CRANSTON, R.I. – At company employee meetings held at Taco facilities in Cranston and Fall River, Taco President and CEO John Hazen White, Jr. introduced Wil VandeWiel as the new COO of Taco, effective December 15, 2014. As the new COO of Taco, VandeWiel will oversee daily operations of Taco and work with White and his board of directors in steering Taco’s growth forward in the years ahead.

White, the third generation of the White family to lead Taco, will remain as company CEO but will refocus his responsibilities on building new partnerships and strategic acquisitions worldwide in pursuit of company growth and diversification.

VandeWiel, a native of the Netherlands who is also a U.S. citizen, is an experienced executive with a track record of building collaborative teams and achieving sustainable growth with a number of top-tier international companies. He served as president and CEO of DORMA GmbH, a global access control company located in Pennsylvania. Prior to his time at DORMA, VandeWiel was managing director for U.S. based Robert Bosch LLC’s Security Systems division and served in senior leadership roles for Royal Philips N.V.

VandeWiel received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Eindhoven Technical University in the Netherlands and an advanced degree from MIT. He holds a Master Black Belt in the application of Six-Sigma and Lean Enterprise techniques. As Taco’s new president and COO, VandeWiel will lead a talented and experienced management team.