Sargento Foods announced new roles for Rod Hogan and Holly Baumgart on the new platform development team within innovation. Hogan has assumed the role of senior vice president of new platform development, and Baumgart has taken on the position of vice president of new platform development.
Rod Hogan
Since joining the Sargento Family in 1995, Hogan has succeeded in building a best-in-class new product and platform development process as well as a team of focused new product marketers. During his 28-year tenure, he has held a number of roles in new business development as well as research and development, most recently serving as vice president, new platform development. This role required him to lead the identification and development of new growth opportunities across both the consumer products and food service and ingredients divisions. Further, he coordinated the development of annual innovation plans in support of strategic growth objectives.
Hogan has led the charge on an impressive number of new product introductions at Sargento. His leadership has proven instrumental, positioning Sargento to win prestigious awards – such as the Balanced Breaks Cheese & Crackers product line, which recently received a 2022 Nielsen Breakthrough Innovation Award – the company's third in less than a decade.
Holly Baumgart
Baumgart has been an asset to the Sargento Family since 2016 when she joined the team as vice president of information technology. She brings more than 15 years of experience in IT, business development and consulting to her position. In her new role, Baumgart will support the core new platform development product initiatives, including new opportunities related to the recent acquisition of Baker Cheese. Her primary focus will be on the company's long-term vision and specifically, investigating new markets in both natural cheese and other potential growth avenues for Sargento. Prior to accepting her new position, Baumgart served as vice president of strategic planning, leading key corporate initiatives including price commodity management, long-term strategic planning and acquisition strategy.
