Kahiki Foods, Inc.

Alan Hoover, President & COO: Alan Hoover joined Kahiki Foods in 1999 as Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, and in November 2005, he was named President & COO. Prior to joining the team at Kahiki Foods, Hoover spent 21 years in the food packaging business with Sonoco Products, International Paper, and Pactiv. Hoover has led the company’s adoption of Lean/Six Sigma manufacturing practices, the development of the Kahiki Performance System, and its entry into the Natural & Organic business.

Hoover served on Kahiki’s Board of Directors for several years. He also serves on the Board of Directors for The National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association and is Chair of the Small Business Manufacturers Committee. Hoover is also an Advisory Board member for Coalescence, a minority-owned dry blending company based in Gahanna, Ohio.

Hoover received his M.B.A in Financial Management from Benedictine University and a B.S. in Administrative Management from Clemson University.
Tim Tsao, Vice President of Sales & Marketing: Tim Tsao joined Kahiki Foods in 2006 and serves as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. With 12 years of experience, Tsao leads the Kahiki team in the areas of sales, marketing and strategy. He presently leads a national sales and broker team responsible for delivering profitable sales growth and penetrating new markets.

Previously, Tsao has held positions at IBM, including: Brand strategist for IBM Americas and Worldwide Marketing Manager. He also held sales and marketing positions with Infogain, Sterling Commerce, KPMG and Bank One.

Tsao has an M.B.A. from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a B.A. in International Business and Economics from the University of Dayton. He is a member of the Promotions committee of the National Refrigerated & Frozen Foods Association and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Columbus Opera.
Mark Novak, Vice President of Manufacturing & Logistics: Mark Novak joined Kahiki Foods in February 2005 as Director of Purchasing. Novak has been in the industry since 1972, splitting his time between distribution and manufacturing, managing purchasing and operations. At Kahiki he is responsible for the implementation of lean practices on the floor and procurement. Additionally, he led the conversion of the company’s information system from spreadsheets to Compass. He is responsible for the ongoing conversion of Kahiki to an effective, low cost and high quality operation.

Mark Novak attended the Hillsdale College and Franklin University, receiving an Associates Degree in Accounting, while working in public warehousing. While managing Marketing for a specialty foods distributor, he earned Purchasing Manager certification from NAPM.
Matthew Szerencsits, Director of Finance & Accounting: Matt comes to Kahiki with 17 years experience in Accounting and Finance. Previously, he was Director of Finance for Lehigh Valley and Coatesville Coca-Cola, both ABARTA companies. Matt received his M.B.A from Moravian College and a B.S. in Finance from Bloomsburg University.
Gil Wilson, Vice President of Strategic Accounts: Gil Wilson joined Kahiki Foods in May 2002 and has over 19 years of experience in the packaged foods industry. At Kahiki, he is responsible for managing sales and promotions at many of the top accounts in the company, including Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco, Kroger and Safeway. Prior to joining the team at Kahiki Foods, Wilson served as a Regional Sales manager with Heinz/Ore-Ida Foods, where he managed a $50 million sales budget and a $5 million marketing budget.

Wilson holds a B.S. in Business from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio and is a member of the Westerville South High School Athletic Boosters Board.
Jeff Tsao, Research and Development Director: Jeff Tsao joined Kahiki Foods in 2004 as the Research and Development Director. He has 10 years of experience with menu and food product development. Tsao began his career with Kahiki Foods at the age of 13 and spent time during high school and college working at the Kahiki restaurant part-time. In 2000, as the Executive Chef of Kahiki, Tsao closed the restaurant doors for the last time, signaling the transition from a restaurant that produced frozen foods to Kahiki Foods, the nation’s premier Asian frozen food company.

Tsao received his M.B.A. from The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business' Executive Education Program. He is a dean’s list graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York and received his B.A. in Psychology at The Ohio State University.
Todd McPherson, Human Resources Director: Todd recently joined Kahiki and has 9 years of experience in Human Resources. He is responsible for developing policies and programs for Kahiki. In addition, Todd will be responsible for safety, organizational planning, organizational development, employment, training, employee relations, compensation and benefits. Todd has been working for ABARTA as the Human Resources Manager at Cleveland Coca-Cola Bottling for the past 4 years. Previously, Todd worked 5 years in Human Resources for the Kroger Co. in their manufacturing division.

Todd has a BSBA in Human Resources from Bowling Green State University.
John Roman, Director of Quality Assurance: John joined Kahiki in 2005 and has 25+ years of experience in Food and Beverage Quality Assurance and Food Manufacturing. He is responsible for leading the Quality Assurance department in their duties to assure established Quality and Food Safety programs are in place and followed. He is also responsible for the Kahiki Safety Program.

John has a B.S. in Biology from the University of Akron with an emphasis in Microbiology and Chemistry. John has attended and continues to attend training seminars to keep abreast of changes in HACCP, Food Safety, Sanitation, Security and other Regulatory Issues.