC, was named president-elect; and Michael CA (Mick) Schwedler, applications engineering manager for Trane, was elected treasurer. The newly elected vice presidents entail K. William Dean, regional site operations manager, National Research Council of Canada; Malcolm (Dennis) Knight, owner, Whole Building Systems, LLC; William McQuade, vice president sector services, Air Conditioning, Heating, & Refrigeration Institute; and Farooq Mehboob, principal consultant, S. Mehboob & Co. Consulting Engineers. New directors and regional chairs to serve 3-year terms include Steven Marek, design engineer, Steve Marek, P.E.; Douglas Zentz, associate professor and program coordinator, Ferris State University; Richard Hermans, retired, director of training and advanced applications, McQuay International; Robin Bryant, project manager, B&I Contractors, Inc.; and Apichit Lumlertpongpana, managing director, I.T.C. Co. Ltd. New directors-at-large are Kelley Cramm, senior technical leader, Henderson Engineers; Jaap Hogeling, manager, ISSO; and Ashish Rakheja, director and COO, Aeon.

American Dairy Science Association, Champaign, Ill.
Rafael Jiménez-Flores assumed the role of president. Jiménez-Flores has served as vice president of the organization for the past year, and has been active in many roles with ADSA, including serving as chair of the Milk Protein and Enzyme Committee for 15 years, chair of the Milk Protein and Enzyme Symposium for 8 symposia, director on the board for 5 years, editor of the Journal of Dairy Science’s dairy foods section for 6 years and senior editor for 3 years, member of the Lactation Biology Committee for 2 years as well as past chair. He first became a member of ADSA in 1982. Among his projects at the University of California-Davis, he was involved in cloning milk proteins for structure-function studies and successful production of milk proteins in yeast. Further work involved the cloning, engineering and mammary gland-directed expression of transgenic animals. He continued his work on dairy technology by focusing on milk fat, the milk fat globule membrane and a process for removing cholesterol from butter oil. His first academic position was as assistant professor at the University of Illinois in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, where he was in charge of the dairy chemistry and technology program. He coached the dairy products evaluation team at the University of Illinois, and established relationships with the dairy industry in the production and processing areas. After 5 years at the University of Illinois, he moved to California Polytechnic State University, where he was part of the Dairy Products Technology Center. His areas of research focused on novel methods for dairy processing, characterization of the milk fat globule membrane, surface interactions of milk components and lactic acid bacteria, spore incidence in dairy processing plants and biological activity of milk components. He was part of the outreach effort at Cal Poly for 23 years, where he, together with Phil Tong, taught more than 4,000 people in short courses, including Dairy 101, Cheese Short Course, Artisanal Cheese Making, Cleaning and Sanitation in Dairy Plants, Ice Cream and Milk Powder and Rehydration. As a professor in the dairy science department, he taught Dairy Processing, Introduction to Research for MS students, Sensory Evaluation of Dairy Foods and Dairy Microbiology. He was also the director of the Cal Poly Center for Applications in Biotechnology from 2013-2016. He currently serves as the J. T. “Stubby” Parker Endowed Chair in Dairy Foods at The Ohio State University. Jimenez-Flores holds 6 patents, and has published numerous book chapters and more than 150 peer-reviewed articles covering several aspects of dairy science and technology.

PROCESSORS/RETAILERS/DISTRIBUTORS:
General Mills, Minneapolis
Elizabeth Lempres was elected to the board of directors, effective June 24, serving on the Audit and Finance committees. Lempres will provide strong global consumer products and retail experience from her time advising multinational corporations and leading the consumer goods practice group at McKinsey & Co. She also maintains strategic, financial and risk management expertise. Lempres served as senior partner at McKinsey & Co. until her retirement in 2017. During her 28-year career at McKinsey, she held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility, including senior partner and global leader, private equity and principal investors and senior partner and global leader, consumer sector. Before joining McKinsey, Lempres held positions in engineering-related fields at IBM and General Electric. She currently serves on the boards of Axalta Coating Systems and Great-West Lifeco.

Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, Downers Grove, Ill.
Dean Little was promoted to chief operating officer, where he will continue to have oversight of store operations, new store development, asset protection and food safety, with the added responsibility of the company’s real estate, construction and distribution center operations. Little joined the Fresh Thyme team in 2017, and maintains over 40 years of experience in the industry. He previously served as senior vice president of operations for Price Chopper. Also, Tod Pepin was named chief merchandising officer, tasked with oversight of all merchandising, marketing and pricing. Pepin maintains more than 25 years of experience in merchandising strategy, category management, replenishment and retail operations. Previously, he served as senior vice president of foods merchandising for Meijer, and before that, served as senior vice president of merchandising governance, private brands and business planning for Delhaize America, where he oversaw consistency of execution, performance and accountability across all retail banners.

Renaissance Food Group (RFG), Rancho Cordova, Calif.
Nancy Johnston joined as vice president, produce procurement, effective June 30, where she will drive the company’s procurement initiatives and lead all aspects of the corporate sourcing and regional procurement teams. Johnston maintains 30 years’ experience in the produce industry. Her background includes sales management, purchasing, team building and mentoring, budgeting, relationship building, new product development, marketing and brand development. Prior to RFG, she served as senior sales manager for Sysco Corp., where she launched and managed the new Sysco/FreshPoint brand revitalization. She also held various other roles within Sysco, The Richard Kaiser Co. and TKO Farms Inc. Johnston takes over for Debbie Vest, who is retiring, effective June 30.

Ahold Delhaize, The Netherlands
Raf Van den Heuvel, currently commercial director, was appointed general manager, Albert Heijn Belgium, effective Aug. 1, succeeding Luc de Baets, who is retiring.

FOODSERVICE:
Texas Roadhouse, Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Scott Colosi retired as president, effective June 20. Colosi was hired in 2002 as chief financial officer, and was later promoted to president in 2011. Colosi was instrumental in taking the company public in 2004. Kent Taylor, chief executive and founder of the company, will assume the role of president.

The Wendy’s Co., Dublin, Ohio
Carl Loredo was appointed U.S. chief marketing officer, responsible for all North America marketing efforts for the Wendy's brand. He joined Wendy's in January 2016 as vice president of brand marketing, where he was responsible for brand strategy and product development. In the summer of 2017, he took over creative development and advertising, media buying and social programming responsibilities. Prior to joining Wendy's, Loredo was vice president at The Marketing Arm, where he was responsible for developing strategic plans, communications, digital programming and customer/shopper marketing activations for consumer products, including Bud Light, Dannon Yogurt, Lay's, L’Oréal and Ruffles. He was also the multicultural agency practice lead responsible for positioning, opportunity assessment and new business. Loredo has also served as chief marketing officer of Craftmade, and has held numerous marketing roles at PepsiCo. Meanwhile, Kurt Kane will be promoted to president, U.S. and chief commercial officer, assuming responsibilities for the entire U.S. business, including operations, marketing and R&D. Kane will also continue to lead the company’s digital experience organization. AKane joined Wendy's in 2015, serving primarily as chief concept and marketing officer, and was recently promoted to executive vice president in 2018. And, Abigail Pringle will be promoted to president, international and chief development officer, and will continue to lead the company’s international business, which now includes Canada. She will also continue to lead the global development organization. Pringle joined Wendy's in 2002, and was promoted to chief global development officer and international in 2018. 

Yum! Brands, Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Chris Turner will join as chief financial officer, effective Aug. 8, assuming global responsibility for finance, corporate strategy, supply chain and information technology. Turner most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of PepsiCo, where he led PepsiCo’s retail and e-commerce businesses with Walmart in the United States and more than 25 countries and across PepsiCo’s brands in the beverage, snack and nutrition categories. Prior to leading PepsiCo’s Walmart business, Turner served as senior vice president of transformation for PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay North America business, where he led the optimization of Frito-Lay’s direct-store delivery capability. Previously, he served as senior vice president of strategy for Frito-Lay, where he led the long-term strategic planning processes related to growth acceleration, category expansion and mergers and acquisitions. Turner previously spent more than 13 years at McKinsey & Co., where he served as a partner in the firm’s Dallas, Texas, office. During his time at the firm, he led the North America service operations practice, the restaurant service line and the retail operations team, serving clients in the retail, restaurant, consumer packaged goods, airline, high-tech and media industries.

Famous Dave’s, Minneapolis
KC Glaser was appointed new director of marketing, effective July 8, responsible for the overall marketing calendar and strategy, planning and execution of marketing initiatives and public relations. Glaser most recently served as director of marketing, guest experience with Buffalo Wild Wings, where he oversaw on-premise guest experience, digital content strategy and off-premise (take out, delivery, retail and e-commerce). Before Buffalo Wild Wings, Glaser worked in brand management at International Dairy Queen, where he managed and grew the Blizzard brand.

SUPPLIERS:
Mickey Truck Bodies, High Point, N.C.
Josh Campbell joined as manager of the parts team. Previously, Campbell was damage estimator/outside sales with Ace Truck Body & Trailer Repair, specializing in engine and body repair and painting of tractor-trailer and medium-size trucks. He joined Ace in 2009 as trailer repair technician and also served as work-order representative and parts room manager.

Corvium Inc., Boston
Melody Ge joined as head of compliance, tasked with ensuring the platform and data are in line with regulation and customers' requirements and needs. Ge maintains more than 10 years of experience in food safety and quality, having previously served at Lidl US and SQFI. Ge began her career in R&D and food safety at Beyond Meat. And, Jerry Bishop was named regional sales director, where he aims to leverage his experience and training in HACCP, environmental monitoring programs and PCQI. Bishop maintains a long and extensive career in sales and account management at companies including Miller Brewing Co., Coca-Cola North America and The Campbell Soup Co.

AMF Bakery Systems, Richmond, Va.
Ralf Hartfiel joined as regional account manager for Western United States and Canada. Hartfiel maintains over 20 years of sales and consultancy experience in the baking industry, and aims to develop new business opportunities in sheeting, depositing and laminating applications for artisan bread and rolls, pizza and flatbreads, cakes, pies, pastries and more. Hartfiel is also a trained master baker.

Pelican Products, Inc., Torrance, Calif.
David Morton was selected as regional human resources director for the South Deerfield, Mass., office, responsible for managing tactical HR, delivering on strategic operational goals, leading workforce planning and engaging employees for Pelican’s Eastern region. Additionally, Morton will be tasked with developing collaborative relationships with Pelican’s global HR counterparts, and sharing knowledge and best practices across the organization. Morton maintains nearly 30 years of human resources experience, working in senior positions for Henkel Corp. and The Hartford Financial Services Group.

FoodLogiQ, Durham, N.C.
Maria Burch joined as vice president of customer success to deliver a seamless onboarding experience, offering best practices and supporting customers’ long-term success and outcomes. Previously, Burch served as head of global account management at Digital Turbine, and before that, was vice president of customer success at Teamworks.