Bell Flavors and Fragrances is pleased to announce several promotions to strategic roles at company Headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois, as well as Middletown, New York. With the new appointments, the international company strengthens its global strategy across key segments such as manufacturing, quality control, finance, culinary, and supply chain management.

Thom Heinz has been promoted to the position of vice president, vendor management and strategic sourcing. In this new role, Thom will lead global vendor management and strategic sourcing initiatives. He will proactively analyze emerging market and industry trends impacting raw material and sourcing strategies. This forward-looking approach will keep Bell F&F ahead of developing market and supply chain issues amid current changes. Thom will collaborate with business development and R&D to identify new approved sources of materials using innovative technologies.

Casey Schallert is the new senior corporate chef at Bell F&F, reporting directly to Chris Warsow, senior director, flavor applications/corporate executive chef. Since joining Bell 3.5 years ago, Casey has served in multiple roles with increasing responsibilities on the Culinary Applications Team. Most recently, Casey worked in the role of corporate chef during which she demonstrated strong commitment to cross-functional teamwork and technical expertise in flavors.

Sabrina Entwistle has been promoted to the role of associate director, quality systems. With the new position, Sabrina’s leadership role grows to include all the quality, continuous improvement, and EH&S activities at the Middletown, New York, facility. A main responsibility of this key leadership position is to continue fostering Bell's culture of continuous improvement at Middletown while embracing change management across all quality-related departments.

Ken Beecher now serves in the role of associate directory, manufacturing. In this new position, Ken’s leadership is expanding to include all the production activities at the Middletown, NY facility. His main focus lies with exceeding customer satisfaction goals while assuring compliance with employee safety, product quality, food safety and defense, regulatory, as well as employee conduct policies and procedures.  

Mike Smith has been promoted to the position of senior director, manufacturing-fragrance at Middletown, NY. Mike will assume additional leadership responsibilities to develop and implement strategies, policies and procedures ensuring that the Middletown facility continues its success in operating effectively and efficiently. He will continue as the Middletown facility leader providing direction and guidance to the on-site team on a day-to-day basis. Mike will oversee continuous improvements at the Middletown facility while guiding change management.

Jake Pupillo has assumed the position of director, manufacturing - flavors at the Northbrook, Illinois, facility. In this role, Jake will assume additional leadership responsibilities to develop and implement strategies, policies and procedures ensuring that the Northbrook manufacturing team embraces change management and operational efficiencies. Jake will continue his responsibilities as the Northbrook manufacturing leader providing direction and guidance to the liquids, spray dry, extractions, dry blending, and reaction teams on a daily basis.

Zig Polak has been promoted to senior manager of material, planning, and logistics - flavors at Northbrook, IL. Zig will assume additional leadership responsibilities to develop and implement strategies, policies and procedures ensuring that the Northbrook warehouse, shipping and receiving teams operate effectively and efficiently through change management. On a day-to-day basis, Zig will continue his responsibilities as the Northbrook material, planning, and logistics leader providing direction and guidance to the warehouse, shipping, and logistics teams.

Mike Barron has received a promotion to the position of senior director, information technology. In this key role, Mike will lead the Bell Flavors & Fragrances in-house IT Technical Team in all activities, including programming, network configuration and support, as well as software evaluation, data security, and integrity. His team also maintains the company’s IT help desk, and helps employees set up and maintain corporate devices such as computers, laptops, and cell phones.

Allan Kaplan is the new vice president, finance, and will lead the accounting team in all activities, including financial statements, accounts receivable/payable, cash management, cost accounting, fixed assets, corporate accounting, and planning & budgeting. He will lead financial analyses of Bell's overall global business and direct the accounting team in annual audit and tax preparation, insuring proper internal controls globally while evaluating pricing levels based on commodity cost movements. Allan will support the Capital Budget and spend process, secure appropriate business insurance, and oversee all other areas within the corporate financial structure.

Theresa Link has been promoted to the newly created position of director of cost accounting. Theresa will lead the financial implementation of Bell's new fully-costed product system. Theresa will also work closely with the operations team to evaluate specific direct labor and overhead costs assignable to each type of product produced. The team will also conduct time and motion studies as appropriate, and establish cost drivers for each product category (machine time, number of production processes, etc.) as the basis of certain cost allocations. She will also use this information to calculate appropriate Labor and Overhead rates to assign to each process.

Brian Enriquez is the new senior manager, finance reporting and pricing at Bell Flavors & Fragrances based in Northbrook. In this role, Brian will continue to lead the pricing process on new products and formulation changes while working closely with R&D. Once the new Cost Accounting System is in place, his focus will switch from multiples of raw material cost to calculating appropriate margins on fully-absorbed product costs, including direct Labor and Overhead.

Madeleine van Overbeek has been promoted to the position of senior financial analyst at the Northbrook facility. In this role, Madeleine will continue to provide analyses of the business in a variety of financial areas. Since joining Bell in 2019, Madeleine has not only performed valuable financial analyses and financial statement work, but also willingly assisted other areas of finance when support was required. 

Wesley Loyas has received a promotion to the role of quality control chemist. In this new role, Wes’ leadership is expanding to include a higher level of responsibility in the Quality Control Department at the Middletown facility with the focus to support the drive to exceed customer satisfaction goals. He is also in charge of assuring full compliance with employee safety, product quality, food safety and defense, regulatory, and employee conduct policies and procedures at the New York facility.

“I am personally very proud to welcome our newly promoted employees to their new titles and roles," said Ron Stark, president & CEO of Bell Flavors & Fragrances. "We are able to promote from within, to fill these globally significant positions, as we continue to focus on growing our corporate learning and talent development. Our investments in learning and development will enable Bell to grow our employee engagement and customer experience with even greater success in the future."

“This new wave of promotions is once again proof that our collaborative and innovation-driven company culture provides the mentorship and education for our team members to grow their personal skills and advance their careers,” said Maureen West, senior director of global human resources of Bell Flavors & Fragrances.