High Liner Foods names Rod Hepponstall as president and CEO

Rod Hepponstall, a food industry executive who most recently served as a senior vice president at potato product producer and distributor Lamb-Weston, has been named the president and CEO of High Liner Foods.

High Liner, a Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada-based processor and marketer of frozen, value-added seafood, made the announcement in a press release on Wednesday, 4 April.

After Hepponstall’s appointment begins on 1 May, High Liner’s current CEO, Henry Demone, will continue to serve as chairman of its board of directors. Decker, who had served as High Liner Foods’ CEO from 1992 to 2015, took the position for a second time after Keith Decker left the company in August 2017. 

"We are confident that with Rod's proven leadership skills and extensive experience with the food industry in North America, he is well-positioned to successfully lead High Liner Foods," Demone said. 

Hepponstall currently serves as senior vice president, general manager retail and foodservice business units at Lamb-Weston Inc. Previously, he worked as vice president and general manager of the foodservice business unit at ConAgra Foods, which spun off Lamb-Weston into a separate company in 2016.

Before joining ConAgra Foods in 2011, Hepponstall held roles as vice president at Bimbo Bakeries and as senior vice president of foodservice and retail at the North American division of Maple Leaf Foods. He has a total of 25 years of experience working in the food industry in the United States and Canada.

In his new position at High Liner, Hepponstall will also serve on the board of directors of the company, which is traded publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HLF.

"I am extremely pleased to be joining High Liner Foods, a company known for being a long-standing leader in the North American frozen seafood industry,” Hepponstall said. “I look forward to working with the High Liner team to improve the business, create innovative products that help drive seafood consumption and deliver on a strategy that will create long-term value for our shareholders.”