Monica McGurk leads Strategy & Ventures unit of Tyson Foods
US based Tyson Foods has named former McKinsey & Company partner Monica McGurk as its new Senior Vice President for Strategy and New Ventures. McGurk, who spent nineteen years with the management consultancy, has been tasked with managing the company’s strategic planning and growth efforts.
Prior to joining Tyson Foods – with around 113,000 professionals the second-largest food production company in the Fortune 500 – McGurk worked for Coca-Cola in Atlanta, where she was Senior Vice President of Strategy and E-commerce for the company’s North American operations. In that role, McGurk was responsible for driving the long-term growth and sustainability strategies of the North American segment, identifying, qualifying and integrating merger and acquisition targets and developing the e-commerce portfolio of the North American business. Before joining Coca-Cola, McGurk spent almost 20 years with McKinsey & Company, an international strategy consulting firm, where she focused on the consumer and retail sectors. At the firm, she also founded McKinsey’s Consumer Innovation practice, and led its Consumer Organization practice. McGurk earned her bachelor’s in Government from Harvard University in 1992 and an MBA from Stanford University in 1998.
In her new role, as Vice President for Strategy and New Ventures, McGurk will lead Tyson Foods’s strategic planning and operations. She will report directly to President and CEO Donnie Smith, with long-time Tyson Foods’ senior leader Hal Carper made available to help her transition into the new role. “Monica is a great fit for our company,” says Smith. “She comes to us as the result of a long career of proven performance in strategic roles, and we believe her extensive experience will help us continue to grow as a value-added food company.”
Smith has worked for the company since 1980. He has held various positions in purchasing, environmental, health and safety, food safety and quality assurance, manufacturing services and logistics prior to being promoted to CEO in November 2009.
