Baldor Specialty Foods restructures management team

Baldor Specialty Foods has begun a strategic company restructuring plan. The goal of the plan is to unify and simplify the organization, enhance business performance, improve the customer experience, and streamline the roll-out of several key company initiatives, according to Baldor.

“We are launching a comprehensive restructuring plan that reflects the growth Baldor’s experienced over the last year, growth that’s required us to dramatically expand our headquarters facility in Hunts Point and growth that calls for a new structure that will make our business more efficient for our customers,” Baldor CEO TJ Murphy said.

As part of the restructuring plan the following personnel changes and additions have been announced.

PROMOTIONS:

• Gene Mayer is promoted to senior vice president of procurement. He was previously vice president of procurement. Mayer has been responsible for numerous supply chain improvements at Baldor.
• Glenn Messinger is promoted to vice president of branch operations.
  He was previously general manager of Baldor Boston. Messinger has worked in various roles at Baldor for the last 23 years.
• Alan Butzbach is promoted to vice president of New York operations. He was previously vice president of continuous process improvement. Butzbach has been responsible for numerous operations & food safety improvements at Baldor.
• Benjamin Walker is promoted to vice president, sales and marketing. He was previously senior director of marketing & business development. Walker has driven a number of programs at Baldor including the successfully roll out of the company’s initial foray into the grocery retail market with its line of consumer-friendly Urban Roots veggie side kits.
• Thomas McQuillan is promoted to vice president, corporate strategy, culture and sustainability. He was previously director of food service sales and sustainability. McQuillan spearheaded the company’s innovative SparCs program which virtually eliminated all the food waste at the company’s Fresh Cuts operation.
• Jon Hansburg is promoted to director of food service sales. He was previously senior sales executive. Hansburg is an expert in client customer relations and recognized for his ability to spot emerging food trends.
• Kenneth Bower is promoted to director of procurement for commodity vegetable. He was previously a senior buyer. Bower has a keen sense of supply chain logistics and inventory management that’s served the company for the last 14 years.
• Lou Terrulli is to director of procurement for commodity fruit. He was previously director of purchasing. Terrulli has developed special, prosperous relationships with a number of the small growers in Baldor’s network of farms throughout the northeast.
• Emily Murphy is promoted from category specialist manager to director of specialty procurement. After studying baking at the Institute of Culinary Education, Murphy joined Baldor buying and selling specialty foods.
• Patrick Ahern is promoted from buyer to director of pricing. Known as Produce Pat on Baldor’s popular YouTube series, Ahern is an expert on identifying peak produce and quality specialty items.

NEW HIRES:

• Leigh Denardo joins Baldor as Director of Marketing. Denardo hails from Whole Foods Market where she was executive director of marketing for the North East Region.
• Christopher Tella joins Baldor as customer experience manager. Tella was previously a large enterprise senior client advisor for Blue Wolf, an IBM Company.
• Joe Carrico joins Baldor as vice president of human resources & safety.
  Carrico was previously vice president of human resources & safety at Newell Recycling.

“With this restructuring plan, we now have a solid management team that’s ready to take Baldor to its next level of growth,” said Baldor President Michael Muzyk. “This allows me to continue with my board position at United Fresh and its important work, including food safety, Government Policy and getting fruits and vegetables into the hands of children through its school salad bar initiative.”

The new organizational structure goes into effect immediately and comes at a time when the company is about to complete its 100,000 sq. ft. facility expansion at its Hunts Point headquarters. That expansion is expected to create an additional 350 jobs.