Maple Hill Creamery names new president
Jim Hau will also retain the role of chief financial officer.
Maple Hill Creamery named Jim Hau as president, who will also retain the role of chief financial officer he has held since 2021.
Hau, former CFO at Arizona Nutritional Supplements and PanTheryx, has more than 30 years of experience in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry, including 18 years working with dairy-related businesses.
Hau brings a track record of leading mission-critical initiatives that include building corporate financial infrastructures, departments and teams; integrating business acquisitions; and preparing for IPO. In addition, he brings a track record of success in mergers and acquisitions integration, strategic financial planning, capital raising and organizational restructuring.
“I’m proud and excited to be taking this leadership role with such a trusted brand at such an exciting time in the market, when the consumer is looking for healthy premium products derived from regenerative agriculture,” said Hau.
Hau spent 12 years at WhiteWave Foods, where he helped lead the original integration of Horizon, International Delight and the legacy WhiteWave businesses, before eventually playing a significant role in the 2012 IPO process and becoming chief accounting officer, then leaving with the sale of the business to Danone in 2017. Prior to WhiteWave, Hau spent 15 years at Unilever in various roles, including Controller for the North American ice cream business, which included the Breyers, Popsicle, Ben & Jerry’s, Klondike and Good Humor brands.
Hau’s first goal at Kinderhook, N.Y.-based Maple Hill is to strengthen its economic position to ensure it has solid financial strength to continue building the brand.
"We have a tremendous consumer proposition because we allow families to enjoy the highest nutritional value in the dairy space, while supporting small family farms, who provide the most humane treatment to their cows, all in a way that improves the land and the planet through regenerative farming," said Hau.
“At Maple Hill, we get the milk the way it was intended by nature, with cows grazing on natural organic grass, which provides the best nutrients so they produce the most nutritious milk for the consumer," he continued. "Maple Hill does not claim indirect climate improvements through the purchase of carbon offsets. We do it directly, through regenerative farming practices, in a way that actually sequesters carbon and improves the earth’s degrading soil.”
Hau received a B.S. in business administration from Marquette University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
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