KANSAS CITY — New hires at Blommer Chocolate, General Mills and Rudi’s Organic Bakery headline key personnel moves taking place across the food industry. The moves include:

Scott Funk has been promoted to vice president of sales at Chicago-based Blommer Chocolate Co. Mr. Funk has been at the company since August 1987, previously holding the positions of regional sales director and strategic accounts sales manager. Prior to joining Blommer, Mr. Funk was at Sherwin Williams where he worked as a commercial / industrial sales representative and a retail / commercial store manager. Mr. Funk received a bachelor of arts degree in business administration from Franklin University.

Angela Rassi has been named chief marketing officer at Red’s All Natural, Franklin, Tenn. She was most recently a Naturally Minnesota board member for Naturally Network and previously an advisory board member at Lil Bucks Sprouted Buckwheat. Ms. Rassi also worked at John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. as vice president of innovation and later business development and at Groove Capital as an advisory board member, the latter of which has clean food in its portfolio. Other companies Ms. Rassi worked at include General Mills, Inc. where she held a variety of roles such as associate marketing manager of Cheerios, senior associate marketing manager of Yoplait Yogurt Innovation, senior associate marketing manager of Helper Dinner Kit franchise, marketing manager of joint venture startup 8th Continent Soymilk, senior marketing manager of the Old El Paso franchise, senior marketing manager of Go-Gurt, Trix and Yoplait Kids Yogurt, senior marketing manager of Pillsbury franchise innovation, customer and sweet treats, marketing director of future of marketing initiative, senior business unit director of small plant foods (natural and organic) growth acceleration at General Mills, senior business unit director of snacks innovation and category expansion at General Mills, senior business unit director of natural and organic snacks at General Mills, and vice president of Natural Valley US and global bars team captain. Ms. Rassi received a bachelor of arts degree in history and political science from Northwestern University and a master of business administration degree in marketing and strategic management from the Wharton School.

Roxie Simon has been promoted to global indirect sourcing director at General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis. She previously held the position of plant director of the company. Prior to joining General Mills, Ms. Simon was plant director at Ingredion Inc. She previously spent 14 years at General Mills, where she held several positions, including engineer 1 (rotational development program), packaging systems engineer, second shift team leader, first shift team leader and startup manager, continuous improvement leader, manufacturing manager of desserts operations, project (startup) manager and manufacturing manager of east plant. Ms. Simon received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Ryan Straits has been named project manager at Shick Esteve, Kansas City. Prior to joining Shick Esteve, Mr. Straits was a project manager at Barry-Wehmiller Design Group, where he worked on large-scale capital projects that were primarily focused in the consumer products/pet food space. He previously worked at Shick Esteve, where he held a variety of positions, including system engineering associate, project coordinator, assistant project manager and project manager. Mr. Straits was also product line engineer at the food processing equipment manufacturer Marlen International. He received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering technology from Kent State University.

Jon Brown has been named environmental health and science manager at Dawn Foods Global, Jackson, Mich. He received a bachelor’s degree in industrial safety and risk management at Eastern Kentucky University.

William Hidalgo has been promoted to sales director at Amsterdam-based Corbion. He was previously a sales account manager for the company since June 2018 and the manager of technical services for the company (back when it was known as Caravan Ingredien) since May 2013. Other positions that he’s held include technical support manager at AB Mauri Fleischmann’s and production manager at Bimbo Bakeries USA, the latter he held for more than 18 years.

Blanca Alvarado has been promoted to director of manufacturing at Boulder, Colo.-based Rudi’s Rocky Mountain Bakery. She previously held the title of production supervisor for almost 22 years.