Cargill announced Brian Sikes has been elected President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective Jan. 1, 2023. With this transition, Dave MacLennan will assume the role of Executive Chair of Cargill’s Board of Directors.

Sikes will be the 10th CEO in Cargill’s 157-year history and brings a strong track record of business operational rigor to the role, having grown the company’s global Protein and Salt enterprise into an industry leader. Sikes currently serves as Cargill’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), where he has been instrumental in constructing the company’s long-term strategy. With broad experience across multiple businesses, cycles and geographies, Sikes held leadership roles in the U.S., Canada and Europe, and served as the head of the company’s Talent Center of Expertise. His relentless focus on people and culture, customers, and proven expertise in leading growth and transformation have earned him the trust and respect of Cargill’s customers, employees and the Board.

Sikes will succeed MacLennan, who joined the company in 1991 and served in multiple executive roles, including CFO and COO, before becoming the company’s Chairman and CEO in 2013. During his nine years at the company’s helm, MacLennan helped achieve outstanding financial results while feeding millions of families and building community resilience in more than 125 countries worldwide. His long-term strategic vision and willingness to disrupt are exemplified by his leadership on the largest acquisitions in the company’s history, including Croda (bioindustrials), EWOS (aquaculture), Diamond V (animal nutrition), and Sanderson and Wayne Farms (poultry). In addition, the company built expertise in alternative proteins and has developed technologies and digital solutions to transform farming, supply chains and food delivery during his tenure.

MacLennan is passionate about employee well-being, never compromising worker health and safety for production. He created Cargill’s sustainability office and built a culture that prioritizes and celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion. Under his leadership, the company is on a path to achieve gender parity by 2030 and the representation of women on the Executive Team has increased to 46%. In addition, he has been an industry leader in sustainability, particularly around climate change. He prioritized action, not just making commitments, with programs like RegenConnect™, which has advanced regenerative agriculture practices on 158,000 acres of North American farmland, and BeefUp Sustainability, which has reduced 1.7 million metric tons of CO2.

In his role as Executive Chair of the Board, MacLennan will ensure a smooth leadership transition, serve as a trusted strategic advisor to Sikes, the company and the Board and support Cargill’s long-term strategic plan.

Science and business join forces in Brazil to accelerate innovation in food by focusing on the sustainable use of LATAM’s biodiversity and affordable nutrition for consumers

Three leading global companies, Givaudan, Bühler, and Cargill, have formed a consortium in collaboration with the FoodTech HUB Latam and ITAL, Food Technology Institute, to build a food innovation centre in the city of Campinas, recognised as Brazil’s tech powerhouse. The “Tropical Food Innovation Lab” will be located at the Food Technology Institute, ITAL, in a fully refurbished, 1,300 square metre area.

This new hub will be the go-to place in Latin America to connect and develop sustainable, future food and beverage products. Start-ups, companies, investors, universities and research institutions will have direct access to high-end technologies for rapid prototyping and plugging into the global food tech ecosystem that will foster fast-paced innovation in the food and beverage sector.

The most current generation of wet and dry extrusion systems for plant-based proteins, as well as beverages processing units will add complementary capabilities to the existing facilities of ITAL. When complete, the facility will feature new application labs and a state of the art demo kitchen, where consumers, food scientists, nutritionists, chefs, mixologists and marketers, among other professionals, will work together to create sustainable new products.

In a world facing major challenges from climate change, combined with a population expected to exceed 9.5 billion people by 2050, it is essential for the food industry to take positive action and work towards a regenerative and equitable food system that and provides healthy, safe and nutritious food for all, while staying within the planetary boundaries.

Brazil has the richest plant biodiversity on the planet, distributed in six major biomes and is one of the world’s main food producers. Yet immense potential remains, with regards to healthy and sustainable products, novel food and food waste reduction, contributing to Food Systems Transformation.

The Tropical Food Innovation Lab is planned to open in Q1 2023.

Customers will be offered a broad Cargill range of food ingredients and solutions for various applications to make their business a success

Caldic and Cargill have reached an agreement making Caldic Ingredients Deutschland GmbH the exclusive distribution partner for Cargill’s starches, sweeteners and texturizers for food applications in Germany and Austria. The collaboration with Cargill will expand Caldic’s offering to customers in food markets such as bakery, convenience, confectionery, dairy and beverage.

Caldic Ingredients Deutschland GmbH is part of the Caldic Group, serving the Food segment, as well as Life Science and Industrial applications. In recent years, Caldic and Cargill have successfully developed customer relationships and enabled food manufacturers to win in their markets in various other European countries.

reasons to initiate this partnership. “We are very pleased with this agreement, because Cargill and Caldic are both aiming for leadership positions in their chosen market segments”, says Stephan Neis, Managing Director of Caldic Ingredients Deutschland GmbH. “When it comes to developing innovative solutions with a service-oriented character, we are clearly aligned with Cargill. With an extended on-trend product portfolio, tailored manufacturing and state-of-the-art application services there is no doubt we will take our full-service distribution model to the next level.”

Alain Dufait, Managing Director for Cargill Starches, Sweeteners & Texturizers business in Europe, adds: “Caldic has an excellent customer approach and a strong organization in Germany. We have been impressed by Caldic’s way of developing solutions for their customers and their entrepreneurial spirit. We are enthusiastic about this partnership, because it will allow us to expand our solutions to the German and Austrian food market.”