FOSTORIA, OHIO, U.S. — D. Ford Mennel has been named president of The Mennel Milling Co. at the company’s annual meeting held Aug. 27. He succeeds his father, Donald L. Mennel, who has been president since 1980. Donald was elected chairman of the board. 

Ford represents the fifth generation of the Mennel family to lead the company. He has served as plant manager of Mennel’s flour mills in Dowagiac, Michigan, and Roanoke, Virginia, U.S., as well as assistant to the president prior to his election. Prior to Mennel, he worked in the hotel industry. 

Ford received a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree in business administration from Averett University. 

Mennel Milling Co., which in 2011 celebrated its 125th year in business, operates five wheat flour mills with an overall daily milling capacity of 40,900 cwts. It ranks seventh in capacity in the U.S., according to Sosland Publishing’s 2013 Grain & Milling Annual.

The company was founded in 1886 by a banking family, the Harters, from Mansfield, Ohio, and a Hungarian flour milling family, the Browns, from Canton, Ohio, and became known as Harter Milling Co.