Hormel Foods Corp. announced that Scott Aakre has been named vice president of corporate innovation and new product development and Whitney Velasco-Aznar is joining the company and assuming Aakre’s previous position as vice president of marketing for Grocery Products.

“Scott’s new position will allow him to focus on our corporate innovation processes and new product development,” said Jeffrey M. Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and CEO at Hormel Foods. “We welcome Whitney and look forward to the marketing acumen she will add for our Grocery Products portfolio, which includes the SPAM family of products and Hormel chili.”

Aakre joined the company in 1990 as an assistant product manager in meat products and was promoted to various positions within the department. In 1998, he was promoted to group product manager for meat products. He later assumed the duties of group product manager for Grocery Products and was promoted to director of marketing for the division in 2003 before being named vice president of marketing for Grocery Products in 2005.

Velasco-Aznar has more than 19 years of experience as a consumer goods marketer and business manager. She is currently the marketing controller for Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW), a 50/50 joint venture between Nestlé S.A. and General Mills Inc., in the United Kingdom. Prior to her current position, she was the vice president of marketing and senior marketing manager of the CPW Asian and Latin American regions, respectively.

Source: Hormel Foods Corp.