TORONTO — Hendrik Jacobs has been named president and chief operating officer of SunOpta, Inc., effective Aug. 1. He will succeed Tony Tavares, who is leaving the company.

“I am really excited to welcome Rik to SunOpta,” said Steve Bromley, chief executive officer. “Rik’s extensive international commercial and industry expertise will be very valuable as we continue to expand our commercial development and innovation priorities and align our operating segments to markets and customer segments serviced, rather than by historical product groupings. Rik will bring a new perspective to these initiatives and play a key role as we continue to build a global leader in natural and organic foods, categories we believe offer excellent long-term growth potential.”

Mr. Jacobs has more than 20 years of international sales, marketing, innovation, strategic development and general management experience, most recently as cluster vice-president for North Europe at Tetra Pak, a supplier of equipment and materials for the processing and packaging of liquid food products.