Apr 5, 2023

AgroFresh appoints four to leadership positions

AgroFresh Solutions Inc. has made four key appointments to its senior leadership team.

These new leaders will strengthen AgroFresh’s leadership and enhance its capabilities in global operations, manufacturing, information technology, digital solutions and human resources, according to a news release.

“As part of our growth strategy, we have appointed new leaders to our senior team who will bolster our capabilities and enhance our ability to support our customers,” CEO Clint Lewis said in a news release. “As a global company with operations, employees and customers of varying sizes and complexities across the major produce-growing regions, it is imperative that we have leaders with the experience and expertise to both enable our business and to better our ability to enable our customers’ business.

“These new leaders will help strengthen our operations from supply chain and external supplier relationships to direct customer service support; lead our global IT strategy; continue to advance our FreshCloud digital quality platform and help bring the best talent to our organization,” Lewis said in the release. “In addition, our global training and development program will equip our colleagues worldwide with skills needed to be the best they can be in support of our customers.”

The new appointees are:

• Ian Mackellar, chief operations officer
• Claudio Rodrigues, chief information officer
• Bradford Warner, executive director of digital and data business
• Kristi Reinholz, chief human capital officer

Enhancing operations and customer service

MacKellar will lead the Global Operations group and ensure the Company delivers consistent, high-quality products and service that differentiate AgroFresh from the competition to over 3,700 customers worldwide, according to the release. MacKellar has more than 30 years of manufacturing and supply chain experience. Most recently, he was the site leader for Pfizer’s facility in McPherson, Kansas — one of the largest COVID-19 vaccine production facilities. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and has been successful in delivering transformational improvements in operational performance and cost. He has a bachelor’s of science in chemical engineering from Michigan State University.

Strengthening global information tech

Rodrigues will use his 29 years of IT and cybersecurity experience to strengthen the focus and impact of AgroFresh’s global IT strategy. He most recently served as executive director and head of IT for Noven Pharmaceutical. Prior to Noven, Rodrigues had several senior level positions with Stiefel and Pfizer in Corporate IT. He has a bachelor’s of science in computer and information science from The Ohio State University and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.

Expanding focus on digital ag-tech solutions

Warner will lead efforts in the development and execution of a comprehensive digital business strategy and identify new opportunities for AgroFresh to expand its leading end-to-end digital quality inspection platform, FreshCloud, to new regions and in new crops. He has more than 25 years of experience and most recently led the commercial development of agricultural data-as-a-service and ESG offerings for AGI Digital. Warner has a bachelor’s of arts from Truman State University and an master’s degree from Old Dominion University.

Developing top talent globally

Reinholz will lead the global human capital strategies to attract, develop and retain an innovative customer-focused organization to deliver the AgroFresh mission. Most recently, she was the chief people officer for Unilever North America and brings more than 25 years of building high-performing teams and cultures across pharmaceuticals, beauty, and CPG companies. She has a bachelor’s of arts in psychology from Elon University.

“These new leaders complement previous changes that we’ve made to our senior leadership team in the areas of commercial and research and development over the last 18 months,” Lewis said in the release. “We now have our senior team complete to further advance our vision to be the leader in the post-harvest segment of the fresh fruit and produce industry.”

Photo: Bradford Warner, from left, Kristi Reinholz, Claudio Rodrigues and Ian Mackellar. Courtesy AgroFresh