SHFM presents awards, names new officers at annual conference

The Society for Hospitality & Foodservice Management (SHFM) presented its annual awards and elected its officers and board for the coming year at its annual conference in Phoenix in mid-September.

Holly Von Seggern, president of HRV Marketing & Consulting, succeeded Bernadette Ventura, senior manager of food and conference services for Health Care Services Corp., as the group’s president at the conference’s closing president’s banquet. Victoria Vega, vice president of operations and business dining for Unidine Corp., was named president-elect and will succeed Von Seggern next fall.

Also at the banquet, the recipients of the 2016 SHFM Awards were revealed. They included Ted Farrand, president/CEO of Cini-Little, who won the Robert Pacifico Award, and Jay Leyden, executive vice president at Aramark Business Dining, who was named the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ventura chose four individuals to honor with the President’s Award, given each year at the outgoing president’s discretion to an individual or individuals who had helped the president in fulfillment of their duties. The honorees this year were Tony Butler, Ron Ehrhardt, Barbara Kane and Mark Maloney.

Ehrhardt is vice president of occupational safety for Compass Group North America while Maloney is a divisional president for the company. Kane is vice president for industry relations with Ecolab, and Butler is president of the FSA Management Group, which manages SHFM’s activities.

Earlier, at the President’s Luncheon, Mark Freeman, senior manager of global employee services for Microsoft, was presented with the SHFM Richard Ysmael Distinguished Service Award.

Officers for the coming year in addition to Von Seggern, Ventura and Vega are Rob Geile of Ali Group (treasurer), Tracy Kelly (SHFM Foundation chair), Tom Newcombe of Corporate Dining (senior associate). The directors are John Bevan of Aramark, Mark Bickford of Sodexo, Linda Femling-Nielsen of Google, Rob Gordon of American Express, Mike Johnston of Tyson Foods, Frank LaRusso of MARS Drinks, Theresa Martinez of Boeing, Jay Leyden of Aramark, Stacey Milliones of Wells Fargo, Tony Morro of JLL and Rick Postiglione of Compass Group.

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]

Follow him on Twitter: @MikeBuzalka