Leadership Team

A global leader in supply chain and manufacturing

As the CEO for Due North, Troy is responsible for developing and manufacturing world-class retail refrigeration merchandising solutions that support the business needs of customers. From a leadership standpoint, he’s accountable for driving the growth of Due North and steering all company acquisitions to ensure more resources are available to the market segments served. He is devoted to customer service excellence and looks to find ways to improve business outcomes, which include bringing new products to market and delivering transformational end-to-end innovation . Troy’s main goal is to bring shareholder value by driving the company’s growth through increasing share, leveraging new technology, strategic acquisitions, synergies, and team accountability.  His vision includes having a true partnership with company customers and helping them reach their business goals.

Troy, who has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University, developed a deep understanding for global supply chain and efficient manufacturing processes in his career at the Kraft Heinz Company where he held various roles including Senior Vice President, North American Supply Chain. He was also the EVP and Chief Supply Chain Officer for Nonni’s Foods, and he’s currently a board member for Heartisan Foods. Troy leverages the DMAIC improvement cycle and Lean Six Sigma to optimize supply chain, manufacturing performance and operational excellence, and he is committed to an inclusive and engaged workforce that drives productivity as a united front.

A Proven Leader in Driving Sales Growth and Building High-Performing Teams

Sean is a distinguished sales and marketing executive with over 20 years of experience in the food retail and equipment industries. Sean’s results-driven, customer-focused approach emphasizes internal efficiencies and the professional development of his teams. Throughout his career, he has consistently delivered outstanding results, exceeding expectations and driving substantial growth.

Before joining Due North, Sean led U.S. initiatives for Lowe Rental’s Equipment-As-A-Service Model (EaaS), known as Rental+. He has also held senior leadership roles at respected organizations such as Dover Food Retail, KPS Global, and Anthony International. Sean has an exceptional track record of enhancing sales team performance, implementing strategic restructuring plans, and re-engaging key customer segments—efforts that have resulted in significant revenue growth and restored market share.

Sean’s commitment to building high-performing sales teams and his strong leadership style make him a perfect fit for Due North. His character, interpersonal skills, and alignment with our long-term strategy will be invaluable as Due North continues to strengthen its market position.

Sean holds an MBA from Baylor University and a Bachelor of Science in Food Marketing from Saint Joseph’s University.

A leading player both operationally and strategically

Debra was an executive with Minus Forty Technologies for over 30 years before she became the COO at Due North. Her achievements lie in passionately developing innovative refrigerated retail merchandising solutions that maximize customers’ success. Debra’s focus is to oversee the business’ daily administrative and operational outcomes, reporting structures, and handle all internal affairs that deliver the company’s strategic plans and vision. She drives growth results and increases efficiency by identifying areas of excellence in creating, implementing, and rolling out objectives for process improvement, internal infrastructures, reporting systems, and policies.

Debra’s analytical and managerial expertise is vital in strengthening the company’s talented and energetic culture. She does this by building on high-performance mandates, developing leaders, and empowering the team to meet operational excellence that best serves the various markets and scales business profitability. In addition to managing the workforce, she forges strategic partnerships and relationships with customers and vendors. She oversees all other key correspondence to deliver against a world-class brand and state-of-the-art products and services.

A passionate and powerful force in merchandising innovation

Previous to Marinko Tepic’s role of Vice-President of Engineering for Due North, he was the lead engineering mind for Minus Forty Technologies. Marinko is committed to finding creative design solutions and developing advanced products in the field of refrigerated, retail merchandising solutions. He is devoted to inspiring, promoting, and leading the engineering team in professional development and growth for the long-term success of the company and its customers.

Marinko’s extensive background includes a B.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering and over 30 years of experience in engineering, management, and teaching. He is a thought leader and expert in mechanical, refrigeration, and electrical engineering; commercial refrigerating product design; plastic parts design and manufacturing processes; electrical and electronic controls; and regulatory compliance. He is an inventor named on numerous patents in the US and Canada. Mr. Tepic serves as the Vice-Chair of Technical Subcommittee on Household and Commercial Appliances for Refrigeration at Canadian Standards Association (CSA). He’s also a licensed professional engineer with Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) since 2000.

A process improvement expert who maximizes team success

Throughout his career in retail refrigeration, Aaron has worked his way up by consistently developing new product requests that customers, from the convenience store and micro market industry expect. As the Vice-President of Manufacturing for Due North Aaron is responsible for all operational aspects pertaining to production, quality assurance, maintenance, and logistics.  He drives development and implementation of strategies to increase production output and efficiency, so the company meets annual goals and objectives for retention, growth, and profitability in delivering refrigerated retail merchandising solutions that meet the standards of maximizing customers’ success.

Aaron is educated in Lean Six Sigma with the University of Toronto. He understands that the pathway to satisfaction for company customers is through employee development and engagement.Through consistent training and internal growth, a strong, focused, and energized workforce contributes to the bottom line for everyone.

A results-driven procurement, supply chain and operations professional

Steve has over 20 years of experience on delivering results, improving processes, and leading efficient and cost-effective procurement solutions. As the Vice-President of Purchasing for Due North, he ensures strategies are in play to maintain agility and resilience throughout the supply chain, while overseeing product inventory levels are within budget. Steve is focused on developing efficient route to market solutions for all refrigerated, retail merchandising solutions. He leads the full process, from overseeing operations of the procurement department and successfully, efficiently, and economically acquiring materials that are essential to the company’s function, through production and on-time product delivery transport models customized for each customer requirement. Steve’s attentiveness is applied to the procurement of supplies with key vendors, that make the company’s merchandisers exceptional, and that facilitate efficient operations of the plant and other business functioning requirements. His main purpose is ensuring high-quality as well as cost-effective procurement means that meet the company’s, as well as the buyers’ budget.

Steve excels in global sourcing, purchasing, project management, supply chain, continuous improvement, and cross-functional and global team leadership. Critical to making the sourcing and procurement team more effective at their jobs, he is driven to develop the tools and processes that help maintain a constant flow of communications internally which is essential to Due North’s product quality and timely and effective customer order fulfillment.