Company: Sara Lee 2.0 (working name)
Leadership team size: 13
What's new: A new in-house comms structure has been put in place to oversee, and eventually lead, the spring spinoff of Sara Lee 2.0.
Jon Harris, current SVP of global communications at Sara Lee Corporation, is now leading a refreshed team to support the upcoming spring 2012 spinoff of Sara Lee 2.0, where he will eventually take the helm as CCO.
The team will ultimately head up comms within the new public company, which will consist of Sara Lee's North American meat business, including brands Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Sara Lee, and Aidells Sausage.
In contrast to the current comms setup, the Sara Lee 2.0 team has added government affairs, consumer affairs, and sustainability functions to its direct reporting structure.
"Even though we are getting smaller in scope as a spun-off company, the need to communicate will intensify and increase greatly in the coming months and years ahead," Harris says. "There's going to be a far more aggressive and substantial approach to communications. Right now, this team is in place and ready to go."
The remainder of Sara Lee Corporation, the international coffee and tea business, tentatively called Coffee Co., will have its own independent comms team. In September, Karen Beuk was appointed as director of corporate communications for that business.
