Wayne-Sanderson Promotes Two Execs to Lead Sales, Supply Chain and Ops
Wayne-Sanderson Farms announced the promotion of two executive leaders to new positions within the company, according to a release from the company.
Aaron Leach was elevated to chief commercial and supply chain officer, while Michael Crump is now the company’s chief operations officer, with both promotions effective Apr. 1, 2026. Leach and Crump will both continue to report to Kevin McDaniel, president and CEO.
Leach will lead sales, marketing, R&D and supply chain functions in his new role. Previously, he served as Wayne-Sanderson’s senior vice president of supply chain and general manager of the Prepared Foods business unit. He has been with the company since 2005 in various planning and supply chain leadership roles, and led integration of the Wayne Farms-Sanderson Farms merger.
Crump joined Wayne-Sanderson in 2014 as senior director of Fresh Operations and most recently was senior vice president and general manager of the Fresh business unit. In his COO role, Crump will lead operations and live production across all 24 facilities, and he will also oversee the engineering function.
In addition, Wayne-Sanderson appointed three people to new leadership positions that will report directly to Leach. David Gadd is the new senior vice president of Retail Sales, Randy Meyers is senior vice president of Commercial Sales, and Craig Watkins takes on the role of vice president of Supply Chain.
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.