KANSAS CITY — New hires at Dawn Foods Global, FAT Brands and Bell Flavors & Fragrances, Inc. headline key personnel moves taking place across the food industry. The moves include: 

Jessica Lopez has joined the research and development team at Francis, Wis.-based Wixon as a flavor chemist. Ms. Lopez will be responsible for growing the company’s flavor department capabilities and supporting all the product divisions within Wixon. She has more than 10 years of experience in the flavor industry, most recently at Fona International, where she was a flavorist and R&D flavor lab technician. She began her career as a quality assurance technician at John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology at Loyola University. 

Elsy Ocejo has been named vice president of supply chain at Illes Foods, Carrollton, Texas. Ms. Ocejo previously worked at Bimbo Bakeries USA where she held several positions, including senior manager of supply chain logistics, director of supply chain services and sourcing optimization, and director of supply chain strategy. She began her career in the food industry at the cooking technology company Ceramaspeed where she initially was hired as a logistics and indirect material coordinator before being promoted to a logistic and materials supervisor and then a procurement supervisor and logistics consultant. Ms. Ocejo received a bachelor’s degree in international commerce and international logistics and a master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 

Timothy Busta has been promoted to senior director of the technical center of bakery excellence at Dawn Foods Global, Jackson, Mich. He previously spent more than 36 years at the company’s national technical sales team. 

Manjo Kumbhat has been named global chief technology and information officer at Toronto-based McCain Foods. Mr. Kumbhat first joined the food industry in November 2005 when he became the director of enterprise architecture and large business transformation at PepsiCo. He was then promoted to region chief information officer of all businesses at PepsiCo. Mr. Kumbhat received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Jodhpur and a master’s degree in computer engineering and business administration from West Virginia University. 

Lori Blanco has been named the safety manager of Rise Baking Co., Dallas. Ms. Blanco started her career at Premium Standard Farms where she worked as a safety trainer before being promoted to assistant safety manager. Ms. Blanco held several more positions in the food industry, including safety supervisor at BEF Foods, Inc., safety lead at Wonderful Citrus and regional environmental, and health and safety manager at Tosca. 

Jeff Burrus has joined the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based FAT Brands Inc. as chief supply chain officer. Mr. Burrus first joined the food industry as a director of purchasing at Fox and Hound Restaurant Group, a position he held for 11 years. He later joined Fun Eats and Drinks (FEAD), LLC as senior vice president of supply chain before being promoted to vice president of operations. Other positions that Mr. Burrus has held in the food industry include director of purchasing at Bar Louie, VP of supply chain at On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, and VP of supply chain and quality assurance at Noodles & Co. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and business management from Western Governors University. 

Kristen Wharton, Nelson Serrano-Bahri and Mike Hostetler have been named to new roles at the Chicago-based American Egg Board (AEB). Ms. Wharton has been named director of sustainability at the company’s headquarters. In her new role, she will oversee development and administration of AEB’s sustainability program, which includes high value industry research and education initiatives. Mr. Serrano-Bahri has been named director of innovation at the company’s headquarters. In his new position, Mr. Serrano-Bahri will oversee new product pipeline development and customer relationship building for AEB’s Eggcelerator Lab strategic innovation program and establish the company’s first technical research program so that the company can more effectively work with food technologists and research chefs. Mr. Hostetler has been promoted to vice president of consumer insights at the company’s headquarters. In his new role, Mr. Hostetler will analyze consumer insights for the company’s leadership team. 

Tom Grant and Michael Morrison have joined Bell Flavors & Fragrances, Inc., Northbrook, Ill. Mr. Grant has been named director of integrated business planning and forecasting at the company’s headquarters. In his new role, Mr. Grant will oversee the Northbrook production planning team and lead demand and operations planning processes for the company’s Northbrook and Middletown locations. Mr. Morrison has been named junior flavorist at the company’s headquarters. In his new position, he will help develop flavor projects and create his own flavor profiles for customers. 

Joseph Summers has been named technical sales manager of Kemin Industries, Des Moines, Iowa. In his new role, Mr. Summers will manage sales and business development as he works to optimize profitability for the company and expand its market share in North America. Previously, he spent more than six years working at Life Products Inc. as a territory sales manager and later as a director of poultry R+D. Earlier, Mr. Summers spent three years at Tyson Foods, holding a variety of positions such as operations associate, production supervisor, broiler service tech and general production manager. Mr. Summers received a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, agriculture operations and related sciences from Tennessee Technological University and a master’s degree in animal science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.