Dawn Foods Names COO, Americas
Global bakery manufacturer and ingredients distributor Dawn Food Products Inc. has promoted John Schmitz to the newly created position of COO, Americas. In his new role, Schmitz will continue to lead Dawn’s North America business while also taking on strategic accountability for Latin America. He will continue to be a part of the company’s leadership team and report directly to CEO Carrie Jones-Barber. Schmitz’s latest role positions the company to ramp up growth, grow its market presence and continue its commitment to excellence in the baking industry.
“John has been a driving force behind Dawn’s success in North America, demonstrating exceptional leadership and a clear strategic vision,” said Jones-Barber. “He has built a strong leadership team, delivered outstanding results and helped position us for long-term success. I am confident that his expertise and experience working throughout Mexico and Latin America will drive us to even greater success as he steps into this new role.”
“Dawn has an incredible legacy of leadership in the baking industry, and I look forward to continuing to build on our strong foundation,” noted Schmitz. “Our Latin America business and team are exceptionally strong, and by fostering even closer collaboration between North America and Latin America, we will enhance our ability to serve our customers and deliver even greater value across both regions.”
Reporting to Schmitz, Emilio Castillo will continue as president of Latin America, where his leadership has resulted in the region’s most successful year in company history. In his role, Castillo guides the Latin America business unit, manages its leadership team and is responsible for day-to-day operations for the region. Both executives will retain their places on the Dawn leadership team, offering insights to shape the company’s overall strategy and regional execution.
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With nearly 30 years of experience in the food and beverage and retail sectors, Schmitz has created enterprise value and achieved business results worldwide. He joined Dawn in 2020 as president of North America, in which capacity he oversaw the strategic direction for the region and business results of the North America ingredients business, focusing on product development and nationwide technology projects.
Before he came to Dawn, Schmitz was VP, general manager of Land O’Lakes’ International Business, where he had responsibility for the overall P&L and growth of the company’s business platforms in Europe, Africa and Latin America for 12 years. During his time at Arden Hills, Minn.-based Land O’Lakes, Schmitz helped establish the company as a global enterprise with business operations in Canada, Mexico, South Africa and Kenya.
Schmitz earned a master of business administration from The Tuck School of Business – Dartmouth College and a bachelor of science in accounting from the University of Minnesota.
Based in Jackson, Mich., Dawn Foods partners with more than 50,000 artisanal and retail bakers, foodservice providers. The company manufacturers in 100-plus countries and has nearly 4,000 team members globally.
