ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS:

The Organic Center, Washington, D.C.
Jessica Shade will serve in the newly created position of director of science programs, responsible for managing ongoing science programs and related communicated activities for the non-profit affiliate science center. She will also provide leadership in research project formulation and management, grant writing and report writing and will assemble and coordinate the Scientific Advisory Panel.

PROCESSORS/RETAILERS:

Flowers Foods, Thomasville, Ga.
Allen Shiver was elected president and CEO, effective May 22. Shiver has 33 years of service with the company. Meanwhile, George Deese, current chairman of the board and CEO, was elected executive chairman of the board, also effective May 22.

The Kroger Co., Cincinnati
Robert Clark was named group vice president of non-perishables. Clark began his career with Kroger in 1985 as a courtesy clerk at Fry's Food Stores. Since then, he has held various leadership positions, including store and district management, as well as in grocery merchandising. In 2002, Clark was promoted to vice president of merchandising at Fry's. In 2010, he was named vice president of operations for the Columbus division before moving into his current position in October 2011.

SkyPeople Fruit Juice, Inc., China
Hongke Xue was been appointed chief executive officer and director, effective Feb. 18, replacing Yongke Xue, who resigned as CEO but will continue his role as the chairman of the board.

Sanderson Farms, Inc., Laurel, Miss.
Five directors were re-elected to 3-year terms—Fred Banks, Jr., partner, Phelps Dunbar LLP; Toni Cooley, president of Systems Electro Coating, LLC; Robert Khayat, retired chancellor of the University of Mississippi; Diane Mooney, retired senior vice president, Southern Living at Home; and Gail Jones Pittman, president, Gail Pittman, Inc. Other directors, whose terms continue to future years, are John Baker, John Bierbusse, Lampkin Butts, Mike Cockrell, Beverly Wade Hogan, Phil Livingston, Charles Ritter, Jr. and Joe F. Sanderson, Jr.

Icicle Seafoods, Inc., Seattle
Amy Humphreys was named president and CEO, effective immediately, succeeding Dennis Guhlke, who resigned. Most recently, Humphreys served as president of Delta Western, Inc.

SUPPLIERS:

Norfolk Southern Corp., Norfolk, Va.
Martin Nesbitt and John R. Thompson were elected directors of the audit/finance and audit/governance committees, respectively, effective Feb. 18. Nesbitt, co-founder of The Vistria Group, a private equity firm, served as president and CEO of PRG Parking Management LLC, and managing director of Green Courte Partners LLC until 2012. Thompson has been a government relations consultant for Best Buy Co. Inc. since October 2012.

Anchor Packaging, St. Louis
Marilyn Stapleton was added to the newly-created position of director of corporate advertising and public relations. Stapleton comes from Dart/Solo, where she served as product manager of take-out packaging since 2010. With more than 30 years’ experience in the packaging industry, she has been an instrumental part of the development and commercialization of a wide variety of products, and has held leadership roles in the evolution of packaging performance characteristics.

Exopack Holding Corp., Spartanburg, S.C.
Jack Knott will return to the company in a full-time capacity as the executive chairman and CEO. Knott previously served as CEO of Exopack from October 2005 to September 2011. During this time, he helped build the company into a global market leader by completing a series of acquisitions and successful integrations, streamlining operations, investing in state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, developing innovative products and generating strong organic growth. In addition, Mike Alger, a member of the board of directors and chairman of the Audit Committee, was named chief financial officer. Alger, currently a group CFO at Sun Capital, has more than 32 years of senior finance and operations management experience.

MOCON, Inc., Minneapolis
Henk van der Meer joined as a microbial detection consultant, responsible for assisting the company in creating a premier distribution network with the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Van der Meer has held several senior food safety diagnostic positions throughout his career, including 23 years as managing director of BioControl B.V., Netherlands.

Norfolk Southern, Norfolk, Va.
Jason Reiner was named assistant vice president industrial development, effective March 1, succeeding Newell Baker, who is retiring. Reiner began as a co-op student in the industrial development engineering department at Norfolk Southern (then Southern Railway) in 1978. Upon graduation, he joined the company’s engineering department in 1982, then transferred into the industrial development department in 1990 as a development engineer and director industrial development in 2008.