ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS:
The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), Denver, Colo.
Dennis Stiffler, who has served in many volunteer leadership roles for USMEF, was elected chairman, effective Dec. 1. Stiffler is president of Halpern’s Steak and Seafood’s Texas division, and recently retired as chief executive officer of Mountain States Rosen. He maintains 30 years of livestock, meat industry and international marketing experience, and spent 10 years at major universities involved in teaching, research and extension services. During his tenure in academia, Stiffler traveled abroad on numerous occasions representing both USMEF and the U.S. Grains Council in education and market development programs. His first interaction with USMEF was when he was on the faculty at Texas A&M University. He later held various positions in the red meat industry, including the export business. In 2010, as a member of the American Lamb Board, Stiffler was appointed to the USMEF executive committee. Stiffler succeeds Bruce Schmoll, a corn and soybean producer from Minnesota. Meanwhile, Conley Nelson is the new USMEF chair-elect. Nelson is general manager of Smithfield Foods’ hog production division, and served as president of the National Pork Board in 2012-13. Serving as USMEF vice chair is Cevin Jones, who operates Intermountain Beef. The newest USMEF officer is secretary-treasurer Pat Binger, who heads international sales for Cargill Protein Group. A 30-year Cargill employee, Binger first became involved with USMEF more than 25 years ago.

PROCESSORS/RETAILERS/DISTRIBUTORS:
JBS USA, Greeley, Colo.
Tim Schellpeper was hired to oversee the company’s fed beef processing operations, including the Greeley; Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Neb.; and Hyrum, Utah, plants. Previously, Schellpeper served as chief executive officer of Maschhoff Family Foods, which was then owned by GNP Co. (GNP is now owned by Pilgrim’s Pride). Throughout his 25-plus-year career, Schellpeper has held several leadership positions focusing on operational excellence, logistics, sales, marketing and financial performance. He spent more than 21 years at Farmland Foods and Smithfield Foods, rising to become senior vice president of operations at Farmland Foods and president and COO at Smithfield Packing Co. Schellpeper started his career at IBP in 1987.

B&G Foods, Parsippany, N.J.
Bruce Wacha, currently executive vice president of corporate strategy and business development, was promoted to executive vice president of finance and CFO, effective Nov. 27, responsible for overseeing the company’s finance organization and all financial and accounting matters. He will also continue to oversee the company’s corporate strategy and business development, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions and investor relations. Previously, Wacha spent three years as chief financial officer for Amira Nature Foods Ltd. Prior to that position, he spent more than 15 years in the financial services industry at Deutsche Bank Securities, Merrill Lynch and Prudential Securities, where he advised corporate clients across the food, beverage and consumer products landscape. Current interim CFO, Amy Chiovari, will continue in her role as corporate controller.

General Mills, Minneapolis
Chief executive officer Jeffrey Harmening will serve as chairman of the board, effective Jan. 1, 2018, upon the retirement of Ken Powell, chairman of the board. Harmening will continue to serve as chief executive officer, a position he started June 1, when Powell stepped down from the role.

Tyson Foods, Inc., Springdale, Ark.
Stewart Glendinning was appointed chief financial officer, effective Dec. 11, succeeding Dennis Leatherby, who has served as chief financial officer since 2008. Leatherby will stay with the company until April 2018. Glendinning began his career at Molson Coors Brewing Co. in 2005 as chief financial officer, UK, and subsequently held the positions of global CFO, president and CEO, UK and president and CEO, Canada. Prior to that, Glendinning served in senior financial positions with The Hackett Group and KPMG.

ARYZTA AG, Switzerland
Tony Murphy was appointed the company’s first chief people officer, tasked with establishing a strong, focused and centralized human resource function that supports the group’s people, stabilization and strategic growth objectives. Murphy has held a number of senior HR roles with Diageo in the UK and North America; was people capability director and executive president human resources for North America Cadbury in the UK; served as vice president HR snacks and confectionary for Kraft Foods; and vice president HR North America region for Mondelez. He brings deep international, scale experience in HR and business management, and has been centrally involved at a senior level in driving the people, talent, culture change, stabilization, growth agendas and initiatives in market leading companies in the food and beverage sectors internationally over the past 21 years.

SUPPLIERS:
Haskell, Jacksonville, Fla.
William Rudder was promoted to vice president and director of the Livermore, Calif., office, supporting such clients as Constellation Brands, In-N-Out Burger and Impossible Foods, among others. Rudder began his career with Haskell as a construction management intern. Upon graduating college in 2006, he joined Haskell as an assistant project manager and supported projects both in the United States and Latin America. He later served as project manager and senior project manager before taking a role as project director with Haskell’s Beloit, Wis., office, where he was instrumental in integrating the company’s project delivery with expanded process engineering capabilities. In June 2015, Rudder was promoted to director of the Livermore, Calif., where he added more than a dozen full-time staff, expanded opportunities with existing clients and added several new clients. Dave Auchter was promoted to vice president of corporate marketing. Auchter joined Haskell in 2016 as director of business development for the consumer and packaged goods (CPG) group. Within six months, he assumed leadership over all CPG marketing and business development as well as leadership over enterprise-wide corporate marketing. Auchter previously served as executive vice president and COO for a commercial real estate firm, and over his career, has had marketing, communications and business development leadership roles in healthcare, commercial construction and professional sports.

OmniTRAX, Denver, Colo.
Reagan Shanley joined as executive vice president, industrial development group, tasked with coordinating joint OmniTRAX and Broe Real Estate Group (BREG) development opportunities and supporting BREG with initiatives within the real estate investment management business. Shanley maintains more than 27 years of finance, business development, restructuring, investment and portfolio management and consulting experience in the real estate investment industry. Previously, he was senior vice president at Colony Northstar, Inc., and before that, was executive vice president at Capmark Finance, LLC, where he co-managed the restructuring and liquidation of a $2.5 billion portfolio of industrial, condominium, multi-family and office property and loans across the United States. Shanley also spent seven years as a managing director of RBS Greenwich Capital, where he was responsible for business development, origination, structuring, underwriting and portfolio management of over $4 billion of debt and preferred equity investments.

Alfa Laval, Richmond, Va.
Jan Allde was appointed chief financial officer, effective Feb. 1, 2018, succeeding Thomas Thuresson, who is going into early retirement. Thuresson started with Alfa Laval in 1988, and has held several senior financial positions, both in Sweden and abroad. In 1992, he took up the responsibility as chief financial officer on a group level and became a member of the Alfa Laval group management. Previously, Allde was senior vice president and CFO, Americas for the ABB Group. He maintains over 20 years’ experience of financial leadership with ABB, overseeing areas such as public company financial reporting, mergers and acquisitions and financial planning and analysis.

MTC Logistics, Baltimore, Md.
Dennis Rhodes was named chief information officer. Rhodes maintains more than 40 years of experience in the temperature-controlled warehouse industry. He most recently served as chief information officer with DPH Services / Patriot Rail Co., and before that, spent more than 20 years in a similar capacity with Americold Logistics. Throughout his career, Rhodes has integrated sophisticated supply chain technology to help streamline processes and data integration.

KEYES Packaging Group, Wenatchee, Wash.
Produce industry veteran Jeff Burroughs was appointed vice president of business development, tasked with focusing on the avocado, wine and egg industries nationwide, as well as developing new business with an expanded product portfolio. Previously, he was director of sales for Georgia Pacific/Tosca’s produce packaging sales team.

Johnson Controls, Milwaukee, Wis.
John Donofrio was named executive vice president and general counsel, effective Nov. 15, succeeding Judy Reinsdorf, who served in the general counsel role since Sept. 2, 2016, following the merger of Johnson Controls and Tyco. Before the merger closed, she served as executive vice president and general counsel of Tyco from 2007-2016. Reinsdorf is leaving Johnson Controls to be with her family in New Jersey. Previously, Donofrio was vice president, secretary and general counsel at Mars, Inc., and prior to that, held the general counsel and secretary role at the Shaw Group, Inc. and Visteon Inc. Earlier, Donofrio was a partner and trial attorney at Kirkland & Ellis, and worked as Honeywell's vice president intellectual property and deputy general counsel.  He later became vice president and general counsel of Honeywell’s aerospace division. Donofrio is chairman of the nominating and governance committee of FARO Technologies, Inc.