Mark W. Sneed, a food-s@sun reporter/EPervice veteran who brought triple-digit sales growth as president of Phillips Foods Inc., died yesterday morning of a heart attack at his Riva home. He was 50.
"He was just a great leader, and he was the real backbone of the company," Phillips' chief financial officer, Dean E. Flowers, said yesterday.
Mr. Sneed grew up as the eldest of four children in Ashland, Ky., according to news reports. He worked as a bartender to pay his way through the University of Kentucky and began his career in food service immediately after graduating in 1979.
Mr. Sneed came to Phillips in 1986 as director of training for Phillips Seafood Restaurants. He served as general manager of Phillips' flagship restaurant in Washington and later became director of operations over all Phillips restaurants.
A decade after he joined the company, he was selected to launch the company's manufacturing arm as president of Phillips Foods Inc.
Sales were about $5 million when Mr. Sneed was asked to head Phillips Foods, said James R. King, vice president of finance. Over four years, the company enjoyed triple-digit growth, he said. Last year, after 10 years with Sneed as president, the company reached $160 million in sales.
Mr. Sneed oversaw the company's move to its new international headquarters in a former Locust Point Cola-Cola bottling plant in 2002. Under Mr. Sneed's leadership, Phillips also began selling its products at food court-style concession stands and other full-service restaurants through its franchise division.
Mr. Sneed was "probably one of the finest people in business ... not only in his dealings with businesspeople but around the world," said Michael Galiazzo, executive director of the Regional Manufacturing Institute. "It was almost as if everyone in his network, they were family."
This month, Mr. Sneed returned from vacation with his wife, Candace, and their two daughters, Savannah, 8, and Bailey, 6, and their 4-year-old son, Davis. The family had traveled to Nevis, an island in the Caribbean, where Mr. Sneed and his wife married a decade ago, Mr. Flowers and Mr. King said.
Mr. Sneed was also an active member and former president of the Washington-Baltimore Chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization, a peer network for international business leaders. "That's one of the things that has allowed him to grow more than anything," Mr. Flowers said.
Mr. Flowers described him as a "big sports nut" who loved to talk about all sports, particularly basketball at his alma mater, the University of Kentucky.
His president "loved to compete, loved to win," Flowers said.
"If you were here playing tic-tac-toe, he would be doing everything he could to beat you," Mr. Flowers said.
Mr. Sneed said that he had "never been given anything" in life, Mr. Flowers said. "Everything he's done he's done on the work and perseverance of his own."
Mr. Sneed was named William Donald Schaefer Industrialist of the Year in 2006 by the Baltimore Museum of Industry, to honor his innovative business practices and products within the state's business community.
Company officials said information about funeral services had not been established but will be posted on the company's Web site, www.phillipsfoods.com.
In addition to his wife and three children, Mr. Sneed is survived by his mother, Betty Brook Sneed; a brother, Eric Sneed; and two sisters, Mary Patterson and Debbie Hayes.
liz.kay@baltsun.com
Sun researcher Paul McCardell contributed to this article.