Gleaners Names Board Members, Officers
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGleaners Food Bank of Indiana has elected four new board members. Hod Hefer is the fresh operations manager with Walmart. He began his career as a Sam’s Club hourly associate in Michigan in 2002. Since that time, Hefer has risen steadily in the Walmart/Sam’s Club organization. He serves in key service areas for Sam’s Club, Neighborhood Markets and Supercenters. He is a frequent volunteer at Gleaners and will serve on the operations and food sourcing committee. Hefer’s skills are critically important as Gleaners diversifies food sourcing and evolves to a more complex model of purchased food and greater emphasis on just-in-time supply chain models that revolve around produce and other healthy, nutritious perishable foods.
Laura McCaffrey is public affairs specialist with the Indiana Hospital Association. She supports state and federal legislative efforts at the Indiana Statehouse and on Capitol Hill. Prior to joining IHA in 2016, McCaffrey served five years at Bose Public Affairs Group, where she developed and executed strategy for state and national public affairs campaigns with an emphasis on grassroots advocacy and coalition building to advance public policy. McCaffrey, who is the youngest person to ever serve as a Gleaners board member, represents a new initiative at Gleaners to empower highly talented young leaders in the community who bring solid skills needed in the fight to end hunger – both board and staff.
Yvonne Shaheen is a community leader and retired corporate executive. She is the past president and chief executive officer of the Bright Sheet Metal Co. and Long Electric Co. Since her retirement in 2005, she has been a tireless champion of dozens of community and nonprofit organizations, including board positions for The Arts Council of Indianapolis, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, United Way of Central Indiana, Herron School of Art & Design and WFYI. Shaheen brings a depth of financial stewardship and fund-raising skills to Gleaners at a critically important time of significant transformational change across the hunger relief sector.
Joe Vertin is global portfolio leader, enlist weed control system at Dow AgroSciences. He has global commercial responsibility for the Enlist Weed Control System as well as a portfolio of established herbicide products. Vertin is responsible for business results, long term strategy and management of assets associated with the portfolio of products, working closely with all functions that support the products as well as the marketing, sales, and product development personnel in Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the United States. His corporate experience is a perfect match for his service on Gleaners’ operations and food sourcing committee and strengthens what is already a long history of innovative DowAgrosciences commitment to feeding the hungry.
Newly elected officers for the 2017-18 fiscal year are:
• Chair – Greg Fennig (pictured), vice president of customer experience at Indianapolis Power & Light. He has served in a variety of corporate and nonprofit leadership roles in Indianapolis, often finding himself the right leader at the right time as organizations undergo significant change. Prior to serving as board chair, Fennig chaired the governance and nominating committee and led a significant rebuilding of the board and all governing documents.
• Vice Chair – Georgiana Reynal (pictured), chief advocacy officer at St. Vincent. She brings not only significant leadership experience, but expertise in advocacy and communications at a critical time for the hunger relief community. Reynal is the first vice chair for Gleaners. She will continue to provide strategic leadership as programs and services in support of hunger relief and healthcare converge.
• Secretary – Paul Sinclair is a partner in the labor and employment Group at Ice Miller LLP. He has been a significant contributor, working with staff leadership to raise the level of professionalism and planning, especially around human resources and governance issues. His legal expertise has been very helpful to Gleaners during a prolonged period of building and change and will remain critically important as the business model becomes more complex.
• Treasurer – Chad Mayer is director of Supply Chain at Cummins Inc. He has long represented one of Gleaners most dedicated corporate supporters, Cummins, a source of resources and significant volunteer expertise, especially in Marion and Bartholomew Counties. Mayer previously chaired the development committee and helped rebuild Gleaners’ fundraising capacity.
Former Board officers ending their term at the annual meeting are Jamie Browning (chair), Laurinda Swank (secretary) and John Wortman (treasurer). As immediate past chair, Browning will remain on the board and chair the governance and nominating committee. In addition to outgoing officers, Steve Ferguson of Elanco has completed his board service.