CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AdvancePierre Foods Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: APFH) (“AdvancePierre”), a leading national producer and distributor of sandwiches, sandwich components and other entrées and snacks, has named Linn Harson Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, effective August 1, 2016. Harson will oversee all legal, corporate governance and compliance and reporting requirements for the company.
Harson was most recently a partner at the Dayton office of Thompson Hine, a leading full-service law firm with more than 400 attorneys across seven offices and a provider of legal services to AdvancePierre for the last 25 years. Harson has actively worked with AdvancePierre since 2005 and has been functioning as the company’s outside General Counsel for the last several years.
“Linn has been a trusted advisor and resource for our team for a number of years, and I look forward to having her legal expertise and business acumen in-house as we start this exciting new chapter as a public company,” said John Simons, AdvancePierre’s President and CEO. AdvancePierre made its debut as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 15, 2016.
Harson joined Thompson Hine in 1998 and was most recently a partner in the Corporate Transactions & Securities practice group and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. In addition to her involvement with AdvancePierre, she served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Robbins & Myers, Inc., an NYSE-listed company, from 2009 until its sale to National Oilwell Varco in 2013.
In addition to being listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Harson received recognition as Best Lawyers 2014 Lawyers of the Year in the area of Mergers & Acquisition Law. She holds a bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Dayton School of Law, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and currently serves as a member of the school’s advisory council.
About AdvancePierre Foods
AdvancePierre Foods Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: APFH), headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a leading national producer and distributor of value-added, convenient, ready-to-eat sandwiches, sandwich components and other entrées and snacks to a wide variety of distribution outlets including foodservice, retail and convenience store providers. With revenues of $1.6 billion in 2015 and more than 4,000 employees, the Company offers a broad line of products across all day parts including: ready-to-eat sandwiches, such as breakfast sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and hamburgers; sandwich components, such as fully cooked hamburger and chicken patties, and Philly steaks; and other entrées and snacks, such as country-fried steak, stuffed entrées, chicken tenders and cinnamon dough bites. A fund managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., a Los Angeles-based investment firm, is the majority shareholder of AdvancePierre Foods.
