Tyson Foods promotes Donnie King as part of organizational change
by February 22, 2021 4:36 pm 1,864 views
Donnie King, a long-time Tyson Foods executive, will be promoted to chief operating officer, reporting to CEO Dean Banks. The move was part of organizational changes the company said are an effort to improve operations in all business segments.
King will also continue as group president over Tyson’s poultry segment, furthering the improvements already underway in the segment, Banks noted in a Monday (Feb. 22) filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Consumer preferences are changing and evolving at a rapid pace,” Banks said. “We must accelerate our pace of change to not only meet but exceed our customers’ expectations while delivering high quality, innovative products. That’s why we’re adapting our organization to enable our businesses to respond rapidly to the changing environment.”
He said each of Tyson Foods’ four business segments will be equipped with the resources needed to enable quicker response and innovation at the speed of the markets they serve. Customer sales will be embedded with each of the business segments to focus on customer needs and more quickly deliver on them.
“We must simplify and focus our structure to facilitate faster operational decision making, and we must remove obstacles to provide an unmatched customer experience,” King said. “This is part of an ongoing process of aligning resources around our business segment structure to ensure Tyson Foods is able to meet customers’ needs where they are and in real-time.”
Steve Stouffer, group president of fresh meats, Noelle O’Mara, group president of prepared foods, Chris Langholz, group president of international, and Chief Customer Officer Scott Rouse will each report to King. King has more than 35 years of experience in the industry and has served in a variety of operational roles at Tyson Foods.
Shares of Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) closed Monday at $68.36, up 84 cents. For the past 52 weeks, shares have traded between $42.57 and $77.03. Over the past year, Tyson Foods shares have lost about 12% of their value through Monday.