StarKist Names New President and CEO

Dec. 11, 2023

Company promotes Young Choi after he has led the finance and operations sides of the business over the past year and a half.

Andy Hanacek

StarKist Co. has announced that Young Choi, who has been with the company since May 2022, has been named new president & CEO of the company, succeeding Chae-Ung Um, who is leaving to pursue professional opportunities, according to a news release.

Choi has served as the company’s vice president of finance, COO and CFO during his time with StarKist. During a roughly 15-year span prior to that, he held various finance executive positions with SPC Group and Tesco in the U.S., United Kingdom and South Korea. He has worked as a certified public accountant prior to that in South Korea and the U.S.

It has been a busy couple of weeks for StarKist in the news, as it also announced last week that it was adding several line extensions to its Tuna Creations, Chicken Creations and Lunch-To-Go Kits.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.