Perhaps the last thing Ana Torreblanca expected during the COVID-19 pandemic was to find a renewed sense of spirituality, but that’s exactly what this Mexico City native discovered in those emerging quiet spaces that crept into her life amidst the chaos inflicted on society and business. Forced to work remotely during the pandemic as a […]
Features Food & Beverage
CMI – Hector Del Río
Building infrastructure, laying down electrical grids, producing foods for an international market and providing development opportunities to communities across Central America: It’s an interesting business model developed by Guatemala’s CMI, especially if one considers the business got famous for its fried chicken, says Hector Del Río. But as CMI Foods legal director explains, supporting communities […]
Mariel Picado – FIFCO
As a lawyer, Mariel Picado is accustomed to being a stickler about rules, but as an artist, she loves to break them. Both approaches are necessary to conduct business in a world economy turned upside down by a pandemic. Working as the chief legal counsel for Florida Ice and Farm Company, a publicly traded food […]
Kristy Waterman – DFA Dairy Brands
Milk. It does a body good. But it can be complicated. It spoils 21 days after leaving a dairy, and there are myriad regulations and the challenges in the industry, which has consolidated in recent years. At DFA Dairy Brands, one of the country’s largest milk processors, it helps to have a veteran of the […]
Joseph Longo – Longo’s
Lauren Lacey – The Hershey Co.
She jokes it was a no-brainer to resume her legal career at The Hershey Co., where Lauren Lacey began her second go-around with the famous chocolatier in October 2019. After all, she tells Vanguard on the eve of that anniversary, fringe benefits include Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. But it’s been a sweet deal for all […]
DeeDee Drays – Bellisio Foods Inc.
From a young age DeeDee Drays has always followed her sense of adventure, be it to the jungles of Sumatra or the mountains of Tibet. While a law student at the University of Texas, she even considered joining the Peace Corps after graduation. So it comes as no surprise that her legal career became just […]
Cheree Johnson ‒ McCormick & Company
It started as a stabbing chest pain that kept Cheree Johnson from falling asleep. As a high-powered attorney on the eve of giving a big presentation, she chalked it up to stress, or maybe even nerves. She never guessed she would be 30 minutes away from dying—and leaving behind a husband and two young children. […]
Lori Dobbie – HyLife
From its beginnings as a hog production operation on the plains of Manitoba, HyLife has become a vertically integrated global company serving North America and Asia with exports to more than 20 countries. And though HyLife General Counsel Lori Dobbie has not been with the company since it was founded in La Broquerie in 1994 […]
Melissa Sellers – The Hershey Company
“Gimme a break, gimme a break. Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar! It’s an iconic jingle for an iconic American candy, and almost everyone knows that chocolate covered wafer—just like they know Hershey’s Kisses, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Twizzlers candy. What they don’t know: how to market those products, manufacture […]
