about us

Steven R. Bromley, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunOpta Inc.

Steven Bromley serves as President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Director of SunOpta. Mr. Bromley joined SunOpta in June 2001, was appointed President in January 2005 and subsequently CEO in February 2007. Mr. Bromley was appointed to the Board of Directors of SunOpta on January 26, 2007.

From June 2001 through September 2003 Mr. Bromley served as the Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CF0). He was subsequently appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) and held this role until his appointment as CEO.

Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Bromley spent over 13 years in the Canadian dairy industry in a wide range of financial and operational roles with both Natrel Inc. and Ault Foods Limited. From 1997 to 1999 he served on the Board of Directors of Natrel Inc. Mr. Bromley is a Director of most of the Company's subsidiaries. Since July 2004 he has served on the Board of Directors of Opta Minerals (TSX: OPM) which is approximately 66.4 per cent owned by SunOpta.

Jeremy N. Kendall, Chairman, SunOpta Inc.

Jeremy Kendall has served as a Director of the Company since September 1978. He became CEO and Chairman of the Board of SunOpta in June 1983 and retired as CEO in January 2007. He remains as Chairman of the Board of the Company and the Company's subsidiaries.

Mr. Kendall is also currently the Chairman of Opta Minerals Inc. (TSX:OPM), which is approximately 66.4 per cent owned by the Company and Chairman of Easton Minerals, a mineral exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV). Easton Minerals is approximately 32 per cent owned by the Company. Mr. Kendall was recently appointed to the Board of Mascoma Corporation following the sale of SunOpta BioProcess Inc. to Mascoma Corporation in August 2010. SunOpta has a 19.6 per cent ownership position in Mascoma Corporation.

Mr. Kendall also serves on the Board of Asia Bio-Chem Group Corp. (TSX:ABC), a major starch manufacturer in China. He is Chairman of Jemtec Inc. (June 1991 to present), a distributor of electronic home incarceration equipment listed on the TSXV. He is also a Director of a number of private and charitable organizations.

Allan G. Routh, President SunOpta Grains and Foods Group

Mr. Routh is President of the Grains and Foods Group, SunOpta's largest operating group. Prior to March 2003 he was President and CEO of Sunrich Food Group Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.

Mr. Routh has been involved in the soy industry and soy industry organizations since 1984. He is also a Director of other private companies. In the past five years, Mr. Routh has not served on any other reporting issuers Board of Directors.

Cyril A. Ing (4), Board Secretary and Independent Director

Cyril Ing is a retired Professional Engineer and also holds an MBA. He was elected a Director in January 1984 and became an employee, Vice President, Engineering, of the Company in August 1985. He retired in 1992. Mr. Ing currently serves on the Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Ing formerly served on the Compensation and Audit Committees until November 2010.

In the past five years, Mr. Ing has served on the following Boards of Directors of Canadian listed reporting companies: Jemtec Inc. (November 1999 to present) and Easton Minerals Ltd. (November 1999 to present).

Katrina L. Houde (2) (6), Independent Director

Katrina Houde was elected to the Board of Directors in December 2000 and also serves as a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees. Ms. Houde has been an independent consultant since March 2000.

From January 1999 to March 2000, Ms. Houde was President of Cuddy Food Products, a division of Cuddy International Corp. She was COO of Cuddy International Corp. from January 1996 to January 1999. She is a Director of a number of private and charitable organizations.

Douglas Greene (4), Independent Director

Douglas Greene was elected to the Board of Directors in September 2008. He is currently a member of the Corporate Governance Committee.

Mr. Greene is a pioneer in the natural and organic foods industry. He founded New Hope Natural Media, the largest Business-to-Business media group in the natural products industry, and ran it for 20 years. He sold the Company to Penton Media in 1999. Mr. Greene was a board member of Penton Media, which was listed on the NYSE and subsequently NASDAQ (OTCBB: PTON) from 1999 to 2005, and served on their Executive, Compensation and Audit Committees. From 1994 to 2005 Mr. Greene was Chairman of Vitrina Group of Moscow, publishers and event producers for the grocery, restaurant and wine industries. Mr. Greene is a Board Member of Next Foods and Z2 Entertainment and has served on several non-profit boards.

Victor Hepburn (1) (6), Independent Director

Victor Hepburn was elected a Director of the Company in September 2008. Mr. Hepburn has also served on the Company's Compensation Committee since November 2010 and formerly served on the Company's Corporate Governance Committee until November 2010. Mr. Hepburn is currently a Director of Opta Minerals Inc. (TSX: OPM), which is approximately 66.4 per cent owned by the Company. He is also Chairman of its Audit Committee. Mr. Hepburn has been self-employed since 2000 as a consultant and is a Director of Walker Industries Holdings Inc., an aggregate and waste management company.

Mr. Hepburn was the President and CEO of Hanson Brick America from 1999 to 2000, an international building materials company that is one of the largest ready mix concrete and brick manufacturers in North America. Prior to Hanson Brick America acquiring Jannock Limited, a company listed on the TSX, Mr. Hepburn was employed from 1977 to 1999 in various capacities by the Company, including serving as President and CEO, Brick Operations, from 1985 to 1999. Mr. Hepburn also served as a Director of the Brick Association of America from 1985 until 2000 and as Vice-Chairman from 1998 until 2000. Mr. Hepburn is a Chartered Accountant and attended the University of Glasgow.

Jay Amato (3), Independent Director

Jay Amato was appointed a Director of the Company and Chair of the Corporate Governance Committee in November 2008. Mr. Amato is the founder and CEO of PersonalScreen Media LLC in New York, a company which develops new methods of monetizing video content on the web.

Previously, Mr. Amato was President and CEO of NASDAQ-traded ViewPoint Corporation, a premier interactive media company. He was also President and COO of Vanstar Corporation, a $2.8 billion public company with 7,000 employees that provides global computer outsourcing services. Adding to this considerable list of accolades and accomplishments, Mr. Amato was nominated for a national Emmy Award in 2008.

Alan D. Murray (2) (5) (7), Independent Director

Alan Murray was elected a Director of the Company in July 2010 and appointed Vice Chair in March 2011. He also serves on the Audit and Compensation Committees. Mr. Murray has over 30 years' experience as a supplier to the food industry in three continents.

Mr. Murray spent 10 years with Unilever, primarily in marketing roles in the Netherlands and South Africa. From 1990 to 2010 he worked for Tetra Pak, the world leader in processing and packaging systems serving the food industry. During this period he led their operations in Southern Africa, Central Europe (Czech Republic and Slovakia) and North America. Mr. Murray has been a Board member of the industry organization National Food Processors Association (now merged with the Grocery Manufacturers Association) and the International Dairy Foods Association. He was also Co-founder and Chairman of the industry group Carton Council, a body founded to stimulate the recycling of beverage cartons. Mr. Murray has not served on any other reporting issuers Board of Directors. He is currently the CEO of NextFoods, creators of GoodBelly Probiotic Fruit Drink, based in Boulder Colorado.

Steven R. Bromley, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunOpta Inc.

Steven Bromley serves as President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Director of SunOpta. Mr. Bromley joined SunOpta in June 2001, was appointed President in January 2005 and subsequently CEO in February 2007. Mr. Bromley was appointed to the Board of Directors of SunOpta on January 26, 2007.

From June 2001 through September 2003 Mr. Bromley served as the Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CF0). He was subsequently appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) and held this role until his appointment as CEO.

Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Bromley spent over 13 years in the Canadian dairy industry in a wide range of financial and operational roles with both Natrel Inc. and Ault Foods Limited. From 1997 to 1999 he served on the Board of Directors of Natrel Inc. Mr. Bromley is a Director of most of the Company's subsidiaries. Since July 2004 he has served on the Board of Directors of Opta Minerals (TSX: OPM) which is approximately 66.4 per cent owned by SunOpta.

Tony Tavares, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, SunOpta Inc.

Tony Tavares joined SunOpta Inc. in June 2008 as Vice President and COO. Mr. Tavares brings over 20 years of food industry experience to this role with a focus on increasing organizational profitability in changing environments through a combination of innovative marketing, lean manufacturing and strong organizational development. Prior to joining SunOpta, Mr. Tavares was CEO of Maple Lodge Farms Inc., and also held a number of senior positions in the Canadian food industry including President of Maple Leaf Poultry, a division of Maple Leaf Foods and President of Tyson Canada.

John Dietrich, Vice President, Corporate Development, SunOpta Inc.

John Dietrich serves as Vice President, Corporate Development at SunOpta Inc. He joined SunOpta in 2002 as Vice President and Treasurer. In September 2003 Mr. Dietrich was promoted to Vice President and CFO. He served in this role until March 15, 2009 when he was appointed Vice President, Corporate Development. Before joining SunOpta Mr. Dietrich held finance roles at Natrel Inc. as Director of Business Development, Paragaon Trade Brands (Canada) Inc. as Director of Finance and Vice President of Finance at Bridge2market Inc. from January 1995 to September 2001. Mr. Dietrich is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst. Mr. Dietrich has not served on any other reporting issuer's Board of Directors.

Mitch Jensen, Vice President of Information Technology, SunOpta Inc.

Mr. Jensen started with SunOpta as Corporate Information Technology (IT) Director in August 2004 and was promoted to Vice President of SunOpta IT in October of 2008. Mr. Jensen is a Project Management Professional with over 20 years of IT leadership experience including enterprise resource planning implementation, application development and support, web services and infrastructure management. Mr. Jensen spent over nine years at NCS Pearson in various senior leadership roles and also held IT leadership roles at Burlington Northern Railroad prior to joining SunOpta.

Alan Routh, President, SunOpta Grains and Foods Group

Mr. Routh is President of the Grains and Foods Group, SunOpta's largest operating group. Prior to March 2003 he was President and CEO of Sunrich Food Group Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.

Mr. Routh has been involved in the soy industry and soy industry organizations since 1984. He is also a Director of other private companies. In the past five years, Mr. Routh has not served on any other reporting issuers Board of Directors.

Chris Bouchard, President, SunOpta Healthy Snacks

Chris Bouchard, President of SunOpta Healthy Snacks, joined SunOpta in April 2006 as Director of Sales in the Company's Healthy Fruit Snacks division. Mr. Bouchard was promoted to General Manager of the business in June 2007 and was appointed President of SunOpta Healthy Snacks in December 2010. Mr. Bouchard held senior sales leadership roles with the J.M. Smucker Co., Bayer AG and Acosta Canada prior to joining SunOpta. He has had 15 years in the consumer packaged goods industry. Mr. Bouchard has degrees from the University of Western Ontario and York University.

Joseph J. Stern, SunOpta International Sourcing and Trading Group, Consumer Products Solutions

Joseph Stern, President, SunOpta International Sourcing and Trading Group, Consumer Products Solutions, joined SunOpta in September 2004 as President and co-founder of Organic Ingredients. Because of his global expertise in organic supply sourcing Mr. Stern has recently been appointed as President of the newly formed SunOpta International Sourcing and Trading Group. Mr. Stern has over 30 years of experience in natural and organic food distribution.

Gerard Versteegh, SunOpta International Sourcing and Trading Group, Organic Ingredients

Gerard Versteegh, President, SunOpta International Sourcing and Trading Group, Organic Ingredients, joined SunOpta in April 2008 as President and co-founder of Tradin Organic Agriculture. Gerard has 25 years of expertise in the global sourcing of organic raw materials in a broad range of categories.

David J. Kruse, President and Chief Operating Officer, Opta Minerals Inc.

Mr. Kruse is a CMA. He started with Opta Minerals as Financial Manager in November 1997. He was later appointed Executive Vice President and COO of Opta Minerals. Mr. Kruse was promoted to President and CEO of the Environmental Industrial Group (Opta Minerals) and its group of companies in Canada and the U.S. in December 2002.