Carpigiani North America appointed Brian Smetana as vice president sales, strategic accounts, for the Ali Group company.

Brian SmetanaSmetana brings more than 25 years of experience in the retail and commercial foodservice industry to this role. He started his career at Ace Hardware in a business-facing information technology role and then progressed to McDonald’s Corp., where he worked in global data warehousing, per a release. Since then, he has held various sales and account management positions with Marmon Foodservice Technologies, Carter-Hoffmann Doyon, and LG Electronics.

Smetana will assist in overall group support and will lead Carpigiani’s “global effort to develop and align strategic key account plans.” His primary focus will be on “key partners like McDonald’s Corporation.”