Tyson Foods to pay outgoing COO $10.578 million

Devin Cole has stepped down as chief operating officer (COO) at Tyson Foods, effective June 15, and was replaced by Wes Morris. Cole will collect a lump sum cash payment of $10.578 million and forfeit all outstanding performance stock and his time-based equity awards.

Cole’s move came on the heels of a CEO change slated for later this year, with Donnie King handing top leadership to board member Jeffery Schomburger at the company’s fiscal year-end in October.

Cole also agreed to release all claims against the company and reaffirmed his commitment to comply with restrictive covenants and confidentiality obligations in the termination agreement signed on June 16 and filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cole was COO at Tyson Foods for more than two years. He spent seven years as COO at George’s Inc., also based in Springdale. In total, Cole logged more than 22 years at Tyson Foods, having started his career with the meat giant in 1995 as a group vice president.

Morris, 60, is coming out of retirement to step in as COO. He was most recently the group president of Tyson’s poultry business from January 2023 to February 2025, and he remained with the company until early 2026.

In the quarterly report posted May 4, the company’s net income totaled $497 million, down 3.5% compared with the $515 million reported a year ago. Revenue grew 4.4% from a year ago to $13.653 billion. For the first half of fiscal 2026, Tyson reported revenue of $10.976 billion, up 4.4% from a year ago. Adjusted net income totaled $1.069 billion, down 8.9% from the prior year.