Dave Thomas Bio
Brief History of Dave Thomas
American Dairy Products Institute CEO Dave Thomas was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the IMPA conference in Sun Valley on August, 2016.
WORK AND EDUCATION HISTORY
1976: Worked for Schreiber Foods in Logan, UT while attending school.
1978: Dave received his BS degree in Nutrition and Food Science at Utah State.
He then went on to work on a Master's degree, but did not complete his thesis.
1978 - 1979: Worked for Kraft in Green Bay, WI as natural cheese specialist
1980 - 1987: Worked for Western General Dairies in Ogden, UT (which evolved into Intermountain Milk, then WDCI, then finally DFA), as plant manager of Ogden plant, then plant manager of WDCI cheese plant in Richmond, UT, then plant manager of Ogden plant, then Operations manager for the whole cheese division.
1987 - 1990: Worked as operations manager for Ward's Cheese in Richfield, ID.
1990 - 2005: President and CEO for Avonmore, where he managed planning and construction of cheese & whey plant in Gooding, ID, acquired Twin Falls cheese plant, managed expansion of Ward cheese plant., involved with joint venture of massive Southwest Cheese plant in Clovis, NM.
2005 - 2009: GM for Gossner Foods Idaho operations in Heyburn, ID, including overseeing construction of new ID facility. Dave was IMPA president from 2007 - 08.
2009 - 2011: Started consulting business, Dairy Consulting LLC.
2012 - present: Dave became CEO of ADPI, where he still works to this day.
Dave also somehow finds time to manage the Magic Valley Chalet in Heyburn (which he owns), and is affiliated with the following organizations: Member of USU College of Agriculture; Former board member of IDFA, ADPI, and Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce.
Barney Krueger, long-time associate of Dave Thomas, assisted with this year's presentation.
The presentation ended with Dave's wonderful family present, that has been there to support Dave all these years, and help celebrate his accomplishments, including wife Sandy, 9 married children, and 23 grandchildren. "