Tyson Foods selects insider to head up its prepared foods business 

Melanie Boulden has been named group president of the prepared foods business at Tyson Foods in addition to her duties as chief growth officer at the company, which she began in late last year.

She reports to CEO Donnie King and replaces Stewart Glendinning, who exited Springdale-based Tyson Foods earlier this month to become CEO of apparel retailer Express.

“Melanie is an exceptional talent and a proven leader in growing global household brand businesses,” King said when Boulden was announced as chief growth officer in December 2022. “She has the creative, operational and financial experience to drive value creation across Tyson Foods’ brand portfolio. The introduction of the new chief growth officer role will allow Melanie to develop a world-class center of excellence around brand marketing that will be critical as Tyson Foods continues to focus on future growth.”

Before joining Tyson Foods, Boulden worked as chief marketing officer of Coca-Cola North America.

Boulden was also global head of marketing and brand management at Reebok from 2018  to 2019. Prior to that, she spent three years in marketing roles at Crayola and four years in similar roles at Kraft Foods.

Boulden has a bachelor’s degree in English from Iowa State University and a master’s in business administration from the University of Iowa. She is on the board of directors of Adobe.

Other recent executive changes in September included Doug Kulka becoming chief technology officer and chief information officer after Danyel Bischof-Forsyth left the company.