JACKSON, MICH. — Dawn Foods has named Melissa Bautista as vice president of manufacturing for North America and promoted Emily Gittins to vice president, global corporate controller.
Ms. Bautista joins the company from Utz Brands Inc., where she was vice president of manufacturing. Earlier, she was area vice president of operations and plant manager for Utz’s Algona, Wash., location. Before that, she spent 11 years at Frito-Lay in a number of supply chain roles. At Dawn Foods, Ms. Bautista will be responsible for building the company’s long-term manufacturing capabilities. She will report to John Schmitz, president, North America.
“Melissa brings deep manufacturing experience to this role, having worked both at the plant management level and at the leadership level overseeing multiple facilities,” Mr. Schmitz said. “Her approach to leadership and industry knowledge is a strong addition to our plant management teams across our five Dawn North America manufacturing locations.”
Ms. Gittins has worked with Dawn Foods for 15 years in a variety of positions, starting as an internal auditor and most recently serving as senior director of financial reporting, accounting standards and policies. Before joining the company, Ms. Gittins worked at the Department of Defense as an inspector general auditor. Ms. Gittins will replace Jean Rauchholz, who is retiring this year.
“Emily has consistently taken on new responsibilities throughout her career at Dawn and has been an integral part of the team's efforts in enhancing our control efforts across the organization,” said Karl Brown, chief financial officer. “I am confident that Emily will continue to strengthen our global finance team, modernize our processes, and be an incredible leader for Dawn.”
