H.J. Heinz Co. said three more longtime executives are leaving,
in the second major shake-up of top management in the seven months
since the food company was bought by private-equity firm 3G Capital
and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
The departing executives include Brendan Foley, a veteran of
more than 15 years who was appointed head of Heinz's North American
division in June, when the acquisition was completed. Also leaving
are Fernando Pocaterra, a Heinz employee of more than 30 years who
has headed Latin America operations since 2005, and Kristen Clark,
who started with Heinz in 2000 and headed world-wide human
resources after serving as president of Heinz Canada.
Heinz said Eduardo Luz, who most recently was managing director
of Heinz's North American consumer products business, will replace
Mr. Foley, and report to Chief Executive Bernardo Hees. Melissa
Werneck, who has been senior vice president of performance and IT,
will add global human resources to her portfolio. Heinz said it
would name a successor to Mr. Pocaterra later. The changes took
effect Friday.
"These changes were made to better position the company for
success in 2014 and beyond," Heinz spokesman Michael Mullen said in
a statement. He didn't elaborate on the reason.
Heinz announced in April that Mr. Hees, a partner at 3G, would
replace longtime Heinz CEO William Johnson once the deal was
complete. Soon after the closing, Mr. Hees announced a slate of
nearly a dozen senior executive departures and a similar number of
new appointments, including those of Mr. Foley and Ms. Clark.
Mr. Hees also has eliminated about 600 corporate jobs, and
announced plans to close three factories that will result in more
than 1,000 other layoffs. Heinz has said its efforts are designed
to improve efficiency, and that it is also adding a total of
several hundred workers at several locations.
The latest executive changes were reported earlier by Bloomberg
News.
Write to Annie Gasparro at annie.gasparro@wsj.com
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