:: Team Bios - Hill Country Bakery ::

David, whose creative talent has made an impact throughout the restaurant and food-service industries, co-founded Hill Country Bakery in 1997. Among his many roles is brainstorming with research and development teams around the country, creating and customizing products to suit our Client Partners’ specific needs.

David has more than a quarter-century of experience in the food-service industry, including owning restaurants. He began his career apprenticing with Executive Chef Don Thompson, which gave David an understanding of the importance of communicating effectively and meeting the needs of Client Partners from a chef’s perspective.

Among his accomplishments:

- Working with restaurant chains to develop unique food concepts

- Innovation of inclusions for the ice cream industry

- Creation of baking mixes for food manufacturers

- Acquisition of several food-service patents

Steve O’Donnell

Managing Partner

Steve O’Donnell grew up professionally in the bakery business. While working his way through college, he took a summer job at the local Wonder Bread Bakery. It turned into much more than a summer experience; eight years later Steve was the assistant production manager of the plant, which had 350 employees. Along the way, Steve earned a business degree from the University of New York and graduated from the American Institute of Baking.

In 1987, Steve went to work for the H.E. Butt Grocery Company in San Antonio, Texas at their Sweet Goods Bakery. After three years in charge of production, Steve was promoted to General Manager and began to develop products and programs for the company’s 300 in-store bakeries. In 1996, Steve left HEB to start his own consulting company. Steve met David Nolan at an industry trade show and the idea of Hill Country Bakery soon followed.

Phil Butrum

Chief Financial Officer

Phil brings an unusual blend of financial skills and operational experience to Hill Country Bakery, having been in the food manufacturing business for more than a quarter-century. Phil spent 20 years with H.E. Butt Grocery in San Antonio, holding several financial and operational positions, including Manager of Manufacturing Analysis, Planning, and Reporting. Among his responsibilities there: investment and operations analysis for plant ventures, leadership for plant startups, production planning and scheduling, procurement, and warehouse operations. Phil is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas.

Larry Nolan

Dir. Product Development

Overseeing Research and Development is a natural role for Larry. He previously owned successful restaurants, where he enjoyed creating new and unique entrées and desserts. After earning a degree in Hotel/Motel Management from Michigan State University, Larry began his career as a food and beverage director with Hilton Hotels. Eventually, he was drawn to the back of the house, where he found his true calling: working on menu ideations with chefs. He joined Hill Country Bakery in early 1998.

Liz Banks

Dir. Procurement

Liz brings more than three decades of experience to her role of procuring the fresh, choice ingredients used by Hill Country Bakery. Liz previously worked for H.E. Butt Grocery, holding several staff and operational positions. As materials manager of the Sweet Goods Bakery (with annual sales were $90 million), she had direct responsibility for procurement, production planning, and warehouse management of ingredients and packaging. Additionally, she was the budget coordinator for bakery plant operations. She has also served in leadership on several information system software implementation projects.

Paul Gabrielson

Dir. National Accounts

Paul is a recent addition to the Hill Country Bakery staff but is no a stranger to the company. Most recently, Paul was employed for 10 years by Starbucks as a Regional Food Manager.

Paul’s strong background in food is a result of 23 years experience in hotel food and beverage with the Marriott Hotel Corporation primarily in positions of Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Director in locations such as Minneapolis, MN, Denver, CO; Washington D.C; Anaheim and Santa Barbara CA: Hilton Head Island, SC; and Marco Island FL.

A native of Minneapolis, Paul attended the University of Minnesota; Rochester Vocational and Technical Institute and performed an culinary internship in Switzerland.

Danny Jones

Dir. New Business Development

With two decades of experience in domestic and international marketing, Danny has extensive experience in the import and export of food ingredients. He has worked with manufacturers of various food products, selling bulk commodities and packaged foods to the food service industry. Danny led a team of 16 people from Sam’s Club, H.E. Butt Grocery, Cargill, Hershey Foods, and Texas A&M University that developed new concepts for Business-to-Business internet marketing and trade. Danny has also negotiated private label and exclusive marketing agreements with major foreign and domestic companies.

Hector Ortega

Dir. Operations

Hector was the first employee of Hill Country Bakery in January 1997. In his current position, he is responsible for Plant Operations, with an emphasis on quality. Hector’s career has focused on the manufacturing of bakery goods and on the food-service industry. He started as a chef’s assistant in a restaurant, and has moved on to work as a chef, production supervisor, and Research and Development assistant—an impressive combination of retail and manufacturing experience.

Fred Bey

Dir. Operations

Fred joined Hill Country Bakery in 2004 and is responsible for Plant Operations, with an emphasis on food safety. After graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in Baking Science and Technology, his career of more than 35 years has focused on the manufacturing and retail of bakery goods and prepared foods. Fred’s experience combines retail, product development, and plant operations. He was superintendent of a plant that produced sweet goods with annual sales of $90 million. In addition, he has worked as Research and Development director for a prepared foods company, and was a bakery retail operations manager for H.E. Butt Grocery.

Louis Flores

Dir. Engineering Operations

Louis’ knowledge and nearly 40 years of experience combine to form an impressive (and unusual) blend of engineering skills. He and his department design and build some of the key Hill Country production equipment, providing our Client Partners with unique products that are safe and cost-efficient. Before joining Hill Country, Louis worked with H.E. Butt Grocery as a Plant Engineer supporting their Sweet Goods and Bakery plants.

Erika Butler

Dir. Quality Systems

Erika is the Director of Quality and Food Safety for Hill Country Bakery. She brings a total of 5 years of production and 6 years of Quality experience with her to the company. Nine years of her experience have been in the pharmaceutical manufacturing environment. Her Quality experience comes from Quality positions beginning in the Quality Control Laboratory, and progressing through the Quality Assurance and Quality Validation Departments. She also served five years as a production supervisor where her team building and leadership skills were honed. This unique combination of quality and production experience along with her Masters Degree in Management of Technology gives her a solid foundation to effectively manage the food safety and quality program.

Trinity Greer

Creative Projects Manager

In 2007 HCB hired Trinity to develop their corporate communications department. He manages the production of Web and Printed materials, Food & Promotional Photography, Video Production, and other special projects. He was introduced to HCB in 2005, when he was contracted to edit a video to educate client partners about the benefits working with Hill Country Bakery.

Trinity is an award winning filmmaker & animator with seven years experience in Independent films, TV shows, Commercial Spots, Corporate videos, and Web shows. His has freelanced on projects for CBS Sports, HOLT Cat, PBS, Time Warner, and Valero just to name a few.

He studied the art and science of filmmaking, design, and photography at Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY), where he received his BFA. Prior to college he served 5 years in the US navy as a 2nd class Petty Officer Avionics Technician, Aircrewman for the nuclear command and control squadron VQ3.

Albert Salinas

Logistics Manager

Albert comes to us with 18 years of distribution experience. Albert started his career with H.E.B where he received most of his experience in the distribution field. After 9 years with H.E.B he moved on to labatt, Autozone,sygma and Grocery supply where he continued to progress his career in warehouse distribution. After holding positions of supervisor, operations supervisor and distribution manager he has led the way in running a more affective distribution center as well as continuing to increase productivity along the way. In every position safety has always and will continue to be a top priority.

Gina Parsons-Sanchez

Financial Supervisor

Gina helps oversee Customer Service, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable, dealing directly with Client Partners’ procurement, accounting, and other operational departments. She helps ensure that our Client Partners receive exceptional customer service. Prior to moving into the food manufacturing business in 1999, Gina served in leadership positions in companies in the retail, telecommunications, and medical industries.

Joel Lira

Logistics Supervisor

Joel has been with Hill Country Bakery since 2000, and moved into his role as logistics supervisor in 2005. In addition to leading the logistics team, Joel deals directly with transportation, Client Partners, and vendors. Joel began his career in the auto parts retail industry in shipping and receiving.

Mela Cantú-May

Human Resource Supervisor

Mela is responsible for Human Resources related to our employees’ payroll and benefit needs. Her excellent communication and bilingual skills are a great asset to Hill Country Bakery. Mela started with Hill Country Bakery in our accounting department handling accounts receivable, accounts payable, and billing. Her previous experience includes customer service and accounting positions with major companies in the banking, oil and gas, medical, and food industries.