Cargill names Jamie Miller as group chief financial officer
Cargill has appointed Jamie Miller as the group’s latest Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and is set to serve on the executive team of the business, reports Neill Barston.
As the global agricultural and ingredients company explained, she was the senior vice president and CFO at GE from November 2017 until February 2020.
Miller joined GE in 2008, holding various leadership positions, including serving as president and CEO of GE Transportation. She was also Chief Information Officer and led the digital technology function, and she held operational responsibility for GE Capital.
“The food system is dynamic and evolving. We know that to feed a growing population in a safe, responsible and sustainable way, we need innovative leaders like Jamie to guide our growth and maintain our strong balance sheet,” said Dave MacLennan, Cargill chairman and CEO.
“Jamie is a resilient and decisive leader with a learning mindset, and she is a champion of leveraging data and digitalization to deliver business results. I’m confident she has the expertise and leadership approach to continue driving our organization forward as our CFO.”
She succeeds David Dines, who has held the CFO role since December 1, 2018. He will retire from Cargill on September 2, 2021, after 29 years with the company. Miller holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She also serves on the board of directors at Qualcomm Incorporated.
Easter expansion
In other company developments, Cargill has extended its Easter products with an expansion of its Veliche line with two dynamic, Signature Origins dark couverture chocolates. With the announcement, Cargill becomes the only gourmet chocolate supplier to bring the intense flavours of El Salvador and the Democratic Republic of Congo to chefs around the world.
“In developing our new Signature Origins products, we searched the cocoa-growing regions of the world to bring chefs chocolate with unique flavour profiles that truly stand apart from current gourmet offerings,” said Wim Bastiaens, Cargill’s gourmet and distribution director. “Our Usulután 65 Signature Origin dark couverture chocolate from El Salvador and Okapi 65 Signature Origin dark couverture chocolate from the Democratic Republic of Congo are the result – gourmet chocolates that will surprise and delight consumers’ palates.”
While only small quantities of cocoa beans are produced in El Salvador, those that do grow in its rich, volcanic soils are highly prized. To make the country’s unique flavours accessible to chefs, Cargill partnered with the third-generation cocoa farmers of the Hacienda San José Real de la Carrera, drawn to their flavourful cocoa beans, infused with complex nutty, fruity and floral notes.
Nearly 12,000 kilometers east, Cargill discovered the Okapi Cooperative in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which produces an intense herbaceous cocoa with flavours of spices and dried fruits. These unique cocoa beans will be grown exclusively for Cargill and used to craft its Okapi Signature Origins dark couverture chocolate.
Alongside the new product launches, Cargill reveals a revamped website and new resealable and recyclable packaging that showcases the diverse chefs and farmers behind the company’s gourmet chocolate. The enhanced packaging represents one part of an expanding commitment to the environment.
“Since its introduction to the gourmet market in 2016, sustainability has been a pillar of the Veliche brand,” Bastiaens said, noting that most Veliche cocoa and chocolate products are sustainably sourced from Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, and all are certified by the Rainforest Alliance. “Five years later, and we’re still the only gourmet line to offer 100% sustainably sourced cocoa and chocolate. Now we’re going a step further, unveiling a program designed to support entrepreneurship in our cocoa-origin countries.”
Cargill is investing $950,000 (EUR 800,000) in a new sustainability initiative in Cote d’Ivoire supported by Veliche, which aims to empower cocoa farming households to become ‘agripreneurs’ and manage their farms as businesses. The program, implemented through our partner, the international development nonprofit TechnoServe, includes individual coaching on good agricultural practices, provides support with on- and off-farm income diversification, and entrepreneurship training for women and youth.
