Burford Bakery Solutions CEO Fred Springer has been presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bakery Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (BEMA) summit in Chicago.

As a result of Springer winning the accolade, the award will now be renamed the ‘Fred Springer Lifetime Achievement award’ in recognition of his work in the equipment sector and the wider baking industry.

The award was presented to Springer by BEMA members Kurt Miller, Clay Miller and Mark Hotze.

The BEMA committee said Springer embodied what it meant to be a member by always being at the centre of ideas and initiating many changes that have kept BEMA moving forward.

“Fred’s decades of dedication, commitment, wise council and investment have had a uniquely positive effect on moving the mission of BEMA and the entire industry forward,” said Kerwin Brown, president and CEO of BEMA.

“His diplomatic leadership has been instrumental in creating and sustaining a culture of cooperation, innovation and commitment with so many other organisations.”

Springer, who is president of the Burford Corporation in the US, has represented BEMA on the American Bakers’ Association board of directors for three years and, in the 1980s, was a member of the American Society of Baking executive committee. He has also served on the boards of The American Institute of Baking and the allied trades of the baking industry.

Burford Bakery Solutions, Burford’s subsidiary business, currently operates in Newmarket, near Cambridge, and looks after Burford’s interests in Europe, Russia, Middle East, India and Africa.