As Land O'Lakes, Inc. continues its strong growth trajectory, the company announced on Dec. 4 the promotions of Beth Ford and Brad Oelmann. Beth Ford will head all Land O'Lakes Businesses and Brad Oelmann will head all Land O'Lakes Services.
"As Land O'Lakes continues to deliver year-over-year record earnings, we are solidifying our management strategy for the future," said Chris Policinski, president and CEO, Land O'Lakes, Inc.
Ford has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, Land O'Lakes Businesses. Her role will expand to include overall responsibility for the WinField United business. In addition, she will continue P&L responsibility for both the Purina Animal Nutrition and the Land O'Lakes Dairy Foods businesses and retain her previous responsibilities for system-wide Supply Chain, Operations and IT. With the evolving omnichannel expectation of consumers and customers, Ford will also lead development of our e-commerce platform. This portfolio enables Ford to make integrated decisions for the company and to respond to market opportunities and challenges with agility.
Since being named the head of the food and feed businesses, Ford has guided successful strategic and financial years. In Feed, she has led record performance both years, leveraged innovation through R&D and amplified the strength of the Purina brand. In Dairy Foods, she has led record growth in Foodservice, and was key in identifying the opportunity and leading the Vermont Creamery acquisition.
Ford joined Land O'Lakes in 2011 from International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF). At IFF, she was responsible for optimizing the company's global manufacturing infrastructure, including consolidation of multiple international facilities, as well as the construction of new manufacturing facilities in India, China and Singapore. Prior to IFF, she held a progression of supply chain and operations management roles with Mobil Corporation, PepsiCo and Pepsi Bottling Company, Hachette Book Group and Scholastic, Inc. Beth earned an MBA from Columbia University Business School and a BBA from Iowa State University.
Brad Oelmann has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, Land O'Lakes Services. Oelmann was named EVP, Member Relations, Business Development Services in the Spring 2017. His new role will bring together all services Land O'Lakes offers to its valuable coop members. In addition to his current responsibilities for Member Services and Business Development Services, Oelmann will add overall responsibility for Land O'Lakes SUSTAIN, Crop Nutrients, FLM Harvest and Government Relations.
In addition to being CEO of both United Suppliers Inc. at a time of exponential growth and Aligned Ag Distributors, a wholesale crop inputs distribution company, he played key marketing roles for United Suppliers and spent a year with United Agri Products (UAP) as director of products and markets. In addition, he spent 13 years with American Cyanamid in various sales, marketing, and management roles. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Ag Business from Iowa State University and grew up on a farm in north central Iowa.
Both promotions are effective Jan. 1, 2018.
