MBOLD announced Sonya McCullum Roberts as its new co-chair to lead the coalition in addressing major challenges facing the food and agriculture sectors.
Roberts is the president and group leader of Cargill Salt, with deep experience driving corporate strategy and innovation on a global scale. MBOLD brings together CEOs and other senior leaders from major Minnesota-based food and agriculture companies, research institutions and non-profit organizations to tackle global challenges and is powered by the GREATER MSP Partnership. Roberts joins Jeff Harmening, Chairman and CEO of General Mills, in the co-chair role.
"MBOLD is driving transformative, industry-leading solutions in food and agriculture," says Roberts. "I'm excited to take on this new role as our coalition of Minnesota-based global leaders tackles some of the biggest challenges facing our industries – from water quality to soil health, climate change, innovation, and more."
Roberts leads Cargill's Salt business, where she oversees strategy and execution. Cargill Salt has 2,000 employees across 25 locations and sells commercial and agricultural salt products across North America and Europe. Roberts previously established and led growth ventures for Cargill's North America protein business, where she developed and implemented business strategies, entered emerging businesses such as alternative proteins, evaluated multiple mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures and implemented strategic pricing.
"Sonya brings a rare combination of global vision and on-the-ground commitment to driving innovation, building our entrepreneurial sector, and cultivating the next generation of diverse leadership in food and ag," Harmening says. "I'm excited to work closely with Sonya to lead MBOLD into its next phase of growth and impact on climate change and the growing demand for food."
Roberts assumes the co-chair position after serving as the CEO Champion for Bold Open, MBOLD's program to drive innovation in Minnesota's food and agriculture sectors. In this role, Roberts and the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI) worked together to bring the disruptive thinking of entrepreneurs and innovators with the reach and acumen of global food and agriculture companies, farm commodity groups and others to address key industry challenges.
About MBOLD®
MBOLD is a coalition of CEOs and other senior leaders working together to accelerate solutions to the most pressing challenges facing the food and agriculture sectors, particularly our changing climate, related natural resource challenges and the growing global demand for food. Members include General Mills, Cargill, Target, Schwan's Company, Compeer Financial, Land O'Lakes, Inc., Ecolab and the University of Minnesota as well as the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, the Minnesota AgriGrowth Council, Grow North and McKinsey & Co.
