Utz Brands announces leadership changes
Utz Brands, a leading U.S. manufacturer of branded potato chips and salty snacks, recently announced several changes to its executive management team.
The announcements reflect the company’s ongoing process of evaluating capabilities needed in its management team to better position Utz for its next phase of growth.
“As we evolve as a public company, we will continue to enhance Utz’s leadership team to accelerate our ability to grow and strengthen our organization,” said Dylan Lissette, Utz CEO, through a press release. “Our collective goal is to create long-term value for our stakeholders, and we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities for our Power Brands while also enhancing profitability through our value creation initiatives. We believe today’s announcements provide the company with the optimal organizational structure to execute against our strategy, and will best position Utz to deliver on its commitment to be the fastest-growing, pure-play branded salty snack company of scale in the U.S.”
The company announced the following changes to its executive management team:
- Cary Devore has been appointed executive vice president and chief operating officer, a new position within Utz, effective Oct. 4, 2021. Devore is currently the company’s chief financial officer and will continue to report to Lissette. As COO, Devore will work across the organization to help drive revenue growth, productivity and operational excellence. In addition, he will continue to drive the company’s strategic corporate initiatives including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, as well as continue to provide oversight for the project management office, which manages the implementation of value creation and acquisition integration initiatives. Devore joined Utz in 2016 as a board member as part of a minority equity investment into Utz and transitioned to a full-time operational role in 2017.
- Ajay Kataria has been appointed executive vice president and Chief financial officer, effective Oct. 4, 2021. Kataria is currently the Company’s executive vice president of finance and accounting and will report to Lissette. Kataria is a global consumer goods finance leader with more than 20 years of experience. As CFO, he will assume responsibility of accounting, tax and investor relations, in addition to the business partner teams and Information Technology function, that he oversees today. Kataria joined Utz in 2017 and has been instrumental in building out the company’s FP&A, commercial finance and supply chain finance teams, as well as overseeing the IT function, and playing a leadership role in migrating to a new fully integrated ERP infrastructure.
- Jim Sponaugle has been appointed executive vice president and chief people officer, effective immediately. Sponaugle was the company’s previous senior vice president of human resources and personnel development and will continue to report to Lissette. He joined Utz in early 2020 and was instrumental in guiding the company through the COVID-19 pandemic, while he also helped to build the company’s corporate governance and compliance framework as a newly public company.
- Todd Staub, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, has announced his intention to retire effective Jan. 3, 2022. Staub has a tremendous history at Utz, helping to grow the Company over the past 25 years from $100 million in sales to over $1 billion today. Todd’s contributions include controller, chief financial officer, and eventually the promotion to executive vice president and chief administrative officer in 2017.
