Pinnacle Foods names new CEO, among other industry personnel changes
ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS: Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA), Canada Tia Loftsgard was appointed executive director, effective March 21. Loftsgard is an established non-profit manager with leadership experience in the fair trade and cooperative movements in both Canada and the United States. She’s co-founder of Camino (La Siembra Co-operative), and was the company’s director of sales until 2009. Previous to Camino, she was the business development and licensing director for Fairtrade Canada, where she led strategy, built the not-for-profit’s membership base and encouraged sustainable and ethical sourcing standards in North America. In 2013, she moved over to Fairtrade America as its chief operating officer, where she developed advocacy initiatives and grew U.S. market opportunities for small farmers via the Fairtrade model. Loftsgard replaces Matthew Holmes, COTA’s founding executive director, who left the role in January after nine years with the association.
Wisconsin Bakers Association, West Allis, Wis. New directors for the board include Jennifer Bukouricz, pastry chef and owner of Monzu Bakery; Bob Chaffee, owner of Augusta Bakery; Dawn Ebert, owner of Simple Simon Bakery; Tara Nowak, owner of Sweet Lola’s; and Ralf Tschenscher, ingredients sales specialist for Lesaffre Yeast Corp.