Lakeside Foods Appoints Three Leaders

May 15, 2023

Mark Smith as CFO, Kevin Lien as Chief Operating Officer and Nick Brisch as Vice President-Supply Chain.

Lakeside Foods, a Manitowoc, Wis., maker of frozen and canned foods, appointed three senior leaders to new positions due the company’s continued growth and business integration of subsidiaries Riverside Foods and Cher-Make Sausage.

Mark Smith has joined Lakeside Foods as Chief Financial Officer, replacing Denise Kitzerow, who is retiring in July. Smith brings 18 years of corporate finance and business leadership experience from Chicago-based Littelfuse Inc., a global manufacturer of electronics components.

Kevin Lien has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. He has been Vice President-Business Development for three years. He previously worked at Welbilt/Manitowoc Foodservice in various leadership capacities.

Nick Brisch was promoted to Vice President-Supply Chain. He joined Lakeside Foods in 2006 as a sales associate before moving into corporate operations.

About the Author

Dave Fusaro | Editor in Chief

Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.