Cargill shakes up executive leadership team to drive growth

The newest hires include Pilar Cruz, who is joining the company’s executive leadership team as its new chief sustainability officer where she will lead its sustainability, corporate responsibility, and global communications functions.

Born in Colombia, Cruz has held leadership roles for Cargill in its North America, Latin America, and Europe regions. Cruz currently leads Cargill’s global aqua nutrition business, which recently announced the SeaFurther Sustainability program​​ to help salmon farmers reduce the environmental footprint of their fish by 30% by 2030. Cruz also led the company’s global strategy and development function, focusing on strategy, mergers and acquisitions and business development.

Cargill has several sustainability initiatives underway in the areas of clean energy, soil regeneration, carbon offsets, water conservation, and transparent supply chains across its global operations.

In 2019, the company announced a new target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030, and in 2020 reduced carbon emissions by roughly 400,000 metric tons, according to its 2020 annual report​​.

Jon Nash to lead global protein and salt business

Jon Nash, who will join Cargill’s executive team as the leader of its global protein and salt enterprise, succeeds Brian Sikes who was recently named the chief operating officer of the company. Nash joined Cargill in 1998 and has led the North American protein business since 2019.

Cargill has been vastly expanding its plant protein production and recently announced plans to invest approximately $475m in its US soy processing operations which includes expanding operational capacity at its network of crush facilities in seven states.

The company has also grown its footprint in pea protein production with a $75m investment​​ in North American pea protein supplier PURIS made in 2019.

Other new hires rounding out Cargill’s c-suite include:

Ruth Kimmelshue who will lead Cargill’s animal nutrition and health enterprise after five years leading global business operations and supply chains, and previously serving as the company’s chief sustainability officer.  

Julian Chase, who leads the company’s transformation initiatives, will take on additional responsibilities leading business operations and supply chains. He joined the executive team in 2018 and is driving a culture of continuous improvement in both commercial and functional areas.

David Webster, who joined the company in 2019 will lead the food ingredients and bioindustrial enterprise, and relocate from the US to the Netherlands in 2022 replacing Frank van Lierde, who will retire after 32 years with the company.