Tom Zatina is 2016 WMU Adrian Trimpe Distinguished Service Award Recipient
For the time and effort he’s devoted to the students of Western Michigan University’s Food/CPG Marketing Program, Tom Zatina, president of McLane Foodservice, Texas, has been awarded the 2016 Adrian Trimpe Distinguished Service Award.
Zatina has been an active member of WMU’s Food/CPG Marketing Advisory Board for 12 years, participating on the conference and industry relations committees. He’s currently vice chair of the board’s Executive Committee.
In accepting the award, at WMU’s 51st Annual Food Marketing Conference, held in Grand Rapids, Mich., April 11-12, Zatina said that it’s really been about what he gets out of working with the Food Marketing program that’s been important to him. “[Working with the FMC is] an outstanding opportunity to serve and give back. I’ve enjoyed helping make the program the best in the country...This is a special meeting, as we have with us the present – and with the students – the future of the industry. Students bring their ideas and vision and execute against it, and that will bring needed change to the industry. It keeps us going and keeps the industry strong.”
The Adrian Trimpe Distinguished Service Award was established in 1996 to honor the memory and achievements of the late Adrian Trimpe, Chairman Emeritus of Distributive Education and founder of the WMU Food/CPG Marketing Program. It is presented annually to individuals who have dedicated extraordinary time and effort to support and enrich the Food/CPG Marketing Program and its students.
Zatina has been with McLane since 2006. His tremendous distribution experience includes positions with Fleming Companies and Bozzuto’s Inc. He also has an extensive human resources and labor relations background. Zatina has served on the board of the Food Industry Alliance of New York State and Food Distributors International.