John Mendesh

Senior Advisor, Special Projects
John Mendesh

Solving problems, helping others, and being around ideas are three things John loves to do. Having retired from a 33-year career with General Mills, he doesn’t miss work meetings—but if you put him around ideas, and new ways to try things, he’ll still do that all day long. In fact, John does regularly volunteer 30 or 40 hours a week as a senior advisor for PFS. A technical person by background, John is a chemical engineer who picked up an MBA along the way. During his three decades with General Mills, he worked on virtually every angle of food. He developed new products for global cereals, directed international operations and supply chain for Yoplait, worked in engineering and manufacturing positions, and managed the corporate relationship with Cargill. John was also part of the group at General Mills that started PFS, first as an internal program at the company. He says the long philanthropic history at General Mills created an environment quite conducive to developing the idea. Beyond his volunteering with PFS, John supports a variety of education initiatives like the Evans Scholarship, sending deserving young men and women to college, and interests close to his heart like the Children’s Cancer Research Fund. He also reads a ton, mostly nonfiction spiritual texts, and enjoys a lot of physical activities, particularly anything with his children, like golfing with his son and adventures with his daughters. 

General Mills
General Mills, the founding member of Partners in Food Solutions, is one of the world’s leading food companies, operating in more than 100 countries and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cargill
Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. Founded in 1865, the privately held company employs 150,000 people in 70 countries.
DSM
With a nearly 30,000 strong team and unparalleled capabilities built on more than a century of cutting-edge science, dsm-firmenich is a trailblazer in the reinvention, manufacturing, and combination of vital nutrients, flavors, and fragrances.
Bühler
Bühler is a global leader in the field of process engineering, in particular production technologies and services for producing foods and manufacturing advanced materials. Bühler operates in over 140 countries and has a over 10,000 employees worldwide.
Hershey
The Hershey Company, headquartered in Hershey, PA, is a global confectionery leader known for bringing goodness to the world through its chocolate, sweets, mints and other great-tasting snacks.
Ardent Mills
Ardent Mills is committed to transforming how the world is nourished.
Smucker's
Inspired by more than 120 years of business success and five generations of family leadership, The J. M. Smucker Company makes food that people and pets love. The Company’s portfolio of 40+ brands, which are found in 90 percent of U.S. homes and countless restaurants, include iconic products consumers have always loved such as Folgers, Jif and Milk-Bone plus new favorites like Café Bustelo, Smucker’s Uncrustables and Rachael Ray Nutrish.