CRB, a provider of engineering, architecture, construction, and consulting solutions to the food and beverage industry, has promoted Tom Rychlewski as its first vice president of the company’s food & beverage operations. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, Rychlewski joins five domestic and two international regional vice presidents guiding CRB’s operations across North America and Europe. 

In his new role, Rychlewski will lead design, automation, and construction operations across CRB’s Food & Beverage organization, advancing the company’s brand as an integrated, global leader in the food & beverage market. He will report to Lance Nordbak, CRB’s chief operating officer of regional operations, and will partner with food & beverage vice president Jason Robertson to drive the company’s expanding project portfolio.

That portfolio continues to grow dramatically as clients increasingly turn to CRB’s ONEsolution project delivery approach, which leverages a single project team to align with clients on cost and schedule without sacrificing quality. Clients choose the company’s approach for their large capital expenditure projects because ONEsolution provides everything needed from initial planning and design through to construction and operational readiness. The approach has been successfully used to develop large-scale facilities across conventional food and beverage spaces as well as a growing number of alternative proteins manufacturing projects.

Before his promotion, Rychlewski served as market team leader and helped grow the company’s food & beverage (F&B) team from inception to an organization that now numbers more than 100 professionals who drive some of the most innovative solutions in the industry. Rychlewski’s strong track record of client satisfaction and repeat business made his appointment an easy choice, noted Ryan Schroeder, CRB’s president.

“Before this promotion, Tom was already a critical part of CRB’s explosive growth in food & beverage manufacturing,” said Schroeder. “He’s a proven leader with a keen understanding of the challenges our clients face in bringing their products to market quickly, efficiently and profitably. As someone who’s been a critical part of the CRB growth story, he’s the right person to lead our dynamic project teams whose work makes an impact every day for our clients.”

“I am both honored and excited to dig in alongside my colleagues and continue driving F&B on its already impressive trajectory,” Rychlewski said. “We have a lot to accomplish, and we have all the right people in place to make it happen.”

The company also announced that Ben Rucker, director of process technology, has been named a new market team leader based in St. Louis. Rucker will be responsible for resource development among food & beverage market teams, leading the team’s execution strategies and advancing the ONEsolution offering.

Rucker provides clients with a deep understanding of process design and equipment, with expertise related to technical sales management and project management, turnkey process design, project estimating, overall vessel/tank design, and custom skidded systems.