Dive Brief:
- Ocean Spray appointed Neil Hampshire as its chief information and digital officer, effective Oct. 30, the co-op announced Thursday. Hampshire will report directly to President and CEO Tom Hayes.
- A three-decade IT veteran, Hampshire most recently served as VP of global IT operations, service and infrastructure at Subway. In his new role, he will lead Ocean Spray’s data information security, global IT operations, business intelligence, tech engineering, tech project management and application technology teams.
- Hampshire's appointment comes as Ocean Spray parts ways with Jamie Head, the cranberry co-op’s former chief digital and technology officer. Head, who had been with the company for five years, announced his departure in a LinkedIn post Thursday.
Dive Insight:
The leadership shift at Ocean Spray comes at a time of transformation for the organization.
“I remember starting here when we had dial-in tones for conference calls – a reflection of the work that was needed,” Head said in his LinkedIn post. “Fast forward to today, we have transitioned to a cloud-run business, built modern data management and analytics platforms, and continuously deployed digital capabilities that securely empower our people and business.”
Earlier this month, Head announced a hiring push correlated to the company’s digital transformation journey. The company posted a number of open roles for the initiative, called xELERATE.
While Ocean Spray is unlike the typical enterprise — with more than 700 family farmers sharing collective ownership — the co-op still relies on technology to get work done. The transformation journey is set to target core business processes.
“What an amazing opportunity — to wade in with Ocean Spray at a pivotal moment for their grower-owners, for the business, and for the brand. xELERATE, alongside our other technology work, will be a game changer for this cooperative,” Hampshire said in an email.
The co-op also appointed Chris Domey as VP program lead for the xELERATE initiative, Domey announced via LinkedIn this month. Domey formerly held the position of director of customer operations and logistics.
Hampshire will co-lead the xELERATE initiative alongside Domey.
