ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, US — The Bunge Ltd. board of directors intends to appoint Mark Zenuk, managing partner at Tillridge Global Agribusiness Partners and a board director since 2018, as its non-executive chairperson, subject to his re-election to the board during the 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders in May.
Bunge said Kathleen Hyle, the current non-executive chairperson of the board, and Erik Fyrwald, director, do not intend to seek re-election to their board positions when their current terms expire on May 11. The board also intends to nominate Monica McGurk and David Fransen to the company’s slate of director nominees to fill the open positions.
Zenuk has been managing partner at Tillridge Global Agribusiness Partners, an agribusiness private equity firm, since 2016. Prior to Tillridge, he was a managing director at NGP Energy Capital Management where he led the firm’s agribusiness investment platform. He began his career working with some of the leading agribusiness firms, rising to serve in executive leadership roles both domestically and internationally. As a member of the Bunge board, he has served as chairperson of the Enterprise Risk Management Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee.
“I appreciate the board’s confidence in nominating me as chair and am committed to building on what the board has achieved under Kathi’s outstanding leadership,” Zenuk said. “We are also pleased to nominate Monica and David as directors and look forward to adding their expertise and perspectives to Bunge’s board. Monica’s deep experience with consumer packaged goods and food processing companies and David’s knowledge of the energy and commodities industries, will be invaluable as we continue innovating to better connect farmers to consumers to deliver essential food, feed and fuel to the world.”
McGurk is chief executive officer of Tropicana and Mainstream Brands at Tropicana Brands Group, a position she has held since September 2022. Previously, she was chief global growth officer at Kellogg Co. from 2019 to 2022 and the chief global revenue and e-commerce officer from 2018 to 2019. Prior to working at Kellogg Co., she worked at Tyson Foods and The Coca-Cola Co., where she held various leadership positions in strategy and digital media. She is currently a non-executive director of the privately held company, Pivot Bio. If elected by shareholders, McGurk would serve on the Enterprise Risk Management Committee and Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee.
Fransen was chairman and non-executive director of Vitol SA, Geneva, from 2017 until his retirement in 2020. Prior to that, he worked at Vitol Group from 1986 to 2017 serving as a director of various Vitol Group companies and holding roles of increasing responsibility, including leading the global gasoline trading group; heading the Bermuda office; group head of information technology; chief operations officer; and member of the executive committee. Early in his career, he worked at British Petroleum PLC in marketing and planning and as a trader. Fransen was a founding member of the Swiss Trading and Shipping Association, serving as president for six years. He is also a former non-executive director of Greenfields Petroleum Corp. If elected by shareholders, Fransen would serve on the Enterprise Risk Management Committee and Human Resources and Compensation Committee.