and Hampton promoted at NEC
National Enzyme Company recently promoted Harold Fox to director of sales, and Kevin Hampton to director of manufacturing. Fox will continue his work overseeing the domestic and international sales departments. Hampton will oversee all manufacturing operations. Fox's new role will require him to direct and manage both areas of the sales department and to achieve or exceed the forecasted annual sales goals. Hampton's most recent project was to supervise the construction of the 10,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, which he will now oversee.
www.nationalenzyme.com

Liang and Lynch are new faces at Virginia Dare

Food, beverage and pharmaceutical manufacturer Virginia Dare appointed Sandy Liang, a recent graduate of Rutgers University with a master's degree in nutritional sciences and four years product-development experience, to the position of food technologist. Liang will create new flavour concepts for food products and beverages, as well as design prototypes and supply technical support in health and nutrition-related areas. Stephanie Lynch is now the business development director. Her focus will be on business development in the health and wellness, nutritional, and pharmaceutical industries, the company says. Lynch formerly was global market manager, food and nutrition business, at the Dow Chemical Company in Zurich, Switzerland.
www.virginiadare.com

joins Microbia
Microbia, a producer of sustainable speciality ingredients and biomaterials technology, appointed John A McCarthy Jr as senior vice president, corporate strategy, and chief financial officer. He will help prepare Microbia's introduction of a natural carotenoid line of products for both human and animal consumption. McCarthy brings 17 years of executive management experience to Microbia from the health-care and alternative-energy industries. Most recently, he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Verenium Corporation, a leader in the biofuels industry, where he was responsible for negotiating the creation of Verenium by merging two organisations.
www.microbia.com

New president and board for NPA
The Natural Products Association (NPA), representing more than 10,000 retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of natural products, installed its 2009-2010 board of directors, including a new president. Long time NPA member and independent retailer Pat Sardell was sworn in for a two-year term as association president at the association's annual business meeting. Sardell has served as director for the northwest regional and national boards for 10 years and as retail council chairperson for two years.