Joan Chow joined ConAgra Foods as executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
Cuisine Solutions hired Ronald Zilkowski as chief financial officer and promoted Ronnie Lai from controller to vice president and controller.
General Mills announced a new program to encourage submissions for new processes, packages, ingredients and products from outside inventors and designers. The program, dubbed General Mills Worldwide Innovation Network, invites inventors with patents or patents pending to partner with GM to bring new products to market. However, the company will also consider products from small companies that are already publicly available. Business categories include baking products, cereal, frozen vegetable, pastries, pizzas, snacks, refrigerated and frozen dough and shelf-stable meals. More information is available at www.generalmills.com/win.
Countryside Foods acquired the operating assets of I&K Distributors, a regional specialty food distributor with locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.
Ellen Feeney has been named vice president of responsible livelihood for WhiteWave Foods. Responsible livelihood is a part of the company’s operating principles and includes a commitment to sustainable business practices and showing respect to the environment.
Francesco Leboffe joined the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) as vice president of marketing. He will oversee the promotion and marketing of PMMI’s programs and services. PMMI’s Board of Directors elected several people to serve on the Institute’s Executive Committee for 2007, including Chairman James Anderson and Immediate Past Chairman Robert Risley.
