Naomi Whittel was appointed chief executive officer of Twinlab Consolidated Holdings, Inc., of American Fork, UT, replacing Tom Tolworthy, who left the company.

Joe Huff is now CEO of AlgaeLife’s U.S.-based operation in Irvine, CA, and Bob Capelli will be its executive vice president of global marketing.

PLT Health Solutions, Inc. of Morristown, NJ, hired Steve Fink to be its director of marketing.

Chicago, IL-based SPINS welcomed Judy Seybold as vice president of content services and operations.

GOED, the Global Organization of EPA and DHA Omega-3s, of Salt Lake City, UT, recently presented achievement awards to Bjorn Rene, sales director at Golden Omega, as well as Clemens von Schacky from the University of Munich and Bill Harris from the University of South Dakota School of Medicine and president and CEO, OmegaQuant Analytics.

Yorba Linda, CA-based Nutralliance hired Felipe Chaluppe as its new director of sales for the midwest region and Tim Intfen as one of its regional account executives.

Ajax Mohamed was named resident director of Sabinsa Europe GmbH, the EU division of the Sami-Sabinsa Group of companies.

In Memoriam

Gary Burke
Industry is mourning the loss of Gary Burke, founder of Life Line Foods and Buried Treasure Liquid Nutrients of Pikeville, TN.

Gary started the company in 1969, originally focused on sprouted grain breads and organic frozen pizzas, later moving to dietary supplements including the popular Buried Treasure Liquid Nutrients line.

“Gary Burks had the crazy idea that he should start a health food bakery that made healthy alternatives to the cereals and breads available on the market. So with little more than an idea and some ingenuity he figured out how to go about this task,” stated Burke’s grandson and Life Line Foods CFO and co-owner, Andrew, on the company’s Facebook page.

Gary literally made equipment to bag healthy granola from spare parts he had lying around since such machinery was not yet readily available. He recruited his wife and children to help him, and went store to store from Tennessee to Florida delivering his goods. “This ingenuity would serve him well throughout the rest of his life,” Andrew stated, noting that his hands-on approach helped him build lasting relationships over multiple decades and generations of ownership.

“Now as an owner in Life Line Foods, I still get stopped at trade shows, nearly 50 years later, so people can tell me how my granddad would stop by their store to drop off bread—how he knew them and cared about them as people,” said Andrew.
The company remains family owned, with Gary’s son Lester Burke, CMO, at the helm.

David Holmes
David Holmes, president of Pharmachem Laboratories of Kearny, NJ, passed away in November. Holmes, a staunch supporter of Vitamin Angels, recently committing Pharmachem to donate two to three million children’s multiples every month. Thanks to Holmes’s commitment to annual donations, Pharmachem was the first $1 million donor to Vitamin Angels.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine May 2016