Four staff members were promoted at the Council for Responsible Nutrition: Rend Al-Mondhiry to associate general counsel; Sandra Khouri to vice president, finance & administration; Carl Hyland to senior director, membership development; and Haiuyen Nguyen to director, scientific & regulatory affairs.

Michael Murray, ND, was honored with two prestigious awards: the Benedict Lust Award from the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and the Mission Award from Bastyr University.

Catharine Arnston, founder and CEO of ENERGYbits Inc. was selected as one of the winners of Entrepreneur magazine's Project Grow Challenge. ENERGYbits is a Boston sports nutrition company that sells algae tablets to athletes and health conscious consumers who want increased energy from a source that is natural, healthy and caffeine-free.

Applegate, the nation's leading natural and organic meat brand, announced that Chief Executive Officer Kerry Collins will transition to the role of CEO emeritus, and Chief Operating Officer Steven J. Lykken will assume the position of president. Applegate Farms LLC is a stand-alone subsidiary of Hormel Foods Corporation.

As functional ingredients leader AIDP begins its 20th year in business, the company proudly announces that Mark Thurston has joined as president. The company’s founder and current president, Edward Lee, is promoted to chief executive officer. Thurston most recently served as vice president global business development at Innophos Inc.

The Vitamin Shoppe has made a number of enhancements to its board of directors. David Edwab, who served as lead director since April 2011, has stepped down from that role and John Bowlin, who became a member of the Vitamin Shoppe board in October 2014, will now serve as lead director. Separately, the board intends to add two new independent directors over the next 60 to 90 days. Richard Markee, who has served as the company's executive chairman since March 2011, elected not to renew his employment agreement upon its scheduled expiration and will become non-executive chairman of the board.

At fermented amino acids and branded ingredients maker Kyowa Hakko USA, Leo R. Cullen, former executive vice president, has been promoted to president and CEO. D. Christopher Nolte, former director of nutritional sales, has been promoted to vice president of nutritional sales.

Nature’s Power Nutraceuticals, a leading manufacturer and bulk supplier of premium grade botanical ingredients for functional foods, beverages and dietary supplements, is announced the promotion of Eric Guggenheim to director of sales. Eric joined NP Nutra in 2011 as a quality assurance technician, developing the company solubility rating system and testing the quality/consistency of ingredients.

Jayasinh V. Mariwala, chairman, OmniActive Health Technologies, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions in innovating and growing the spice industry at the International Spice Conference on January 21st in Goa, India.