Smithfield Foods has appointed Shane Smith, a two-decade veteran of the Smithfield, Virginia, USA-headquartered pork producer and food processing subsidiary of the WH Group of China, as its president and chief executive officer. Having most recently served as the company’s chief strategy officer, he replaced Dennis Organ, who has stepped down for personal reasons.
Smith has previously been executive vice president of Smithfield’s European operations. In this capacity, he spent much of the last decade in Europe overseeing Smithfield’s operations, capital investments, expansion into new markets, and mergers and acquisitions. Today, European operations encompass nearly 18,000 employees, 21 processing facilities, 58 company-owned farms, and over 1,000 contract farms in five countries.
Smith is now heading up a team of more than 60,000 employees at facilities in Mexico, Poland, Romania, Germany and the United Kingdom in addition to the United States. The company’s portfolio of brands include Nathan’s Famous, Eckrich, Farmer Johns and others in addition to Smithfield.
