A new chief executive will be stepping up to the plate for Tyson Foods Inc.
The company announced on Aug. 3 that Dean Banks would be succeeding Noel White as the chief executive officer for the Springdale-based poultry and pork business. Banks will remain president and assume the CEO role on Oct. 3, 2020.
White is expected to remain with Tyson as the executive vice chairman of its board of directors. He has served as CEO since late 2018 when he replaced Tom Hayes in the role. White joined Tyson in 2001, serving in multiple executive roles.
“I want to offer my sincere thanks to the more than 140,000 team members who have given me a warm welcome over the past three years,” Banks said in a statement. “I’ve had the opportunity to get to know many of them, and their integrity, passion and commitment to feeding the world is a critical part of why I’m here. I am honored to lead Tyson Foods as its next CEO and look forward to working with our company’s leadership in executing our strategy to capitalize on opportunities for innovation across the protein spectrum. Building upon the strong foundation established by Noel, I will continue to serve our customers, team members, stakeholders, and shareholders to drive our strategic initiatives and build our business in current and new categories and geographies.”
According to a company news release, Banks’ new role is an element of the board’s “deliberate, long-term succession planning.” Board chairman John Tyson said Banks was “ideally suited” to lead the company during the rocky COVID-19 period due to his experience in multiple industries, including health care, technology and entrepreneurship.
Most recently, he has led Tyson’s poultry, fresh meats and prepared foods business segments and oversaw alternative proteins, international and sales departments. He has also been on the board of directors since 2017.
Previously, Banks served as a project lead for the leadership team at X, a research and development arm for Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. According to the company’s website, X is a “diverse group of inventors and entrepreneurs” that is aiming to have a “10X impact on the world’s most intractable problems…” Banks continues to serve as an advisor for X, according to his Tyson biography.
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