LENEXA, KAS. — Bob Klima has been named business development manager for food and beverage at Caravan Ingredients. In this role, Mr. Klima will be responsible for capturing the voice of the consumer to help Caravan Ingredients develop appealing products and programs specifically within food and beverage applications for commercialization. Additionally, he will work to gather intelligence and track customer and marketplace trends in support of Caravan Ingredients’ innovation process.

Mr. Klima has more than 24 years of experience in the food industry, holding positions in R.&D., operations/supply chain and working with sales and marketing in a business development role. Prior to joining Caravan he spent four years in the fresh bakery manufacturing unit at Sara Lee Corp. Earlier, he worked for 18 years at Kraft Foods Inc.

“Bob’s experience and intellectual capital throughout the many functional areas of organizations will help Caravan Ingredients to stay in tune with market driven initiatives that are meaningful to our customer base,” said Jim Wells, director of commercial insights for Caravan Ingredients said. ”We are very pleased that Bob has joined our team, knowing he will help us drive our customer-focused ideas to market.”