Green Giant Fresh Expanding Company & Team
May 25, 2017 | 2 min to read
Salinas, CA — With a focus on its vision of growing next generation healthful foods, Green Giant™ Fresh is expanding its team with innovative thinkers, seasoned veterans and industry experts.
The company added Tom Byrne as vice president of business development, Emery Jones as vice president of planning, and Jared Gill as director of technical operations. In addition, Sandy Amaral has been promoted to vice president of accounting.
Jamie Strachan, chief executive officer of Green Giant Fresh, said “The new hires will play a critical role as the company continues to expand and innovate.” Continuing, “From the overwhelming success of our Cauliflower Crumbles® product—and now new chopped cauliflower line—and a strategically significant acquisition in the Northeast that expanded our national footprint, this last year has been one of tremendous growth. And it has no sign of slowing,” said Strachan. “As we evolve and add continued focus to our innovation strategy, we need the right people in place; and these new additions—along with our existing team members—position our company for the next phase of growth.”
Green Giant Fresh outlines the following roles for several new and promoted team members:
• Byrne, whose prior position was serving as vice president and general manager at Sambraillo Packing, is focused on business development and packaging. As a key area of focus in the Green Giant Fresh strategic plan, Byrne will play a critical role in packaging standardization and innovation along with fostering strategic business relationships.
• Jones, who joins the company from the Silicon Valley technology sector where he oversaw mergers and acquisition strategies, has served as a Green Giant Fresh consultant for nearly a year. Jones is stepping into the newly created vice president of planning role, where he will evaluate and lead new ventures and focus on a variety of continuous improvement strategies.
• Gill, formerly with Dole, has farming in his blood, having grown up in farming operations as the son and nephew of founding members of Growers Express, fresh produce supplier and manager of Green Giant Fresh. In this role, Gill is responsible for engineering, equipment/plant designs, processes and continuous improvement.
• Amaral, who joined the company in 2010 as financial controller, has seen the organization through significant growth and development. In her new vice president of accounting role, she oversees all accounting related functions.
Green Giant Fresh is the number one fresh vegetable brand in North America, offering the most complete line of fresh items covering every major vegetable category with their 200-plus products. As the leading category expert, Green Giant Fresh is committed to providing innovation and leadership in produce aisles one category, and one customer, at a time.
As the only fresh produce brand featuring Box Tops for Education™ clips, Green Giant Fresh has contributed over $2 million to this worthy cause, which benefits America’s K-8 schools nationwide. Box Tops clips can be found on over 100 of their products.
Source: Green Giant Fresh