El Segundo, California, U.S.A.-based Chicken of the Sea International and San Diego, California-based Bumble Bee Seafood have each made vice president-level hires.
Chicken of the Sea, which is owned by Samut Sakhon, Thailand-based Thai Union, has appointed Andy Mecs to the role of executive vice president, commercial, with oversight over the company’s sales, marketing, and supply chain departments. Mecs will report to Bryan Rosenberg, the president and CEO of Thai Union North America.
“Andy has more than 17 years of experience in [consumer packaged goods], with the vast majority of his experience all within the seafood sector. His outstanding accomplishments on the commercial side of the business are well-documented,” Rosenberg said. “We believe that with Andy’s experience and vision, he is a tremendous addition to the outstanding team we currently have in place at COSI.”
For the past 10 years, Mecs worked at StarKist, rising from a regional sales manager position to vice president of marketing and innovation. Mecs has a JD and MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.
Chicken of the Sea, StarKist, and Bumble Bee Seafood, are the three largest tuna companies in North America. Besides tuna, Chicken of the Sea also provides salmon, clams, crab, oysters, shrimp, mackerel, kipper snacks, and sardines in cans, cups, and pouches.
On 16 August, Bumble Bee said it had added Connie Cooper Shepherd to its senior leadership team as senior vice president of strategy and business development. Shepherd will be responsible for overseeing the company’s efforts to drive forward new revenue streams, sales, marketing and organizational strategy, and product innovation, Bumble Bee said in a press release.
“Connie’s extensive experience with channel, innovation, and product strategies for household CPGs will be instrumental in optimizing our family of brands to align with continued shifts in consumer behavior,” Bumble Bee President and CEO Jan Tharp said.
Previously, Cooper served as senior vice president of Starbucks’ North American channel business development, vice president of food and grocery at The Hershey Company, and vice president of sales and strategy at Kellogg. For the past seven years, she has worked as president and CEO of Cooper Consulting, a consultancy for strategic business models, go-to-market approaches, and organizational performance optimization.
“I’m so pleased to be joining a team and a company that is committed to rethinking how it sources, produces, delivers, and markets products in order to fulfill a genuine purpose,” Shepherd said. “I can see that this brand is well-positioned for growth and that there is opportunity to continue to improve upon Bumble Bee’s long-term position as a category leader.”
Photos courtesy of Chicken of the Sea International and Bumble Bee Seafood
