ARLINGTON, VA — Officials with the Food Marketing Institute announced the retirement of Jill Hollingsworth, DVM, senior vice president of food safety programs. After working with FMI for the past 15 years, Hollingsworth plans to spend her retirement in Hilton Head Island, SC with her family.

“Jill has been an extraordinary advocate on behalf of supermarkets,” said Leslie Sarasin FMI president and CEO. “She has spent her entire career dedicated to ensuring food safety for consumers. Under Jill’s 15 years of leadership, the FMI has developed a complete spectrum of food-safety resources for retailers and wholesalers, including the Safe Quality Food Institute and SafeMark training programs. She will be greatly missed, but we wish her a wonderful retirement.”


Replacing Hollingsworth in mid-June will be Hilary Thesmar, Ph.D., R.D. Thesmar joins FMI after working as senior director of scientific and regulatory affairs at the National Turkey Federation. Thesmar will be responsible for supervising all programs and activities related to food safety, food defense and food quality systems. She also will serve FMI member companies as a representative before governmental, scientific, consumer and industry addressing matters relating to food safety.