Don Tyson Retires as Senior Chairman

Don Tyson helped see Tyson Foods Inc. through its biggest acquisition ever recently with the completed purchase of IBP Inc. Now, the 71-year-old has stepped away from the world’s premier protein provider.

Tyson became president of Tyson Foods in 1966, a year before his father, John Tyson Sr., the company’s founder, and mother died in a car accident. At that time, Tyson Foods had less than 2 percent of the nation’s chicken market. Tyson grew the Springdale-based poultry company to control 25 percent of the market. After the purchase of IBP, the Tyson family now controls 28 percent of the beef market and 18 percent of the pork market.

Tyson, senior chairman since 1995, made his departure effective immediately. He said he will remain as a member of the company’s board of directors.

“This is just one more step in a ‘progressive retirement’ plan that I began in 1995 when I turned 65 and stepped down as chairman,” Tyson said in a news release Oct. 22.

Tyson said that since the company has completed its $4.6 billion acquisition of IBP, it was time for him to relinquish the title and let the company’s new management have “full control.”

“I am confident that my son, [Tyson President, Chairman and CEO] John [Tyson], and the leadership team he has put together, are fully prepared to take the company to the next level as the premier protein provider on the planet,” Tyson said. “I look forward to following their progress from my boat.”