Leadership Team...
Marc Peperzak – Chief Executive Officer
Marc founded Aurora Dairy Corporation in 1973, which became one of the leading and largest dairy operators in the United States, with farms and facilities in several states. In 2003, he focused Aurora Dairy Corporation exclusively on organic dairy production. This was the beginning of Aurora Organic Dairy.
Prior to establishing Aurora Organic Dairy, Marc was a co-founder and active Chairman of Horizon Organic Dairy. He has also served as an international dairy industry consultant in Oman, Pakistan, Iran, Mexico and Belize.
Throughout his career, Marc has served on numerous non-profit and corporate boards, and has assisted in the creation of several businesses. He was the founding director of First Bank of Idaho, and GF&C. He is an active board member of Headwaters MB.
Marc received a dual B.S. degree in business and engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
Scott McGinty – President
Scott is a senior member of the executive committee and is responsible for overseeing operations and new business strategies. He joined Aurora Organic Dairy at its inception as VP of Sales and has grown Aurora Organic Dairy to be the country’s leading provider of private brand organic dairy products. Under Scott’s leadership, the company has built a nationwide dairy product distribution footprint.
Scott’s experience in the consumer packaged goods business began in 1992 in retail management with Walmart Stores. He then developed a passion for building small businesses and grocery product distribution with roles at Kelley Clarke Food Brokerage and Horizon Organic Dairy. Scott’s 19 year career has also included responsibilities for national account management with Dean Foods Company and as VP of Sales with Frontier Natural Products.
Scott received his B.S. degree in Marketing from Santa Clara University.
Cammie Muller – Chief Financial Officer
As Chief Financial Officer of Aurora Organic Dairy, Cammie is an officer of the company and oversees all accounting, tax, cash management, financial reporting, budgeting and banking relationships for the company. Cammie joined Aurora Organic Dairy in 2006 as Controller and, in 2008, was promoted to CFO.
Cammie has extensive corporate finance experience and, most recently, was Director of Finance, Treasurer and Controller for Wild Oats Markets. There she led the accounting, tax, treasury and financial planning functions and assisted in securing investment capital to facilitate annual revenue growth from $400 million to $1.1 billion, which included the restructure of a $125 million line of credit, the issuance of two equity offerings. She has also worked in public policy for the state of Colorado in healthcare and welfare reform.
Cammie received her B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of Missouri and her M.A. degree in Economics from the University of Colorado.
Juan Velez, M.V., M.S., Dipl. A.C.T. – Senior Vice President, Farm Operations
Dr. Juan Velez has been with Aurora Dairy since 1995. In his current role at Aurora Organic Dairy, he is responsible for oversight of all farm operations in Colorado and Texas. Dr. Velez is a recognized veterinary expert, and is a respected national and international speaker on cattle herd health and reproduction. He has applied this expertise to Aurora Organic Dairy, making animal welfare a top priority for the company.
In addition to developing the Animal Welfare program for Aurora Organic Dairy, Dr. Velez created the original organic herd health program for Horizon Organic Dairy in 1995. He is very active in the National Organic Program and is a recognized leader in the areas of animal welfare and pasture issues. He has been featured in several leading organic herd health and dairy publications, is a frequent speaker at organic industry and veterinary symposiums and collaborates with leading experts on best practices in organic dairy management.
A native of Bogota, Colombia, Juan received his degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Lasalle in Bogota and holds a M.S. degree in cattle reproduction from Texas A&M University. He is also a Board Certified Theriogenologist and is a member of the Animal Welfare Committee for the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.
Jay C. Wilson - Senior Vice President, Technical Services
Jay oversees the company's milk processing facility and manages all of the contract manufacturing operations of butter, milk powder and new products. In 2003, Jay initiated the design, engineering and construction of Aurora Organic Dairy’s state-of-art ultra-pasteurized milk processing and packaging facility.
Jay has a long career in the dairy processing, serving in senior operations management roles. He was Vice President of Operations at Horizon Organic Dairy, and was instrumental in developing this leading organic brand. Prior to Horizon, Jay was VP of Business Development for Dole Foods where he was responsible for dairy projects, agricultural development and marketing. He also served as President/General Manager of Meadow Gold Dairies-Hawaii, directing sales, marketing, processing and distribution. Prior to that, Jay held lead operations roles at regional dairy processors including Borden/Meadow Dairies, KEMPS and Land-O-Lakes, where he started his 30-year career.
Jay received his B.A. in Chemistry and his M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota. He served in the U.S. Army as a criminal investigator and is a veteran of foreign wars.
Gary Sebek – Senior Vice President Corporate Development
Gary re-joined the company in June 2011 to lead corporate development. His experience integrates a background in business administration, strategic development, operations and corporate finance. Gary recently was a Managing Partner at private equity firm, 2x Consumer Products. Gary was Executive Vice President and CFO at Aurora Organic Dairy from 2005 to 2008. Previously, Gary served as President and CEO of Rudi’s Organic Bakery, facilitating rapid growth, including the merger and integration of three leading Organic bread brands to form Charter Baking. Gary received his B.A. in Accounting from DePaul University and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado. He also holds a Certified Public Accounting certificate.
Sally Keefe – Vice President, Government & Legal Affairs
Sally joined Aurora Organic Dairy in 2003 as Director, Supply Chain, managing customer service, logistics and milk balancing. She was promoted to VP, Supply Chain in 2005 and in 2007 took on the newly developed role of VP of Government & Legal Affairs, which includes managing the company’s legal, regulatory and legislative work for both organic and dairy policy.
Prior to joining Aurora Organic Dairy, Sally worked in Horizon Organic Dairy’s operations, milk procurement and logistics areas. She received her B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College and her M.B.A. from the University of Colorado.
Dan Placke – Vice President, Farm Financial Services
Dan is responsible for all farm forecasting and budgeting, farm organic systems plans reporting and administrative farm management support. He is also involved with strategic farm growth development. Dan joined Aurora Organic Dairy as the Director of Farm Services in 2006.
Prior to joining Aurora Organic Dairy, Dan served in several financial management roles during his 11-year tenure with Horizon Organic Dairy, including Director of Farm Operations, Director of Farm Finance, Corporate Controller and Farm Controller. Prior to that, he served in financial and accounting positions at Nova-Tech, Inc. and Mutual of Omaha.
Dan received his B.S. degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting from the University of Nebraska – Kearney. Dan holds a Certified Public Accountant certificate.
Jim Abraham – Vice President, Sales
Jim has led the Aurora Organic Dairy sales initiative since 2007, helping to maintain and grow existing customers and building new customer relationships. During his tenure, the Company has experienced strong sales growth and, as a result, Aurora Organic Dairy has been one of the fastest growing organic industry start-up companies in history. In his role, Jim is responsible for nurturing and growing the company’s key customer relationships, which include many of the top retailers in the United States. In addition to growing the Aurora Organic Dairy’s sales across all classes of trade, he manages customer logistics and distribution for Aurora Organic Dairy – a distribution network that extends nationwide.
Prior to joining Aurora Organic Dairy, Jim served in senior sales roles at leading consumer packaged goods companies, including Marie Callender’s and Horizon Organic Dairy. At Horizon, he was a member of the initial sales team that launched the company’s national business. Jim has more than 25 years of experience in food industry sales, category management and supermarket operations.
Jim received his B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado.
Merritt Horn – Director, Information Technology
Merritt joined Aurora Organic Dairy in 2006, and is responsible for managing the entire software and hardware infrastructure for the Aurora Organic Dairy network, which includes six locations in Colorado and Texas.
Prior to joining Aurora Organic Dairy, Merritt spent seven years as IT Director for Rudi’s Organic Bakery and, then, Charter Baking, a portfolio of leading organic bread companies that acquired Rudi’s in 2005. He has owned several businesses and holds a U.S. Patent for a shelf life extension technology, which enabled Rudi’s to distribute their products nationally.
Merritt received his B.A. degree in Religion from Princeton University and serves on the boards of several religious and educational institutions..
Donna Getman – Director, Human Resources & Corporate Services
Donna has been with the company since 1990 and is responsible for oversight of the human resources department, benefits administration and management of the company’s insurance policies. She also serves as the Corporate Secretary for Aurora Organic Dairy.
Prior to joining the company, Donna was Director of Materials Management for Valleylab, Inc. where she worked for more than 14 years in purchasing, production control and materials management positions, earning awards for cost containment and contract management. During the acquisition of Valleylab by Pfizer, Inc., she provided transition leadership to her team of 50 people.
Donna is a graduate of Kinman Business University in Washington.
