President of Cargill Value Added Meats Retail retiring

Steve Willardsen will be stepping down as the president of Cargill Value-Added Meats Retail at the end of May. He will be succeeded by Ruth Kimmelshue, who is presently the president of Cargill Salt.

Steve Willardsen will be stepping down as the president of Cargill Value-Added Meats Retail at the end of May. He will be succeeded by Ruth Kimmelshue, who is presently the president of Cargill Salt.

In his role at Cargill, Willardsen was responsible for U.S. turkey operations and the cooked meats business. Headquartered in Wichita, Kan., Cargill Value Added Meats is an integrated grower and processor of live turkeys, a producer of ready-to-cook and further-processed turkey products, and a producer of cooked and ready-to-eat beef, pork and poultry products.

Willardsen, who was raised on a turkey farm, also served as chairman of the National Turkey Federation during the 2012 term.

Kimmelshue will move over to Cargill Value Added Meats from Cargill Salt, headquartered in Minneapolis, effective June 1. Her background in agriculture and with Cargill will make her a good fit for the new role, her predecessor said.

"I think it's an exciting time for us," said Willardsen. "Ruth was born and raised on a farm in California; she's been around agriculture her whole life. She's worked in the milling and grain business for many years. She is on board and has some wonderful ideas that I think will help our industry."

Willardsen discussed the past and present of Cargill and the turkey industry during a recent interview that can be heard on WATTAgNet. 

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