ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS/UNIVERSITIES:
CEA Food Safety Coalition, New York
Marni Karlin was named the organization's first executive director. A seasoned public affairs expert with an extensive background in the food and agriculture industry, Karlin will work with coalition members, government agencies and industry experts to develop leading food safety standards for the CEA leafy greens industry. Karlin will also focus on growing the coalition’s membership, managing day-to-day operations and leading all communications and advocacy work. Karlin maintains expertise in policy, communications and law. She previously served as vice president of government affairs and general counsel for the Organic Trade Association, where she represented the interests of the organic food, fiber and agriculture sector in Washington, D.C. There, she developed deep relationships with participants in the organic sector, crafted and implemented government affairs strategies and engaged Congress and federal and state agencies to further those policy goals. Prior to that, Karlin served as counsel to Senator Herb Kohl on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she advised the Senator through engaging with coalitions of government, non-profit and for-profit stakeholders.

MHI, Charlotte, N.C.
The new 2020 chairs and vice chairs terms entail: Mark Longacre, vice chair automatic guided vehicle systems; Gary Frank, chair and Mark Hasler, vice chair of automated storage/retrieval systems; Sebastian Titze, chair; Bhaskar Chopra, vice chair; and Kelly Kamlager, vice chair of conveyor and sortation systems; Amy Blueter, vice chair of ergonomic assist systems and equipment; Jason Looman, vice chair of Electrification and Controls Manufacturers Association; Mark Arthur, president, and Jonathon Martha, vice president of Hoist Manufacturers Institute; Scott Fisher, vice president of Institute of Caster and Wheel Manufacturers; Bob Clark, chair and James Johnston, vice chair of the Lift Manufacturers Product Group; Jerry Eischens, president and Brian Stephens as vice president of the Monorail Manufacturers Association, Inc.; Aaron Conway, chair and Ray Niemeyer, vice chair of The Protective Guarding Manufacturers Association; Bryan Knott, chair and Crystal Parrott, vice chair of The Robotics Group; and John Reichert, executive director and John Ashodian, vice executive director for Solutions Community.

Dairy Council of California, Sacramento, Calif.
New members to the board of directors, effective Nov. 1, are: Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture; Sherrie DeVries, accountant and manager of school tours at Hinkley Dairy; Stacy Heaton, director of communications for California Dairies Inc.; Tyler Ribeiro, dairy farmer at Rib-Arrow Dairy; and Leaine Souza, member relations manager for Land O’ Lakes West region.

Women's Foodservice Forum (WFF), Dallas, Texas
Therese Gearhart was selected to serve as new president and CEO, effective immediately, taking over for Denny Marie Post, who assumed the role following Hattie Hill's retirement in June. Gearhart is an international operations leader with more than 30 years of experience across several industries. She maintains global consumer marketing expertise in complex global markets. A 20-year veteran of The Coca-Cola Co., Gearhart led business units in Latin Center and Southern Africa and spent 6 years working within the North America foodservice business. She was also co-chair and a member of the company's Global Women's Leadership Council, responsible for advising the chief executive officer and executive leadership on strategies to accelerate the development and advancement of female talent.

PROCESSORS/RETAILERS/DISTRIBUTORS/MARKET RESEARCH:
Hormel Foods Corp., Austin, Minn.
Tom Day, executive vice president, refrigerated foods, announced plans to retire at the end of the first quarter fiscal 2020. Day maintains nearly 40 years of strategic leadership to the company. As executive vice president of refrigerated foods, Day led the company’s largest segment as well as numerous subsidiaries and divisions, including Hormel Foods Foodservice, Hormel Deli Solutions, Meat Products, Fresh Pork and Affiliated Businesses, Burke Corp. and Dan’s Prize. During his career, he guided a number of business units to record growth, and was responsible for leading the integration of three recent acquisitions, including Applegate, Fontanini Italian Meats and Sausages and Columbus Craft Meats.  Deanna Brady will succeed Day as executive vice president, refrigerated foods. Brady has led the consumer products sales business since 2015, overseeing the company’s growth strategy and branded portfolio sales in both retail and e-commerce. Brady began her career with Hormel Foods in 1996, and has held various management and leadership positions with the company, including vice president, foodservice sales and group vice president, foodservice, before assuming her current leadership post. Additionally, P.J. Connor, currently vice president and senior vice president, consumer products sales, will advance to Brady’s current role as group vice president and president, consumer products sales. Connor is currently responsible for all sales activities surrounding the Walmart business. He joined Hormel Foods in 1996, and has held various management and leadership posts before assuming his current role in 2011. Tony Hoffman will advance to Connor’s current role as vice president and senior vice president, consumer products sales. Hoffman started his career with Hormel Foods in 1998, and has worked in both refrigerated foods and consumer products sales throughout his career. He assumed his current role in 2015.

New Age Beverages Corp., Denver, Colo.
Julie Garlikov joined as chief marketing officer, effective Nov. 4. Garlikov maintains over two decades of senior level marketing experience with packaged goods companies. Most recently, she served as chief marketing officer for Shaklee, where she reignited growth and drove innovation in products and go-to-market approach. Before that, she was was vice president and global head of marketing for Rodan and Fields, where she was instrumental in scaling the company. Garlikov began her career at Procter and Gamble Co., and has held commercial leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, PepsiCo and Torani.

C&S Wholesale Grocers, Keene, N.H.
Miriam Ort will become the next chief human resources officer, effective Dec. 2, succeeding Asad Husain, who is retiring Dec. 31. Since 2017, Ort has been senior vice president, human resources, Americas at Avis Budget Group. Prior to this, she held positions of increasing responsibility at PepsiCo and Avon Products.

Foremost Farms USA, Baraboo, Wis.
Greg Schlafer will join as president and CEO, effective Dec. 2, following the retirement of Michael Doyle. Schlafer maintains more than 25 years of experience in the food industry. Schlafer most recently served as vice president, food group sales and marketing at J.R. Simplot Co., where he transformed the front-end of the business. Prior to that, he was president of Lamb Weston, where he led 22 potato processing plants in six countries and more than $3 billion in annual sales. Schlafer started his career at General Mills, where he assumed roles of increasing responsibility, including vice president and general manager, bakeries and foodservice division. Schlafer has also served on several boards, including the International Dairy, Deli & Bakery Association and the North American Millers Association.  

Litehouse, Inc., Sandpoint, Idaho
Kelly Prior was promoted to president and CEO, effective immediately. Prior previously served as president, but will now have responsibility of setting the company’s strategic direction and vision. Prior joined Litehouse in 2002 and became chief financial officer in 2005. In 2010, Prior was appointed executive vice president, and took on the role of interim president in 2018 before moving into the president role in February.

Tyson Foods, Inc., Springdale, Ark.
Independent director Dean Banks was appointed president, effective Dec. 20, Noel White, currently president and CEO, will continue as CEO. Banks maintains deep leadership experience and a background in entrepreneurship, innovation and technology. He comes from X, an Alphabet Inc. company (formerly known as Google [x]), where he has been a project lead 2016. He joined the board of Tyson Foods in 2017, and also serves on the board of Vergent Bioscience, where he was previously served as chief executive officer. Prior to that, he was managing partner of SEED Ventures, consultant to Cleveland Clinic Innovations, chief executive officer of Occelerator, senior vice president of business development and strategic marketing at OrthoHelix, co‐founder and CEO of Connective Orthopedics and vice president at Highland Capital Partners. He is a former platoon sergeant and squad leader in the U.S. Marine Corps.

TreeHouse Foods, Inc., Oak Brook, Ill.
William Kelley, Jr., currently senior vice president, corporate and operations finance, was appointed interim CFO, effective immediately, replacing Matthew Foulston, who after a 3-month transition period, will be pursuing other career opportunities. Kelley joined TreeHouse in 2016 as corporate controller. Previously, he served as head of global audit for Kraft Heinz Co., where he worked from 2014-2016. Before that, he spent two years as corporate controller and chief accounting officer at Hillshire Brands, and from 2010-2012, was vice president and corporate controller at USG Corp. He spent the previous 10 years in a variety of increasingly senior finance roles at PepsiAmericas. His earlier career service included key finance and accounting roles at Arthur Andersen and Cargill.

FOODSERVICE:
McDonald's Corp., Chicago
Chris Kempczinski was appointed president and CEO, effective immediately, succeeding Steve Easterbrook, who was terminated for violating company policy. Easterbrook also resigned as a member of Walmart’s board of directors. Kempczinski previously served as president of McDonald's USA, where he was responsible for the business operations of approximately 14,000 McDonald's restaurants in the United States. He first joined McDonald's in 2015, overseeing global strategy, business development and innovation. In that role, he also served the business units and franchisees by identifying new ideas and best practices to accelerate growth. As a result, Joe Erlinger was appointed president, McDonald's USA, taking over for Kempczinski. Erlinger will be responsible for the business operations of approximately 14,000 McDonald's restaurants in the United States. Most recently, Erlinger served as president, international operated markets, with overall responsibility for McDonald's wholly-owned markets outside the United States. He began his McDonald's tenure in 2002, working in strategy and new business development before moving onto regional and international leadership positions around the world. Unrelated to these changes, chief people officer David Fairhurst resigned, effective immediately.

Papa John's International, Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Max Wetzel joined as chief commercial and marketing officer, effective Nov. 18, tasked with overseeing marketing, menu strategy, product innovation, customer experience and a new project management office. Wetzel previously served as vice president, consumer brands and chief transformation officer at PPG Industries. Jim Norberg, the company’s senior vice president, chief of restaurant operations, was named chief operating officer, North America. And, Jack Swaysland was named chief operating officer, international. As a result of the reorganization, Mike Nettles, chief operating and growth officer, and Karlin Linhardt, chief marketing officer, will leave the company to pursue other opportunities. In addition, Joe Smith, chief financial officer, will be leaving the company in 2020 after almost 20 years at Papa John’s.

SUPPLIERS:
Magline, Inc., Standish, Mich.
John Baird was named chief financial officer, responsible for the finance, human resources and information technologies business units. Baird most recently served as vice president of operations and CFO at Paragon Technologies, Inc., where he was responsible for planning, directing and coordinating all financial, support and production operations. Additional experience includes leadership roles with Thermo Vac, Inc. and DAVCO Technology.

GTI, Des Plaines, Ill.
Re-elected to the board of directors for 3-year terms were Adrian Chapman, president and CEO, WGL Holdings, Inc. and Washington Gas, and president, U.S. utilities for parent company AltaGas Ltd.; Arthur Corbin, president and CEO, Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia; Marc Florette, member of the National Academy of Technologies of France; Nickolas Stavropoulos, chief safety advisor, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts; and Kimberly Greene, chairman, president and CEO, Southern Company Gas. Dr. Michael Webber, chief science and technology officer of ENGIE Group, was newly elected to a 2-year term. Furthermore, J. Bret Lane, chairman and CEO, Southern California Gas Co., was re-elected to the office of chair, while Rebecca Ranich, president, Exenico, LLC, was re-elected to the office of vice chair.

Wildeck, Inc., Waukesha, Wis.
Richard Day was appointed chief financial officer, responsible for managing the company’s total financial direction. Day maintains over 30 years of experience in managing various corporate financial operations, including accounting, corporate strategy, reporting and budgeting. Prior to joining Wildeck, Day served as chief financial officer of American Metal Technologies Group and corporate vice president of finance at The Fisher Barton Group. 

Bühler North America, Plymouth, Minn.
Yannick Gaechter, international management trainee-CEO office, was promoted to food application center director, effective Jan. 1, 2020. Gaechter will work closely with the North American regional team to achieve the business and utilization targets for the Food Application Center (FAC). This includes business development, in terms of identifying new potential applications, products, business models and bringing them to market. He will also set priorities for the FAC workflow and manage, coach and support the teams that operate and utilize the FAC and other application centers across the North American region. Gaechter joined Bühler in August 2017 from Hilti Tools, where he worked in the CEO office as a management trainee. Then, in August 2018, he was appointed project manager for the 2019 Bühler Networking Days.

IAM Robotics, Sewickley, Pa.
Supply chain expert advisor Greg Cronin joined the board of directors. Over his career, Cronin has advised and led several companies to the next level of business expansion by identifying key pain points and creating solutions for companies such as AutoStore, Honeywell Intelligrated, Quiet Logistics, Manhattan Associates and McHugh/RedPrairie/JDA, among others. He maintains know-how in both the automated hardware and innovative “smart” software fields.

Danfoss Drives, Baltimore, Md.
Ian Barrie was named new head of sales for the Americas, where he will continue to build and develop strong regional sales channels and verticals within North America and Latin America. Previously, Barrie was head of global key accounts for Danfoss Drives. He maintains an extensive 25-year history with Danfoss, wherein he has held several regional and global positions in sales, marketing and business development. Barrie succeeds Santiago Martin, who has held the position since 2016. Martin plans to relocate to Europe, where he will assume a new position in Danfoss Cooling.

The Allen Lund Co., La Cañada, Calif.
Michael Patrick was promoted to director of business intelligence and analytics, responsible for leading business analysts by creating reports for branch offices, sales teams and support groups, and managing pricing strategy, rate analysis and bid tool. Patrick joined the company in 2018, and has been an account manager, branch manager, and most recently, senior business analyst. He maintains more than 20 years of experience in third-party logistics and supply chain management.

Hazel Technologies, Chicago
Martin Roeder was hired as Latin America sales manager. Roeder maintains more than 20 years of experience in commercial strategy in Latin America. Since 2011, he’s led Spectrum Technologies’ agricultural/horticultural business in Latin America, and before that, led Monsanto’s technology development division in Ecuador, Panama and Peru for more than a decade.

Johnson Controls International plc, Ireland
Brian Stief was named vice chairman and CFO, effective immediately, where he will serve as an adviser to George Oliver, chairman and CEO, and continue his duties as chief financial officer. Stief plans to retire effective Dec. 31, 2020 following the expiration of his previously announced retention arrangement. Stief joined Johnson Controls in July 2010 as vice president, corporate controller, responsible for global finance functions, financial planning and analysis and corporate taxation. He was appointed executive vice president and CFO in 2014.

JLS Automation, York, Pa.
Ken Harding was hired as director of applications engineering and special products, where he will oversee JLS' applications engineering team and work closely with the sales group to optimize the quoting process in addition to product evaluations and identifying solutions to customer packaging challenges. Harding previously spent 15 years in Multivac’s engineering department. After starting in the applications group and pioneering special development projects for the U.S. market, he was promoted in 2007 to director of engineering, where he supported U.S.-based manufacturing and led applications engineering and project management teams for primary and secondary packaging projects. Harding was previously director of engineering and manufacturing for Marlen Research Corp., where he focused on processing and primary packaging systems for meat, poultry, dairy and snack food industries. Prior to that, he was a technical sales and project manager for integrated systems and custom hard automation at Solar Tool & Die Inc.

BW Integrated Systems, a Barry-Wehmiller packaging company, Romeoville, Ill.
Heather Spitler joined as director of culture and people development. Spitler maintains 15 years of experience in human resources, people development and organizational design. She’s also spent the majority of her career with some of North America’s leading manufacturing and industrial companies, where she led human resources teams across multiple manufacturing sites and supported a number of different disciplines for companies like Signode and Ideal Industries Inc.

Menasha Corp., Neenah, Wis.
Michael Waite was appointed to the board. Waite retired from Menasha Dec. 31, 2018 following a 37-year career with the company, including 15 as president of Menasha Packaging Co., LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary. Waite led Menasha Packaging through a period of growth and success, transitioning from a regional corrugated packaging business to an independent retail-focused merchandising and packaging fulfillment and services company. Waite serves on the boards of Bemis Manufacturing Co. and Charter Manufacturing Co.

Spartan Motors, Inc., Charlotte, Mich.
Andrew Anderson was appointed chief information officer, effective immediately, responsible for direct oversight of the infrastructure, security, applications, development and user support functions. For more than 20 years, Anderson has led diverse teams to accelerate annual revenue and mitigate risk using technology. Anderson has led several global automotive companies' technology organizations through acquisitions, rapid organic expansions and restructures. Previously, he was chief information officer for Stant Corp., where he was charged with stabilizing business systems, implementing business-critical cloud-based technology stacks to enable engineering, sales, finance and manufacturing efficiencies while leading a systems consolidation effort to invest in new solutions. Prior to Stant, Anderson served in multiple global technology senior leadership positions at Visteon, where he led the development and launch of a broad portfolio of strategic applications, oversaw acquisitions and divestitures and streamlined the organization's application portfolio. Prior to Visteon, Anderson worked in multiple business roles, including program management, purchasing and supply chain at Ford Motor Co. 

CRB, Kansas City, Mo.
Jason Robertson transitioned into the role of food and beverage market director, tasked with leading the company-wide growth of the food and beverage market by leveraging design, construction and delivery excellence. Robertson maintains more than 20 years of experience in design and construction, with nearly 13 of those years with CRB. He is a member of the Industrial Asset Management Council and Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), Mid-America Region, where he acted as president in 2014. He also served as president of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, Midwest chapter in 2012.