September 13, 2007

Cargill names new chairman

US agri-conglomerate Cargill has named Gregory Page as the new chairman effective September 11. Page succeeds Warren Staley, who has retired from the company.

Page, 55, was named president and chief executive officer in June, and was chief operating officer since June 2000. He was elected to the Cargill board of directors in August 2000.

After joining Cargill in 1974 as a trainee, Page held a number of positions in the company's US animal nutrition business before transferring to Singapore in 1985 to lead its animal nutrition operations in Asia. In 1989, he moved to Thailand to build Cargill's poultry processing business in that country and returned thereafter to the US in 1992 to assume leadership of Cargill's North American and Australian beef operations. In 1998, he was named corporate vice-president and sector president, with responsibilities for the company's financial markets as well as for beef and pork groups. He was elected executive vice-president of Cargill in 1999.

Page received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks in 1973.