It's raining Vice President appointments at Dawn Foods, as the bakery name has announced two additions to its North American leadership team. Recently, Ahmet Hepdogan joined the team as VP of Procurement, North America and Josh Bruketta was promoted to VP of People, North America.
Hepdogan will take over for John Wolf who plans to retire in March 2023, a release stated. In this new role, he will lead Dawn's regional procurement team, working on contract strategies and negotiations while identifying innovative global sourcing solutions to meet the company's business goals. He will also lead strategic material and service planning, work cross-functionally on regional and global procurement strategies, and support commodity risks within the supply chain.
Before coming to Dawn, he served as Chief Procurement Officer for Ferrera and also held strategic procurement and leadership roles at ARYZTA and US Foods.
In this new position, Hepdogan will serve as a member of the Dawn North America Leadership Team and report to John Schmitz, President of Dawn Foods North America.
"Ahmet has a successful history leading world-class procurement organizations across the food and beverage industry with a focus on building relationships and delivering strategic plans," said Schmitz. "He is an effective leader and advocate for the digitization of procurement, which aligns with our continued transformation agenda focused on supporting our business and customers around the world."
Also earning a new role is Bruketta, who has been with Dawn since 2021, previously serving as a Director within the department and now leading the people organization for North America.
In this new role, Bruketta is responsible for talent management and development, change management, and driving departmental excellence across the region. He will continue to partner with leaders across the business to drive Dawn's people-first culture and support the company's business strategy. He will also report to Schmitz.
"Josh has been instrumental in driving significant change in the areas of retention, recruitment, and more for our commercial and distribution business," Schmitz added. "He will continue to work closely with our global people partners to position Dawn as an employer of choice and to elevate the team member experience. I appreciate his counsel and expertise and look forward to seeing him continue to drive our organization forward."
Congrats to both leaders as they step into their roles!
