California-based global avocado company Calavo Growers has announced promotions for two senior executives.

Robert Wedin has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Fresh Sales. Wedin joined Calavo in 1973 at the Company’s packinghouse in Santa Barbara and has served as Vice President, Sales and Fresh Marketing since 1993.

Wedin has also served as a director of the California Avocado Commission and is currently a board and executive committee member of Producesupply.org, a consortium of leading produce suppliers who are working to facilitate E-commerce adoption in the produce supply chain. 

“Calavo is fortunate to have an executive of Rob’s caliber, with his deep knowledge of our business and the industry. Over his many years of leadership at Calavo, Rob has delivered a strong record of business growth, developed new organizational capabilities and cultivated strategic customer relationships,” said James E. Gibson, Chief Executive Officer of Calavo.

Mark Lodge has been promoted to Chief Operations Officer responsible for overseeing all of Calavo’s production facilities in the U.S. and Mexico. Lodge joined Calavo in 2019 as Executive Vice President of RFG Business Operations, following 25 years leading large scale manufacturing and logistics businesses.

He served most recently as Executive Vice President at Revolution Foods, supplying all-natural school meals across the U.S. Prior to that, he was President at True Fresh HPP and True Food Innovations, and was instrumental in establishing the Fresh & Easy manufacturing business in the U.S. for Tesco, plc.

“Mark has brought his expertise in food service innovation to our operations and has demonstrated his capability as a business leader in evolving and strengthening our global supply chain,” said Gibson.

"These promotions recognize the impact of Rob and Mark’s outstanding leadership in their respective roles. They will continue to work closely with me and the rest of the executive team to drive the success of our company.”