Board of Directors

Stephen A. Beebe was appointed to the Board of Directors in 1995. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and previously served in such role from 2003 until 2020. From 1993 until his retirement in 2002, Mr. Beebe served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the J.R. Simplot Company, one of the largest privately held diversified agribusiness companies in the United States. He guided the J.R. Simplot Company through expansions in Canada, Mexico, Australia, China and Europe. Mr. Beebe continues to serve as a director for the J.R. Simplot Company, where he is a member of the Audit Committee. Mr. Beebe is also a co-manager of JRS Properties 111, which is a Simplot family partnership. He is a member of the executive committee of the United States Golf Association and chairs the Audit Committee and Equipment Standards Committee.

Mr. Beebe received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Idaho, is a member of the Idaho Bar Association (retired) and is a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Program. In 2002, Mr. Beebe was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Agriculture Science from the University of Idaho.

Mr. Beebe’s qualifications to serve on the Board of Directors include his substantial business experience in the agriculture sector and his extensive management and leadership experience serving as a chief executive officer of a global agribusiness company.

Luis A. Gonzalez was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2011. Mr. Gonzalez is a private investor in real estate and other ventures. Previously, Mr. Gonzalez founded Austral Group S.A., Peru, which was the second largest fishing and marine based food producer in Peru. Mr. Gonzalez also founded Camposol S.A., the leading agroindustrial company in Peru and the largest exporter of asparagus in the world. Mr. Gonzalez also co-founded Grupo Arato in 2011, which the Company acquired in 2018. Previously, Mr. Gonzalez also served as a director of our wholly-owned Peruvian subsidiaries – Grupo Arato Holding S.A.C., Beggie Peru S.A., Arato Peru S.A., Inversiones Agricolas Olmos S.A.C., and Avocado Packing Company S.A.C. In 2007, Mr. Gonzalez was honored with the “Comendador por Servicios Distinguidos” medal by the President of Peru for his contributions to the country.

Mr. Gonzalez studied mechanical engineering at Saarbrücken Fachhochschule in Germany.

Mr. Gonzalez’s qualifications to serve on the Board of Directors include his extensive business and leadership experience in the avocado and agroindustrial industries and his first-hand knowledge of avocado farming and packing operations in Peru.

Bonnie C. Lind was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2020. Ms. Lind is the retired Senior Vice President, CFO and Treasurer of Neenah, Inc., (NASDAQ: NP), a publicly traded technical specialties and fine paper company, a position she held from June 2004 to May 2020. Prior to that, Ms. Lind held a variety of increasingly senior financial and operations positions with Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NASDAQ: KMB), a manufacturer of personal care, consumer tissue and health care products, from 1982 until 2004. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE: HUBB) since January 2019 where she serves on the Audit and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees. Beginning in January 2022, she joined the Board of Directors of a private timberlands company, Tamarack Holdings LLC, where she is Chairman of the Audit Committee. She was previously a director at U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SLCA), a global industrial minerals and logistics leader, from 2019 to 2021 where she served on the Audit and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees. She was also previously a director at Federal Signal Corporation (NYSE: FSS), a world leader in manufacturing lightbars, beacons, warning lights, and backup alarms/cameras, from 2014 to 2018, where she served on the Nominating and Governance Committee and the Audit Committee. She also served as a director of Empire District Electric Company (NYSE: EDE), an investor-owned utility providing electric, natural gas, and water service, from 2009 to 2017 and was a member of the Audit Committee and Chairman of its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

Ms. Lind holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Finance) with honors from the University of Georgia.

Ms. Lind’s qualifications to serve on the Board of Directors include her experience as the chief financial officer of a public company, her financial acumen and financial expertise, her public and private company board experience, as well as her decades of senior financial and operations positions for public and private companies across a wide variety of industries.

Jay A. Pack was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2008. Mr. Pack is the former owner of Standard Fruit and Vegetable, an integrated re-packer, logistics, and value-added produce company, which was sold to Del Monte in 2003. He currently serves on the boards of Coastal Sunbelt Produce, a foodservice distributor serving the Mid-Atlantic states, and Misionero, a leading vegetable grower. Previously, Mr. Pack was a director of Earthbound Farm and Combs Produce. He has also previously served as a trustee of Sarah Lawrence College, a board member of the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), Chairman of the PMA Foodservice Division, and as President of the North Texas Food Bank.

Mr. Pack received a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Methodist University.

Mr. Pack’s qualifications to serve on the Board of Directors include his broad knowledge of the produce industry and his extensive business and leadership experience with various produce companies and agricultural industry groups.

Tony Sarsam was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2023. Since 2020, Mr. Sarsam has held the position of CEO of SpartanNash (NASDAQ: SPTN), a global food distribution and retail grocery company. Throughout his career, which spans nearly four decades in the food industry, Mr. Sarsam has served in various executive leadership roles, including CEO of Borden Dairy Company, CEO of Ready Pac Foods, President of the Nestlé USA Direct Store Delivery Company, and Group Vice President of Go-to-Market Strategy at PepsiCo. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors at SpartanNash, Mr. Sarsam serves as Chairman of the SpartanNash Foundation and Vice Chair of the Food Industry Association.

Mr. Sarsam holds a Bachelor of Science, Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University and a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University.

Mr. Sarsam’s qualifications to serve on the Board of Directors include his extensive leadership experience in the food industry, namely in CEO roles at both public and private companies, as well as public company board experience.

Linda B. Segre was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2020. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY) where she is chair of the Compensation and Management Succession Committee and a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Pecan Grove Farms and Schwab Charitable Fund. From 2009 until 2016 she was the Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and People Officer at Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND). Before joining Diamond Foods, Ms. Segre served as Managing Director of Google.org and was previously the Vice President and Managing Director of The Boston Consulting Group’s San Francisco Office.

Ms. Segre holds a degree in economics with academic distinction from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ms. Segre’s qualifications to serve on the Board of Directors include her public and private company board experience and extensive management experience serving in key leadership roles, including as chief people officer, across a variety of sectors, including the food industry.

Bruce C. Taylor was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2001. Mr. Taylor founded Taylor Fresh Foods, a multi-billion dollar producer of salads, fresh vegetables, and healthy fresh food, in 1995 and serves as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. 

Mr. Taylor received a Bachelor of Science degree (Business) and a Bachelor of Arts degree (Development Studies) from the University of California Berkeley and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University.

Mr. Taylor’s qualifications to serve on the Board of Directors include his extensive business and industry knowledge and his long tenured leadership and management experience in the agriculture and farming sectors at Taylor Fresh Foods.