General Mills Announces Long-Time Senior Executive John Church, Currently Chief Transformation and Enterprise Services Officer, to Retire

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--General Mills (NYSE: GIS) today announced that John Church will retire as chief transformation and enterprise services officer on January 31, 2022. Church joined General Mills in 1988, and currently leads large-scale transformation efforts associated with General Mills’ Accelerate strategy, with additional accountabilities for the company’s sustainability and global impact, security and shared services functions.

“While he spent much of his career leading our supply chain efforts, John’s significant contributions are evident throughout our organization,” said Jeff Harmening, Chairman and CEO of General Mills. “His true legacy is the innumerable employees he’s managed and mentored, many into senior leaders themselves. John is the embodiment of servant leadership. He leads by creating a compelling vision, fostering a team-first culture and guiding with great humility.”

Prior to his current role, Church served as chief supply chain officer for 13 years with global accountability for procurement, logistics, manufacturing, engineering and human safety; corporate social responsibility, security and global shared services were added in 2017. Church led the successful integration of the Pillsbury and General Mills manufacturing logistics network, and more recently the European Yoplait divestiture. He joined General Mills in 1988 as a product developer and led several new product launches including Multi-Grain Cheerios and Trix shapes. Church serves as the lead director for the supervisory board of Cereal Partners Worldwide, General Mills’ joint venture with Nestlé. Church is credited with increasing diversity across the General Mills organization and serves as the executive sponsor of the company’s Hispanic Employee Network.

About General Mills
General Mills makes food the world loves. The company is guided by its Accelerate strategy to drive shareholder value by boldly building its brands, relentlessly innovating, unleashing its scale and being a force for good. Its portfolio of beloved brands includes household names such as Cheerios, Nature Valley, Blue Buffalo, Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Annie’s, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, General Mills generated fiscal 2021 net sales of U.S. $18.1 billion. In addition, the company’s share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1.1 billion.