Kraft Foods Group’s Mike Ridenour has been appointed customer VP (CVP) of industry development, effective immediately. He takes over the role from Omar Khalaf, who recently was named Kraft’s customer VP of club business.
Ridenour began his career in the food industry 29 years ago with Kraft Foods, working out of Atlanta. During his career, he has served in various management and strategic planning positions with leadership responsibility in multiple channels—including national, independent, drug and club retailers throughout the U.S. Ridenour most recently led Kraft’s customer collaboration relationships for the industry development team and previously was CVP of Kraft’s New York/New Jersey geographical sales team.
“We are excited to have Mike’s leadership across all of the industry associations, helping us strengthen our collaborative business-building efforts with retailers to achieve mutual goals of profitable growth,” said Tom F. Corley, EVP and president of Kraft’s U.S. retail sales and food service.
Ridenour and his wife Cheryl are relocating from New Jersey to the Chicagoland area and have two children in college. Callie is a rising senior at Loyola of Chicago and Sam is a rising sophomore at Muhlenburg College. Ridenour is a graduate of King University in Bristol, Tenn., where he majored in business administration and economics and was a tennis player.
In the feature photo at top: Omar Kahlaf, left, and Mike Ridenour, far right. They are pictured with Art Sebastian and Patrick Hare at FMI Connect in Chicago in June.
