Our Mission
Basic Beliefs
Leadership Team
Board of Directors
Our History
Responsible Distribution
Community Involvement
Careers |
Board of Directors
Kris Maynard
Chief Executive Officer & Chairman
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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, in his free time,
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 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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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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Dick Wright
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Dick Wright is a native of
Boston, Massachusetts. He received his degree in Chemistry from
Northeastern University in 1964. Dick spent the next 26 years
working in Research and Development, concluding his career as
Vice President of R&D. Dick began a new career as a management
consultant, working with companies throughout the US that were
trying to find ways to get their employees more involved in
improving the performance of their businesses.
Dick lives in Kettering, Ohio with his beautiful wife of over 50
years, Mary. They have three wonderful kids: Robin, Rich, and
Cindy, and nine delightful grand kids. He has been involved at Ei
for 18 years and has served on the Board for over 15 years.
Entry year of Board membership: 1998 |
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