Pilgrim’s Pride founder Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim has stepped down as senior chairman of the company’s board of directors as part of a massive reorganization, but he will remain on the board. The new chairman, Wesley Mendonça Batista, is chief operating officer of Brazilian meat producer JBS, which now owns a majority stake in Pilgrim’s Pride as part of the deal that helped the poultry company escape bankruptcy.
Pilgrim and Don Jackson, the chief executive officer of Pilgrim’s Pride, remain board members. The rest of the old Pilgrim’s Pride board has resigned and been replaced by JBS picks Joesley Mendonça Batista, José Batista Júnior, Michael Cooper, William Cruz de Vasconcellos Junior, Charles Macaluso and Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes, according to the Daily Tribune of Mount Pleasant, Texas.
Bo Pilgrim’s son, Lonnie Ken Pilgrim, was dismissed from his position as the company’s senior vice president.
Richard A. Cogdill was terminated as chief financial officer and principal accounting officer. Gary D. Tucker will fill these positions for the reorganized Pilgrim’s Pride.
Among the new board’s first actions was a decision to pay a $4.5 million fine to the U.S. government to end an investigation into allegations that Pilgrim’s Pride had hired undocumented immigrant workers, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
With the acquisition of Pilgrim’s Pride and the pending purchase of Latin American beef company Bertin SA, JBS is poised to become the world’s largest meat conglomerate, according to the Associated Press.
