About Us
Basic Beliefs
Leadership Team
Board of Directors
Our History
Responsible Distribution
Community Involvement
Careers |
Board of Directors
Kris Maynard
Chief Executive Officer & Chairman
of the Board |
Kris Maynard was born and
raised in rural Ohio and graduated from Miami University in with
a B.A. in Zoology in December, 1989. His chemical career started
with Stepan Chemical Company in Chicago, Illinois the spring of
1991 after spending several months in Russia doing missions work
and working numerous odd jobs during 1990. Kris and his wife
Cindy were married in May of 1991 and relocated from Chicago to
Atlanta, Georgia where he was assigned a territory in the
Southeastern US as a distributor specialist. In May of 1996,
Kris and Chris Gerlach founded Essential Ingredients.
Kris serves as the Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the
Board at Essential Ingredients. His favorite thing about
Essential Ingredients is to help to shape a work environment at
Ei that provides a pathway for employees to utilize their
giftedness. He is also passionate about building personal
relationships with customers and suppliers, understanding their
businesses, and exploring creative ways to help them be more
successful.
Kris and Cindy have three children: Rachael, Ryan, and Justin.
Kris is an avid fisherman and hunter and enjoys exploring the
mountains with friends and family near their farm in Ellijay,
Georgia.
Entry year of Board membership: 1996 |
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Chris Gerlach
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Chris Gerlach is a
Co-Founder of Essential Ingredients, and also served as Director
of Business Development. His focus was on bringing new
technologies and vendor partnerships to life. Chris is the
former Secretary of Florida Society of Cosmetic Chemists and has
over 15 years of experience in the Personal Care and HI&I
industries. Chris served in Iraq during Desert Storm, where he
was awarded the Bronze Star for leadership. Chris served on
active duty with Airborne & Ranger qualifications. Originally
from New York, he was awarded an Army ROTC scholarship and
graduated from S.U.N.Y. Brockport with a Bachelor of Science in
Communications.
Entry year of Board membership: 1996 |
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Kirk Hancock
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Kirk Hancock is an
experienced finance, accounting, and operations executive with
nearly 30 years of progressive experience including Big 5 and
industry executive management positions with publicly held,
privately held and start-up companies. He focuses on consulting
with technology companies and their channel partners, most often
working directly with business owners and their senior
leadership teams with a heavy emphasis on profitable growth and
business transformation. Kirk served previously, for over 13
years, as COO and CFO for Atlanta-based global consulting
company North Highland with offices in 21 cities in the U.S. and
London and international partnerships throughout Europe and
Asia.
Kirk helped lead the employee-owned company from revenues of $32
million to over $350 million. Prior to North Highland, Kirk
served in the broadband and telecom industries, the airline IT
industry, the automotive parts industry, and was a manager in
the Turnaround Consulting practice at Arthur Anderson. Kirk has
a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Auburn
University and has served as Vice Chairman of the Georgia
Chamber of Commerce Education and Workforce Committee.
Entry year of Board membership: 2015 |
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Skip Paterson
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Skip Paterson has
experience in a wide variety of businesses and industries,
including telecommunications, energy, software, and
manufacturing. Paterson has worked for ITT Cannon, Activant
Solutions/Epicor, Alliant Energy, JD Edwards/PeopleSoft, KN
Energy/Kinder Morgan, BellSouth/Cingular, and Parker Hannifin.
The HR teams that Skip has led have received national
recognition as one of 50 Best Diversity Companies by Diversity
Magazine, one of 100 Best Places to Work by Fortune Magazine,
one of Top 50 Training Organizations by Training Magazine and
was named Best Practice Company in HR Measurements, Watson
Wyatt, and Saratoga Institute.
Skip obtained a Bachelor of Science in General Management from
Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from
Indiana University. He is a member of the Society for Human
Resource Management (SHRM) and the National Association of
Corporate Directors. He holds a Certificate of Director
Education and Senior Professional Human Resources.
Entry year of Board membership: 2015 |
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Paula Pinto
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Paula Pinto is an
experienced global leader with over 20 years of experience in
the Silicones industry and 8 years in Crop Protection. She has
held a variety of management positions in Marketing,
Regional/Global Business Management, and Operations, which have
been enhanced by her multi-cultural upbringing and global
mindset. Paula currently holds the appointed position of Vice
President of Global Portfolio Management of Arysta LifeScience
and is a member of the Executive Committee.
Passionate for growth, Paula is a creative thinker with robust
analytical skills and maintains a strong focus on execution and
process orientation. She has been instrumental in the
development and execution of numerous corporate growth
strategies. Paula obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical
Engineering from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She has
expert fluency in Portuguese, French, and English with
intermediate fluency in Spanish.
Entry year of Board membership: 2017 |
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Larry
Sievers
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Larry Sievers was raised
on a farm in northwest Indiana. He received his degree in
Business from Indiana University – Bloomington, is a CPA,
inactive, and has attended Executive Programs at both Stanford
University and The Wharton School at the University of
Pennsylvania. Larry has spent the better part of the last 30+
years in leadership positions, CEO, CFO, Board membership, with
Employee-Owned Companies. Additionally, Larry has held a number
of volunteer advisory roles with non-profit organizations
involved in education, human services and community outreach.
Larry lives in Zionsville, Indiana with his wife Susan. He has
three adult children, Kristan, in Indiana, Stephanie, in
California, and Kathryn, in Colorado. He has four
grandchildren.
Entry year of Board membership: 2013 |
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Stephen Smith
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Since 1984, Stephen Smith
has dedicated his private law practice primarily to
employee-stock ownership plans (ESOP) and structuring ESOP
transactions. Steve has been responsible for structuring over
300 ESOP transactions for public and private companies
throughout the United States. He also designs and implements
equity and non-equity-based incentive compensation programs for
public and private companies. Steve represents ESOP sponsors,
ESOP fiduciaries (including employer-appointed "committees") and
independent ESOP trustees in ESOP transactions, including the
sale of ESOP companies.
Steve was directly involved in drafting the S corporation ESOP
enabling legislation contained in the Taxpayer Relief Act of
1997. He was a co-author of the S corporation ESOP "anti-abuse"
legislation known as the "Breaux/Ramstad Bill."
From 1975 through 1980, Steve served on active duty with the
U.S. Air Force as a Judge Advocate. From 1980 through 2001, he
continued his service as a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve
and retired in January 2001 with the rank of Colonel. For the
last several years of his Reserve duty, Steve acted as a legal
advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the
Under Secretary of Defense in connection with employee benefit
plan matters affecting the Department of Defense. He designed
and drafted the first "401(k)" plan for members of the Armed
Services and authored the related Report to Congress.
Entry year of Board membership: 2016
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