Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance Overhaul

Top Down corporate governance NEO and Board structure:

(a) Board Members

(see resume profile)

(b) Executives

(TBD by exec search)

Meet the Shareholders

Ludmilla Smolyansky

Ludmila Smolyansky, 74, served as a director of the Company from 2002 until May 16, 2023, and unanimously elected as the Chairperson of the Board in November 2002. She has been the operator of several independent delicatessen and gourmet food distributorship businesses, imported food distributorships, and been a leading force in the health food market for over 40 years.

Ludmila Smolyansky and Michael Smolyansky founded Lifeway and she served as the Company’s General Manager. In 2010, she retired as a Company employee. She continued to serve the Company as its Chairperson of the Board until August 2022 and served as a consultant to the Company from 2011 until January 2022.

Ludmila Smolyansky is the mother of Julie Smolyansky, the Company’s the Chairperson, President, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary, and Edward Smolyansky.

Edward Smolyansky

Mr. Smolyansky, 44, served as a director of the Company from 2017 until the 2022 annual meeting of shareholders of the Company. Prior to January 2022, he also served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer. He was appointed as Chief Financial and Accounting Officer and Treasurer of the Company in November 2004 and appointed as the Chief Operating Officer and Secretary in 2012. He resigned his titles as Chief Financial Officer on January 1, 2016 and as Chief Accounting Officer on August 8, 2016. He retained his title of Chief Operating Officer when the Board appointed Eric Hanson as Treasurer and as Secretary on October 4, 2019. Mr. Smolyansky also served as Lifeway’s Controller from June 2002 until 2004.

Mr. Smolyansky received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Loyola University of Chicago in December 2001. Mr. Smolyansky is the brother of Chairperson, President, CEO and Secretary, Julie Smolyansky, and the son of Ludmila Smolyansky, one of the Company’s directors and director nominees, and one of the Shareholder Nominees.

Mr. Smolyansky has over fifteen years of extensive financial and operations experience in the dairy and consumer packaged goods industries. Under his operational leadership, the Company has successfully integrated several strategic acquisitions and successfully led the development of both manufacturing processes and products.

As the former Chief Operating Officer and former Chief Financial Officer of a publicly traded company, he brings experience working with the investor community and financial institutions. In addition, as a member of the Company’s founding family, he is a recognized leader in the dairy and probiotic products industry with an in-depth knowledge of manufacturers, distributors and retailers across all the Company’s channels of distribution, all of which led to the conclusion that he should serve as a director, in light of the Company’s business and structure.

Curated Chicago Cover copy

“Defiance and the Power….”
Curated Chicago magazine article about Julie Smolyansky