At ABA's Annual Meeting yesterday, our membership elected six new talented members of the beverage industry to our board of directors.

Our member companies continue to lead the way in the food and beverage industry with the School Beverage Guidelines, which remove full-calorie soft drinks and provide for more nutritious options for kids in schools.  We are also leading on issues like the environment - working as individual companies and together to further reduce our environmental footprint. Also, on nutrition, we recently introduced the Clear on Calories initiative, which makes calorie information more clear and consumer-friendly.  These are big strides for any industry, and we are proud to say we have the strong and dynamic leadership that is needed to get the job done.

We join the broader ABA membership in welcoming:

-Anthony J. Varni, president, Varni Brothers Corporation
-J. Andrew Moore, co-president, MLF Group
-Jerry Fowden, chief executive officer, Cott Corporation
-Seth Goldman, President & TeaEO, Honest Tea
-Scott Miller, chief executive officer, Tampico Beverages, Inc.

In addition, Tom L. Bené, president, Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages, was elected to the board and will assume the vice chair position vacated by Hugh Johnston, chief financial officer of PepsiCo.

Welcome to the team!