AMF Bakery Systems has announced a series of leadership and organizational changes aimed at accelerating the company’s strategic growth, enhancing innovation, and strengthening operational execution across global markets, it says.

In a realignment of senior leadership, Ken Newsome will return to his former role as chairman and CEO of AMF. Jason Ward, who has served as CEO since 2021, will support a transition period before departing the company at the end of the year.  

As part of this leadership transition, David Bull has been appointed to the newly created role of president and COO, with global responsibility for engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain operations.  

Additionally, AMF announced several regional leadership appointments: 

• Brandon Brilliant has been named president – AMF Americas, leading all sales, project management and customer care teams across North America and Latin America.  
• Vincent Langelaar was elevated to president – AMF Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific, continuing his leadership of the company’s business in those regions. 
• Ricky Duan has been promoted to SVP - AMF China
• Danny Morin has been promoted to SVP - AMF Canada 
• Peter Van Zessen has been promoted to VP - Global Engineering  

"These organizational changes reflect months of thoughtful planning and are grounded in our mission to be the partner of choice for bakers worldwide,” says Newsome. “Our customers value AMF’s regional approach which empowers our local teams to take ownership of the customer relationship and act with speed and precision. Strengthening our regional focus through clear leadership enables faster decision-making and deeper customer engagement. As the same time, establishing strong operational leadership at a global level allows us to drive consistency, innovation, and productivity across all our product lines and business units, furthering our commitment to deliver best-in-class unit equipment and integrated systems solutions."

Reflecting on his decision to step away from the company, Ward shares, “Over the past two years, I have been dealing with a variety of personal challenges that have led me to carefully reevaluate my path forward. After deep reflection and incredible support from Ken and the leadership at Markel Group, I have concluded that stepping away is necessary to allow AMF the focused leadership it deserves and to give me the space to address these matters effectively. It has been the professional honor of my life to lead AMF. I remain fully committed to supporting the AMF team through the transition and beyond as this extraordinary business continues to thrive.” 

“Jason has been a great friend and exceptional leader of AMF,” states Newsome. “When he stepped into the role over a decade ago, AMF had the characteristics of a smaller, family-owned business. We had passion for and commitment to our customers but lacked the business processes and global approach to execute consistently. Jason was instrumental in leading the transformation of AMF. He led the successful integration of Tromp and Den Boer into AMF. More importantly, he was the driving force behind elevating AMF into a more modern, scalable, and globally focused organization. His leadership has left an enduring legacy, and we are deeply grateful for the foundation he built.”  

Ward will continue in his role as CEO through September and continue to support the leadership transition through Dec 1. 

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