Renville, Minn. — Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative, a shareholder-owned producer of refined sugar and sugar products, announced this month that it has elected Paul Fry to be its next president and chief executive officer.
Fry will formally assume the position on July 12.
According to the announcement, Fry’s entire career has been in the sugar industry. He has worked in factories across the globe to improve their performance.
He holds bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering and psychology, both from the University of North Dakota. With his extensive engineering background, he specializes in facility improvement plans including operational cost reduction, increased throughput, and capital project implementation.
Fry will join the Renville-based cooperative from Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where he has served as vice president of operations since 2017.
Minn-Dak is a farmer-owned cooperative with one factory location and 400 employees and is a co-product marketing partner of Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative in Midwest Agri Commodities.
Prior to his time with Minn-Dak, Fry owned his own engineering consulting firm and held various process engineer positions at EAPC, American Crystal Sugar Company, and even Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative from 1996-1998.
In March 2022, Steve Domm announced his retirement as the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative president and chief executive officer. At that time, the board of directors began a global executive search with assistance from the search firm of Kincannon & Reed.