ST. LOUIS – Following its July announcement that it will relocate and rebuild its Fayetteville, Ill., plant after a January fire destroyed the facility, Deli Star Corp. is announcing promotions and new hires as it plans for the future. The company started making plans in July to build its new production facility within St. Louis, two miles from Deli Star’s Food Discovery Center at City Foundry STL. The rebuild is expected to be completed in early 2022. 

Deli Star has promoted four directors to vice president roles within the company: 

•    Bill Barrows: vice president – people and culture

•    Jeanne Gannon: vice president – food safety and quality

•    Andrew Siegel: vice president – supply chain and finance

•    Mike Weber: vice president – manufacturing operational excellence

The four new vice presidents join Charles Hayes, the company’s longtime vice president – culinary innovation. In addition, Deli Star has also promoted longtime employee, Brett Hanvey, to director of manufacturing.

“Each of these leaders has played a foundational role at Deli Star,” said Justin Siegel, Deli Star chief executive officer. “These promotions represent well-deserved recognition of their leadership and passion to always do more for our partners. While we are proud of our company’s track record of utilizing food science to achieve our fresh, never frozen model, I am acutely aware that you are only as good as the people on the team. I am proud and excited for the future with the strength of this team.”

The company has also hired two new employees. Ian Tan joins the team as controller and Lisa Whealon as director of people and culture.

Tan brings 15-plus years of accounting and global finance experience in both the nonprofit and commercial sectors to his role as controller. Whealon brings 20-plus years of human resources, sales and marketing experience to her new role. She will be responsible for continuing to build Deli Star’s “best place to work” culture, employee experience, recruitment, benefits and compensation, and training and development. She will report to Bill Barrows, vice president – people and culture.

“As we prepare to rebuild both our facility and our team, investing in our current employees is something we view as important as our recruiting and hiring efforts,” said Jennifer Fishering, Deli Star chief of staff. “We are delighted to invest in the people who believe in our mission, vision, and values every day. We look forward to fortifying our future with these dedicated people at the forefront.”