Mike Pruitt, who joined Cobb-Vantress three years ago as general manager for North America, has been promoted to senior vice president of support services and pedigree production.
He succeeds Randy Vardeman, who has announced his retirement at the end of this year after serving Tyson Foods and Cobb for the past 22 years.
“Mike brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this role as he has served in senior leadership roles with OK Foods, Con Agra/Pilgrims and Foster Farms prior to joining Cobb, “said Joel Sappenfield, president of Cobb-Vantress. “I look forward to working with Mike and the rest of the Cobb leadership team as we continue to grow our business and find new ways to feed the world.”
Pruitt graduated from Missouri State University with a bachelor of science in agriculture and began his career with Tyson Foods at the complex in Dardanelle, Arkansas.
He moved to OK Foods where he became president in 1990 and then in 1999 to ConAgra Poultry as executive vice president of live operations. After ConAgra’s poultry division was purchased by Pilgrim’s Pride, he became senior vice president of technical services at Pilgrim's in 2004. From 2007 until he joined Cobb-Vantress, he worked at Foster Farms as senior vice president of live operations.
