Tyson Foods Picks Former P&G Exec to Be President & CEO
Tyson Foods has announced that current CEO Donnie King will step down from his role and will hand the reins to Jeff Schomburger, who will become Tyson’s president and chief executive officer effective Oct. 4, 2026. King, who has worked for Tyson for 43 years, will remain on the company’s board of directors after a transition period beginning this July in the run-up to the October date.
Schomburger has been a member of Tyson’s board since 2016. He steps into this new role bringing 35 years of senior leadership experience at Procter & Gamble to the table. He retired from P&G as its global sales officer in 2019. Schomburger noted in the company’s announcement that he was committed to building on the foundation and legacy of Tyson, looking to “strengthen our iconic brands with superior products, capitalize on emerging opportunities through AI acceleration, and continue to win with customers and consumers.”
Schomburger has familiarity with the inner workings of Tyson, having served on multiple committees for the company during his decade on the board of directors, and he has been the chair of the Strategy and Acquisition committee since 2021. He has also served as Lead Independent Director on the board since 2025, working closely with King in that role.
King steps out of the CEO position, a role he took on in June 2021. King had been named COO just a few months prior to that, and took on the CEO position from Dean Banks, who departed the company after just eight months on the job. King’s elevation to CEO brought stability to the leadership post for Tyson over the last five years after a few years of shuffling.
Prior to that, King spent the better part of the last four decades with Tyson — though he was not with the company from 2017-2019, when Tom Hayes was CEO and the company worked to shift its perception/priorities/appearance toward more of a branded foods company rather than a meat and poultry processing focus. He had been president of North America operations when he was let go in 2017, and he returned in 2019 as group president of international business after Tyson acquired Keystone Foods.
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.