Future Co-CEOs Cathy Burns of PMA and Tom Stenzel of United Fresh have named seven current association staff leaders as the senior management team for the new combined association to be launched Jan. 1, 2022.

“We’ve looked at where we most want to invest in maximizing member value in the new association and created a staff organizational structure to fulfill that objective,” Burns and Stenzel said. “Each of the following individuals will serve as department leads working with their teams to plan our overall strategies and execute programs and services to serve our members.”

Yvonne Bull

Harland Heath, who had a long produce career on both the buy and sell sides of the industry and co-founded Heath & Lejeune 40 years ago, died in late May after a battle with cancer. He was involved in the Fresh Produce & Floral Council since its inception and was a regular attendee at the council’s events for the past 55 years.

Mr. Heath was a California native from a large family who got his start in retailing as a pre-teen working for a local Southern California grocer. After high school, he worked for several more retailers and then, while only in his 20s, he and a handful of other

SpartanNash Co. announced the appointment of Douglas Hacker as chairman on its board of directors. The announcement follows SpartanNash's appointments of three new executive officers, six vice presidents and 11 directors in 2021, as well as the addition of Tony Sarsam as president and CEO in September 2020.

"This is an exciting, transformational phase for SpartanNash as the company has recently welcomed several new leaders and launched key initiatives for growth and operational excellence," said Hacker. "I am privileged to continue serving on the board and look forward to celebrating the team

Renaissance Food Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Calavo Growers Inc., announced the hire of Nick Georgantas as director of sales for the company, bringing with him more than 15 years of sales experience.

In his role, Georgantas will glean from past experience where he specialized in bringing retail perishable products and programs to the marketplace to drive sales and business development efforts for RFG, focusing his efforts primarily in the Northeast region of the country. In addition, Georgantas will work to foster existing customer relationships while seeking out new customer

Braga Fresh announced several promotions and additions to its sales and marketing team, all designed to support the company’s efforts to meet the growing demand for organic produce.

The company promoted Casey Mills to director of sales.  Mills has been a part of the Braga Fresh sales team for almost five years. He is responsible for management of the Braga Fresh sales team, pricing, inventory and commodity managers.

Brian Amaral, Maria Preciado and Emily Valladares also joined the company’s sales team.  In the past six months, Gabriel Tegenkamp was hired as an account and commodity manager

MyLand Co. LLC hired Jonah Parker as vice president of operational planning. In this role Parker will oversee the development and roll-out of MyLand’s regional Soil Health Center network. The Soil Health Centers are key to MyLand’s soil health mission and will amplify the company’s next stage of growth for a regenerative future.

Parker brings over 20 years of sales, entrepreneurship, and strategic experience to MyLand and is passionate about soil health and assisting growers with regenerative agriculture practices. Prior to joining MyLand, he demonstrated repeated success at growing and