Dakota, Illinois-based Berner Food and Beverage LLC recently introduced several new members of the company’s leadership team. Kelly Diamond, formerly VP of operations has been promoted to chief operations officer.
David Dunavant has joined the company as CFO and Shelia Kolden has joined as director of procurement, sales and operations planning.
“Kelly Diamond has proved time and again that she is an effective leader and an essential member of the Berner team,” said Kurt Seagrist, CEO. “We cannot wait to see the impact she makes, guiding Berner forward as our new chief operations officer. We are also extremely excited that David Dunavant and Shelia Kolden have also joined our leadership team. They will bring new energy and further support our efforts, as our organization moves into the future as a leading supplier of food and beverage products for our customer and retail partners.”
As COO, Diamond is managing all functional areas of operations, supply chain and mechanical engineering at Berner. Her work as VP of operations, combined with years of experience and knowledge of all the phases of operations, and her commitment to cross-collaboration, have well prepared her to be highly successful in this new role, company officials said.
Before joining Berner in 2017, she spent nearly a decade at Dean Foods. She also brings experience from positions at Woodward Inc. and Anderson Packaging Inc. She earned a bachelor’s degree in technical and scientific communication from Michigan Technical University and an MBA from Northern Illinois University.
As CFO, Dunavant will manage all financial activities of Berner. He has more than 15 years of experience as a CFO, most recently with Vital Records Control Companies. His tenure also includes Monogram Foods, LEDIC Management Group, Hilton Worldwide and Kellogg Company. He also served in the United States Navy.
In addition to becoming a CPA, he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA in finance, insurance and real estate from the University of Memphis.
Berner Food & Beverage is a supplier of shelf-stable, dairy-based food and beverage products to large CPG companies, emerging beverage brands and private label retailers nationwide. For more information, visit bernerfoodandbeverage.com.
