MGP Ingredients Inc., Atchison, KS, recently appointed Gus Griffin (right) president and CEO. The former beverage alcohol industry executive brings a wealth of marketing and management leadership qualifications to his role, including significant and progressive experience with Brown-Forman Corp., where he ultimately served as senior vice president and global managing director in charge of the company’s flagship Jack Daniel’s business.

“We are very pleased and excited to welcome Gus to our company in such an important capacity,” says MGP board chairman Cloud L. “Bud” Cray. “We feel equally fortunate to have found someone who wholeheartedly embraces MGP’s philosophy and culture of teamwork and places a high value on community support and involvement, as well as effectively meeting customers’ needs. Gus’ business credentials and achievements are extraordinarily impressive, and we have the greatest confidence in his abilities to create added value for all stakeholders as he leads MGP into the future. While his multiple talents have primarily been focused on the development and execution of beverage alcohol growth strategies, we are certain his expertise will not only greatly benefit our distilled spirits business, but our ingredients business segment as well.”

Griffin most recently spent a year as executive vice president of marketing for Next Level Spirits, a northern California-based producer, importer and distributor of premium wine and spirits brands. His responsibilities in that position included establishing strategic planning disciplines and spearheading all aspects of corporate, consumer and trade marketing.

MGP also appointed Randy Schrick (right) to the newly expanded position of vice president of production and engineering, effective immediately. In his new role, Schrick will support the company’s long-term growth plans by assuming leadership of all production activities, in addition to his previous engineering leadership responsibilities. Among his priorities is using his leadership abilities and expertise to develop the skills and capabilities of others within the organization.

“Randy’s credentials and professional accomplishments are extraordinary,” says Griffin. “His leadership qualities, combined with his vast experience and proficiencies in every aspect of our processes, make him ideal for mentoring others in the art and science of producing the highest quality alcohol products and ingredients for our customers.”

Schrick most recently served as vice president of engineering since June 2009 and held the position of MGP’s interim co-CEO from December 2013 to July 2014. He also served as president of the company’s Pekin, IL, joint venture operation, Illinois Corn Processing LLC, from November 2009 to December 2011.

Sean McHenry (right) is now technical service director for MGP’s ingredient solutions business segment. He brings extensive food and beverage industry experience to the role and, most recently, served as technical sales and key account manager at CP Kelco U.S. Inc. in Atlanta.

At MGP, McHenry’s primary focus is to provide technical support for the company’s protein and starch commercialization initiatives, including interacting with customers’ technical personnel and other product development decision-makers, collaborating with sales and R&D staff in executing go-to-market tactics, managing the technical aspects of customer projects, and utilizing internal and external resources to develop concepts demonstrating unique and innovative ingredient technologies.

“We are very excited to welcome Sean to our team,” says Mike Lasater, vice president of ingredients sales and marketing. “He possesses a great deal of expertise, along with numerous skills and talents that will further enhance MGP’s capabilities to serve our customers’ needs for nutritious, highly functional ingredients. Among Sean’s strengths are a pronounced sense of teamwork, outstanding problem-solving abilities, broad knowledge of a wide range of food types and applications, and strong competencies dealing with a variety of product formulation and manufacturing processes.”

MGP produces high-quality, food-grade industrial alcohol and formulates grain-based starches and proteins into nutritional and highly functional ingredients for the brands consumer package goods industry. The company also is a leading independent supplier of premium spirits.