BEIJING, CHINA — Helen Song has been appointed chief financial officer of COFCO International, China’s largest food and agricultural company.

Song is replacing Zhaohui (Christy) Da, who is retiring after more than 27 years at COFCO Group, including the last two years as CFO of COFCO International.

Song is taking on the CFO role in addition to her current roles as executive committee member, vice president and chief strategy and information officer, which already included leading the company’s investment committee and financial planning and analysis function.

Song joined COFCO Group’s strategy division in 2010. Following the Group’s initial investments in Nidera and Noble Agri in 2013, she was named vice president of COFCO International with responsibility for the post-investment management platform.

After the completion of the final Nidera and Noble Agri acquisitions in 2017, Song was named chief strategy officer, based at COFCO International’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She took on the additional role of chief information officer in 2020.

Song started her career at China’s Ministry of Agriculture, and she also worked as a lawyer in capital markets, including M&A and IPO in Beijing prior to joining COFCO Group. She has a master’s degree in business administration from Peking University and is a Chinese certified lawyer.

“Helen has played a leading role in all strategic initiatives that have been core to decision enablement since the inception of COFCO International,” said David Dong, CEO of COFCO International. “In her new expanded role, she will be instrumental in further linking and aligning finance and strategy, driving digitization across the company and integrating ESG in all processes to ensure that we create positive and long-lasting impact and value for all our stakeholders.”