2017 Kettle Award nominees announced

Foursome represents a cross-section of excellence within the industry.

From left, Shawn Askinosie, founder and ceo of Askinosie Chocolate; Sara Clair, director of product development, Brown & Haley; Steve Genzoli, v.p. of quality assurance/research & development, Ghirardelli Chocolate Co.; Kirkland Vashaw, ceo of Spangler Candy Co.

Candy Industry Magazine’s Kettle Awards Committee announced today the list of nominees for the industry’s most prestigious award. The nominees, who were selected based on their accomplishments, activities and contributions to the confectionery industry in 2016, include:

• Shawn Askinosie, founder and ceo of Askinosie Chocolate

• Sara Clair, director of product development, Brown & Haley

• Steve Genzoli, v.p. of quality assurance/research & development, Ghirardelli Chocolate Co.

• Kirkland Vashaw, ceo of Spangler Candy Co.

Each of the nominees for this illustrious award were nominated as determined by the criteria set up for the Kettle Award in 1945. The criteria require superior achievement in the following areas: sales and marketing; education and personnel training; energy and environmental contributions; quality advancement; production and plant improvement; and research and product development.

Candy Industry’s founder and publisher, Don Gussow, established the Kettle Award in 1946. As he explained to readers then, the Kettle Award was meant as “recognition of the contribution for ‘great or good’ of the industry, not only on the part of the person selected for the distinction, but of every member of the confectionery field who has devoted himself in whatever measure to make the business of candy making and selling a more profitable and happier one.”

The chairman and members of the Kettle Committee, which consists of representatives from leading suppliers to the industry, will present the 72nd Kettle Awards at a gala reception on May 23, 2017, during the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago. The event will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the main dining room of the Union League Club of Chicago, 65 W. Jackson Blvd.

All individuals working in or with the confectionery industry are welcomed to attend. For more information on each nominee, visit kettleawards.com.

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With more than 30 years experience in B-to-B reporting, writing and editing — the bulk of which was dedicated to covering the bakery, confectionery and snack industries — Pacyniak has chronicled changes within the food industry since the early 1980s. A Boston University journalism degree graduate, he worked for a variety of publications before joining BNP Media in 1994 as editor of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery magazine. In 2001, he took over as editor-in-chief of Candy Industry until 2018.