New CFO, VP of Retail Sales Coming Soon to Hormel
There’s been a little executive churn at the top of normally stable Hormel Foods Corp. They’re looking for a chief financial officer and have planned for a transition at group vice president of retail sales.
PHOTO AT TOP: PJ Connor, retiring group vice president of retail sales.
CFO Jacinth Smiley is leaving the company “and will be pursuing other opportunities.” Paul Kuehneman, a 30-year employee and currently a vice president and controller, was immediately appointed interim chief financial officer and controller. The company will conduct a CFO search and will include internal and external candidates in the process.
Over at retail sales, PJ Connor announced he will retire next spring after 30 years with the company. Natosha Walsh, with “only” 26 years at Hormel, will succeed Connor upon his retirement. She’s currently is vice president of retail sales-west.
Connor joined Hormel Foods as a sales representative in 1996. He held various leadership positions including district team leader, director of the Albertsons business team and director of customer development for the central team before being named senior vice president of consumer products sales in 2011. Connor was promoted to president of consumer products sales in 2019 and assumed his current role as group vice president of retail sales in 2022.
Although there has been no formal announcement, CEO James Snee apparently has retired as Hormel ended its fiscal year on or around Oct. 26 -- as the company announced back in June. At that time, Hormel promoted EVP John Ghingo to president, while Jeffrey Ettinger, former chairman and CEO, came out of retirement to serve as interim chief executive officer for 15 months -- to coincide with the end this newly started fiscal year.
Also just this week, the company revealed it was contributing 51% of its Justin's nut butter business to a joint venture with Investment firm Forward Consumer Partners.
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Dave Fusaro
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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.