Hormel Foods Corp. has made a couple changes in administration.

The company announced Monday that Scott Aakre has been named vice president of corporate innovation and new product development, a new position, and Whitney Velasco-Aznar is joining the company and assuming Aakre’s previous position as vice president of marketing for Grocery Products, which includes the SPAM family of products and Hormel chili.

“Scott’s new position will allow him to focus on our corporate innovation processes and new product development,” said Jeff Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer at Hormel. “We welcome Whitney and look forward to the marketing acumen she will add for our Grocery Products portfolio, which includes the SPAM family of products and Hormel chili.”

Aakre joined the company in 1990 as an assistant product manager in meat products and was promoted to various positions within the department. In 1998, he was promoted to group product manager for meat products. He later assum-ed the duties of group product manager for Grocery Products and was promoted to director of marketing for the division in 2003 before being named vice president of marketing for Grocery Products in 2005.

Velasco-Aznar has more than 19 years of experience as a consumer goods marketer and business manager. She is currently the marketing controller for Cereal Partners Worldwide, a joint venture between Nestlé S.A. and General Mills Inc., in the United Kingdom. Previously, she was the vice president of marketing of the CPW Asian and Latin American regions.