Stonyfield, Londonderry, NH, has announced that Walt Freese will join the company as president and Chief Executive Officer (CE-Yo). Co-founder Gary Hirshberg will continue as Stonyfield chairman and shareholder, while advocating for change in national food and agriculture policies, including the labeling of genetically engineered foods. Mr. Hirshberg hand-selected a like-minded successor in Mr. Freese, former CEO of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.

As Stonyfield chairman, Mr. Hirshberg will remain involved with the company, maintaining oversight of Stonyfield's European sister companies, its new Stonyfield Cafés and the company's Profits-for-the-Planet program, while serving on several boards at French parent company Danone. The move will allow Mr. Hirshberg to devote more attention to a variety of local and national political efforts including seeking labeling of genetically engineered foods with the Just Label It campaign and his work on U.S. food and agriculture policy as a co-chair of AGree, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy initiative.