MISSISSAUGA, ONT.  — Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. has named David Smales as its new chief financial officer. Mr. Smales succeeds Geert Verellen.

Mr. Smales joins the company from Aecon Group where he was executive vice president and CFO for 14 years. He was previously CFO at Catalyst Paper Corp. and held leadership positions at Novar PLC and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mr. Smales received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in England.

Mr. Verellen was CFO for Maple Leaf Foods for four years. Before his time with the company, Mr. Verellen was a regional CFO for Walmart Canada, India and Japan. He also spent 12 years at Delhaize Belgium holding several leadership positions. Mr. Verellen also held positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers Belgium.

He received a master’s degree in commercial engineering from the University of Antwerp.