Executive Management Bios
Steve Hughes:
Stephen B. Hughes, 56, has been our chairman of the board, chief executive officer and a director since our inception in May 2005. Mr. Hughes served as the sole officer and director of Hughes Consulting, Inc. from 2004 to 2007. From 2004 to 2007, Mr. Hughes served as a director of The Cambridge Group, a leading demand strategy consulting firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. While with Cambridge, Mr. Hughes led or participated in securing new marketing strategy engagements with a number of major consumer packaged goods companies. From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Hughes served first as vice president of sales and then as the senior vice president of marketing and sales for White Wave Foods Company, a division of Dean Foods Company. In June 2004, Mr. Hughes was also named senior vice president of marketing and research and development for Dean Foods' newly formed White Wave division, a $1.1 billion division with brands including Silk, Horizon, International Delight, Land-o-Lakes and Marie's. From 2000 to 2002, he served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Frontier Natural Product, Inc., a privately held cooperative providing distribution services, organic ingredients and spices to the natural foods industry. Mr. Hughes holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science from Denison University and an MBA degree with a concentration in marketing and finance from the University of Chicago. He also serves on the board of trustees for the Alexander Dawson School and as a director of B.F. Bolthouse LLC.
Peter Dray:
Peter Dray, 55, has been the company's executive vice president of operations and product development since May 2007. Mr. Dray is a 19-year veteran of GFA Brands, has more than 30 years of food manufacturing, sales and marketing experience and 25 years as a senior operations executive. Dray has played a central role in building both the Weight Watchers® and Smart Balance® brands. He developed, perfected, and now manages the outsourced manufacturing model that is the cornerstone of the Smart Balance virtual business. Mr. Dray is a graduate of New York University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in food & nutrition. He also received his AAS in food management from the State University of New York at Delhi.
Alan S. Gever:
Alan S. Gever, 56, served as our vice president of financial planning and analysis until January 7, 2008, when he was appointed to be our executive vice president and chief financial officer. Mr. Gever has a broad-based knowledge of the financial, accounting and administrative functions of a business. While serving as our vice president of financial planning and analysis, Mr. Gever was responsible for leading internal planning, financial operations, and investor relations efforts. Mr. Gever served, from 1992 to 1999, as chief financial officer and general manager of the Nabisco Refrigerated Foods Group which sold consumer branded margarine and egg substitute products. In 2000, Mr. Gever founded ShareMax.com, an internet-based provider of strategic sourcing services to the consumer packaged goods industry. From 2001 to 2003 Mr. Gever served as chief financial officer of the Ultimate Juice Company which was, at the time, the nation's largest fresh juice manufacturer with juice brands such as Naked Juice, Orchid Island, and Ziegler's along with Saratoga Spring bottled water. From 2003 to May 2007, Mr. Gever was a principal of Northpointe Consulting Group LLC providing management consulting services to startup and small-cap companies primarily in the food and beverage industry. Mr. Gever received his bachelor's degree in business management from Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
Norman Matar:
Norman Matar, 57, has been our executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary since January 2008. Mr. Matar comes to Smart Balance with 30 years of private practice, the last 20 with Davis & Kuelthau, S.C., where he has been on the board for 12 years. Mr. Matar has extensive experience handling all aspects of corporate legal work with both public and private firms including significant mergers and acquisitions experience. He was the lead attorney in the acquisition of GFA Brands, Inc. by the Company in May 2007. He played a key role in the development of Miller Park in Milwaukee. Mr. Matar attended Marquette University where he received his bachelor's and doctor of jurisprudence degrees.
Terrence Schulke:
Terrence Schulke, 56, has been our executive vice president and chief customer officer since June 2007 and has recently been appointed executive vice president/general manager, commercial operations. Mr. Schulke joined Smart Balance from Schick-Wilkinson Sword, where he most recently served as vice president North America. During Mr. Schulke's five-year tenure there, Schick-Wilkinson Sword outpaced competition in share and profit growth in the highly innovative and hotly contested blades and razor category and posted a 9 percent annual revenue and 22 percent operating income gains. His extensive food industry experience was developed as senior vice president of U.S. Sales at Tropicana Products, a division of PEPSICO. Mr. Schulke is a graduate of State University of New York, College at Buffalo, where he earned his bachelor's degree in communications.
Other information concerning directors, executive officers and corporate governance is incorporated by reference pursuant to Instruction G of Form 10-K from our definitive proxy statement for the 2011 annual meeting of shareholders to be filed with the Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A on or before May 2, 2011.
