OVERLAND PARK, KAN. — Robert W. Hatch, founder of Cereal Ingredients, Inc. (now CII) and a former executive for General Mills, Inc. and Interstate Bakeries Corp., passed away Jan. 24 in Overland Park at the age of 86.

He was born Sept. 8, 1938, in Hanover, NH, to Winslow Roper Hatch and Clotilde “Dita” Meiggs (Keith) Hatch. He received a bachelor of arts at Dartmouth College, served in the US Army Reserve and received a master’s in business administration from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. 

Hatch joined General Mills in 1963 as assistant product manager and worked his way up the executive ladder. He was executive vice president for the specialty retail, furniture, collectibles and travel business of General Mills from 1979 to 1983. He then became vice president and assistant to the vice chairman of General Mills in 1983, where he was responsible for all non-food consumer product activities accounting for about $2.8 billion in sales. 

Hatch was elected president and chief executive officer of Interstate Bakeries Corp. in May 1984. He took over after Dale C. Putnam resigned, as the company said it wanted a more marketing-oriented CEO.

Hatch founded Cereal Ingredients in 1990 in Leavenworth, Kan. While leading Cereal Ingredients, he also simultaneously led the Great Plains Analytical Laboratory in Kansas City.

Cereal Ingredients initially focused on extruded particulates.

“The original idea was colorful, flavored, bake-stable inclusions, something that the baking and breakfast cereal industries would find useful,” Hatch said in a Feb. 14, 2017, story on bakingbusiness.com.

Cereal Ingredients in 2009 received the Kansas Exporter of the Year award and in 2017 received the Kansas Governor’s Award of Excellence. The Leavenworth-based company rebranded to CII in 2021 and in 2022 opened a facility in St. Joseph, Mo., to make granola and clusters. In its Leavenworth facility, CII makes ingredients such as inclusions and plant proteins.

Outside the baking industry, Hatch and his brother John Hatch, an economist and former Peace Corps volunteer, helped to start FINCA International in 1984. Through micro-lending, FINCA International has helped over 75 million people in over 45 countries. Robert Hatch served as board chair of FINCA until 2021. He also served on the board of regents at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and worked with the Perennial Wheat Project at The Land Institute in Salina, Kan. 

Survivors include his wife Nancy P. Hatch; his children Kristin G. Hatch (Delaina J. Miller) and Robert W. Hatch Jr. (Marian Saksena Hatch); grandchild Bridget Murphy Hatch; siblings John Keith Hatch and Rosita Hatch Hiscox; a nephew and nieces and their families.