{"id":5105,"date":"2012-01-12T13:11:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T18:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=5105"},"modified":"2012-01-12T13:11:15","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T18:11:15","slug":"stonyfield-co-founder-gary-hirshberg-stepping-down-as-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/01\/12\/stonyfield-co-founder-gary-hirshberg-stepping-down-as-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Stonyfield Co-Founder Gary Hirshberg Stepping Down As CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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mriggen \/ Flickr<\/p>

Hirshberg is stepping down as CE-Yo, but not stepping out of Stonyfield's orbit<\/p><\/div>\n

Stonyfield<\/a> co-founder and outspoken organic food crusader Gary Hirshberg announced today he’s stepping down as CEO (or “CE-Yo”).\u00a0 In his blog<\/a>, Hirshberg wrote he personally hand-picked Walt Freese to replace him as head of “the world’s leading organic yogurt company<\/a>” beginning January 23.\u00a0 Hirshberg wrote he will, however, continue as the Chairman of the Londonderry-based company he helped found nearly 30 years ago:<\/p>\n

“As Stonyfield\u2019s Chairman, I will continue contributing to Stonyfield\u2019s growth and mission for years to come. I will be highly involved with the company, speaking on Stonyfield\u2019s behalf, maintaining oversight of our European organic sister companies, our new Stonyfield Caf\u00e9s and our Profits-for-the-Planet program among other roles.<\/p>\n

I will also focus a significant amount of attention on advancing Stonyfield\u2019s broader mission and specifically advocating for change in national food and agricultural policies, especially seeking the labeling of GE [genetically engineered] foods.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hirshberg’s blog and Stonyfield’s news release both point to Freese’s experience with other natural food companies.\u00a0 Most notably, Freese was CEO of Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s in 2000, when the company sold to Unilever.\u00a0 Before that, he was president of Celestial Seasonings.\u00a0 In the Stonyfield news release<\/a>, Hirshberg describes Freese as:<\/p>\n

“…a leader with a stellar track record at another values-led company,’ said Hirshberg. ‘Walt is well versed in fostering a sustainability mission in partnership with a global food company, and is deeply committed to Stonyfield’s organic and environmental missions. Since our early days at Stonyfield, I’ve watched organic become a $29 billion industry and a healthy mainstay in peoples’ diets. Now more than ever, people want to know where their food comes from and to trust the companies behind the brands. I look forward to working with Walt to continue to grow Stonyfield and further our mission of promoting healthy food, healthy people and a healthy planet.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stonyfield co-founder and outspoken organic food crusader Gary Hirshberg announced today he’s stepping down as CEO (or “CE-Yo”).\u00a0 In his blog, Hirshberg wrote he personally hand-picked Walt Freese to replace him as head of “the world’s leading organic yogurt company” beginning January 23.\u00a0 Hirshberg wrote he will, however, continue as the Chairman of the Londonderry-based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":5108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[503,511],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5105"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5112,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5105\/revisions\/5112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}