Maple Leaf Foods has made some changes on its leadership team in order to better pursue new product innovations and growth opportunities.
SVP of marketing Casey Richards has been promoted to the newly created role of president and chief growth officer. Richards will assume accountability of Maple Leaf’s value-added prepared meats and poultry businesses under one combined organizational unit.
Under Richards’ leadership, Maple Leaf is also establishing a dedicated growth-focused center of excellence called Accelerate. Accelerate will help Maple Leaf unlock new opportunities for growth by bringing together its brand building expertise, data-driven insights and analytics, innovation, new technologies, ecommerce and digital experience.
“With over 20 years of global CPG marketing and management experience, [he] has the insight, expertise and strategic capability to lead our value-added packaged goods business into the future,” says Curtis Frank, Maple Leaf president and COO. “He is a highly accomplished brand marketer, with strong commercial acumen and a history of success in strategy, brand building, innovation and business management.”
Richards was made the company’s SVP of marketing in late 2019 when previous marketing head Adam Grogan was made president of plant-based subsidiary Greenleaf Foods.
Grogan also has a new role: president of alternative protein. He will continue to lead the Greenleaf business, but add responsibility for commercializing and broadening the company’s innovation and investment strategy in a full range of meat protein alternatives.
Patrick Lutfy, currently VP of marketing, is being promoted to fill Richards’ SVP of marketing role.
Elsewhere at the company, Iain Stewart, SVP of operations and supply chain, is being promoted to the newly created role of chief supply chain officer. Under his leadership, Maple Leaf will further refine its manufacturing strategy to leverage its expertise in operations, purchasing, supply chain and engineering into a sustainable competitive advantage. Jumoke Fagbemi, formerly of France’s Airbus, will join Maple Leaf Foods in January as its new SVP of people.
