January 27/Food Weekly News -- Diamond Foods Inc. promoted two of its top executives. Andrew Burke has been named chief marketing officer and executive vice president, and Stephen Kim has been promoted to senior vice president, general counsel and human resources. Both executives will have expanded responsibilities with these promotions.

Burke has led Diamond's marketing group since joining as a vice president in June 2006. He will continue to oversee all marketing activities for the company and will take on the leadership of Diamond Foods' pricing committee, a highly collaborative group comprised of marketing, sales and finance team members. "Andrew has excelled and grown tremendously in his role in leading Diamond's marketing efforts," said president and CEO, Michael J. Mendes. "He has always worked effectively with sales, operations and finance, which will be critical in his new strategic pricing role. We will look for Andrew to continue to enable the development and execution of a tightly integrated, consumer facing marketing strategy that is evidenced by every element of the consumer and trade interface, something that has become a trademark of our brand strategy over the years."

Burke joined Diamond with extensive experience in consumer marketing and advertising. He served as vice president of marketing at Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery, spent seven years in strategic brand management at Kraft Foods, and worked in both the account management and corporate finance departments of Young & Rubicam, Inc., a global communications company.

Stephen Kim has been Diamond's vice president, general counsel since May 2005. His role broadened to include leadership of human resources in January of 2008. He will continue to lead all aspects of Diamond's legal and HR efforts, but will increase his focus on strategic HR management. "While Steve has been a strong asset for Diamond in managing our legal affairs, he has truly distinguished himself in his ability to source and develop outstanding management talent," said Mendes. "Given the dynamic growth of our organization, Steve will dedicate more time to strengthening our management team to better enable us to deliver on our strategic objectives."

Kim joined Diamond with extensive legal experience both as inside and outside counsel. Prior to joining Diamond Foods, he served as general counsel for Oblix Inc. for five years until its acquisition by Oracle and was an associate with Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati and Weil Gotshal & Manages for a combined five years.

From the February 1, 2010, Prepared Foods E-dition