Daily’s Premium Meats announced that President Kelly Hattan died Sept. 20, 2017, in Chicago, Ill. He was 50 years old. Funeral arrangements are pending.

“With great sadness, we share the news of Kelly’s untimely death. He was a vibrant, passionate man dedicated to Daily’s and its employees and customers. He will be greatly missed, and our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends,” says Terry Holton, president and CEO of Seaboard Foods.

Hattan was appointed president of Daily’s Premium Meats in 2014 when Seaboard Foods sold a 50 percent ownership of the company to Triumph Foods.

Under his leadership, Daily’s Premium Meats experienced substantial sales and production growth, including the construction and opening of a new bacon processing plant located in St. Joseph, Mo., in 2016.

“Kelly exhibited an admirable passion and commitment to the food industry and Daily’s,” says Mark Campbell, president and CEO of Triumph Foods. “With deepest sympathy, we send our thoughts and prayers to his family during this difficult time.”

Hattan joined Seaboard Foods in 2007 as the vice president of sales for Daily’s Premium Meats. He was later named vice president of processed meats for Seaboard Foods to strategically align the processed meats division for continued growth.

Before coming to Seaboard Foods, Hattan served as the director of sales for Tyson Foods from 2002 to 2006, spending time in Chicago, Ill., and Harrisburg, Pa. He joined Doskocil as a regional manager in 1998 and was named the company’s Sales Manager of the Year in 2001.

Before Doskocil, Hattan worked at Hormel from 1990 to 1998, as account executive in Nashville, Tenn., and territory manager in eastern Pennsylvania, covering the Philadelphia and Harrisburg markets. He was a four-time recipient of the Hormel Chairman’s Inner Circle Award for elite sales performance.

Hattan, an avid Green Bay Packers fan, started working in the culinary business at an early age by managing a restaurant at The Shoreline Resort in Gills Rock, Wis., when he was 18 years old.

In 1990, Hattan graduated magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin-Stout with a bachelor’s degree in Hotel & Restaurant Management. As a senior in college, he was recognized with a Salute to Excellence Award, which is presented annually by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) to the top two students in each accredited Hotel and Restaurant Management program nationally.

Daily’s Premium Meats, under Hattan’s leadership, sponsored NRAEF student programming because of the support the NRAEF provided Hattan in developing his food industry career.

A native of Yorkville, Ill., in suburban Chicago, Hattan resided in Overland Park, Kan., and is survived by his wife, Lori, and two daughters, Emily and Abby.

Source: Seaboard Foods