CANADA: SunOpta appoints Tetra Pak's Jacobs COO

SunOpta Announces Appointment of Hendrik (Rik) Jacobs as President and Chief Operating Officer


TORONTO, July 3, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Steve Bromley, Chief Executive Officer of SunOpta Inc. ("SunOpta" or "the Company") (Nasdaq:STKL) (TSX:SOY), a leading global natural and organic foods company, today announced the appointment of Hendrik (Rik) Jacobs to the position of President and Chief Operating Officer, effective August 1, 2012. In this role Mr. Jacobs will report directly to Steve Bromley, and assume operational responsibility for SunOpta Foods, the Company's core integrated natural and organic foods business.

Mr. Jacobs brings over 20 years of international sales, marketing, innovation, strategic development and general management experience to this role. Over the past eleven years Mr. Jacobs held a number of progressively responsible positions with Tetra Pak, the world's leading supplier of equipment and materials for the processing and packaging of liquid food products, with revenues of approximately $12 billion in 165 markets worldwide. Most recently Mr. Jacobs served as Cluster Vice President for North Europe with responsibility for the UK, Ireland, Scandanavia and the Baltic States. Prior to this role, he served as Managing Director Benelux with responsibility for the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg, as Vice President of Strategy and Planning with responsibility for setting long term technology and product development strategies, and as Vice President of Sales for Tetra Pak USA. Prior to joining Tetra Pak Mr. Jacobs held a number of international sales, marketing and general management positions with PepsiCo, Royal Dutch Ahold and the Coca-Cola Company. Mr. Jacobs holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the American Graduate School of International Management and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Oregon State University.

Steve Bromley, Chief Executive Officer of SunOpta commented, "I am really excited to welcome Rik to SunOpta.  Rik's extensive international commercial and industry expertise will be very valuable as we continue to expand our commercial development and innovation priorities and align our operating segments to markets and customer segments serviced, rather than by historical product groupings.  Rik will bring a new perspective to these initiatives and play a key role as we continue to build a global leader in natural and organic foods, categories we believe offer excellent long-term growth potential."   

Original source: SunOpta