Tetra Pak (tetrapak.com) has appointed Brian Kennell president and CEO for the U.S. and Canada. Prior to assuming this role, Kennell served in a number of leadership positions, most recently as vice president of finance and business transformation for North America.

Since joining Tetra Pak in 1991, Kennell has had a salient role in shaping the company's focus on improved efficiencies, quality, sustainability and customer service. As president and CEO, he will further these goals, as well as focus on supporting and continuing to drive Tetra Pak's culture of innovation and adaptation to customer needs. He will also share his insights on these issues with a column on The Huffington Post, which debuted last week with a piece on the importance of embracing change at every level.

"It's critical for senior management to foster an organization-wide culture of change," he says. "That means building and empowering teams beyond top management who are versatile and nimble, and capable of adapting to, and embracing, an evolving status quo."

With the world population surging, food and beverage professionals are faced with more mouths to feed and a dwindling supply of natural resources. Kennell is also committed to intensifying Tetra Pak's already unequivocal commitment to sustainability and led the company's recent launch of Moving To The Front, a campaign that raises awareness among industry stakeholders of the importance of sustainable raw material sourcing and use of renewable resources.

Before joining Tetra Pak, Kennell honed his leadership skills at Arthur Andersen and a privately held manufacturing company. The Chicago native holds a Bachelor of Science in finance from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, is a certified public accountant and enjoys aviation-related activities from flying to skydiving.