Dean Foods Co. has named Howard Dean Jr., the Franklin Park-based company`s president, to the additional post of chief executive officer, effective Oct. 1.
Dean, 49, will replace Kenneth Douglas, who has been chief executive since 1970. Douglas, who turns 65 Sept. 4, will continue as chairman. Douglas, a lawyer and former FBI agent, joined the firm in 1954.
In 1970, Chairman Samuel Dean and his brother and president, Howard Sr., retired in favor of a new management team of Douglas and Howard Dean Jr.
Howard Dean joined the firm full-time in 1965 after a 3 1/2-year hitch in the Navy and earning an MBA from Northwestern University.
Since Douglas and Howard Dean Jr. took over, Dean`s acquisitions of dairies and food companies and internal growth have built the firm from a company with $165 million in sales into a conglomerate that had sales of $1.4 billion last year.
