Beth Ford was named President and Chief Executive Officer at Land O’Lakes, Inc. by the board of directors in July 2018. Ford proudly leads the nearly 100-year-old farmer- and local retailer-owned cooperative that also ranks No. 216 on the Fortune 500 list. Although best known for its No. 1 selling butter brand, Land O’Lakes, Inc. business units span the farm-to-fork continue from seed to feed to food, in addition to focusing on tech and consultation services to help farmers grow more with less.
Like the company she leads, Beth Ford's career was built on a diverse and broad portfolio and a keen interest in innovation. She is president and chief executive officer of Land O’Lakes, Inc., the 100-year-old member-owned cooperative. The Fortune 200 ag and food giant boasts a unique farmer-to-fork portfolio from seed to feed to food, including the nation's No. 1 butter brand.
As one of the few women to head a Fortune 500 company, Beth has been recognized as one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women, Time Magazine’s Firsts and one of Fast Company's Best Leaders of 2018. Her 30-year career includes leadership in seven companies in six industries -- energy at Mobil, food and beverage at Pepsi, and publishing at Scholastic, to name a few -- combined with experience on two publicly traded boards and high-level involvement in the community and the food and ag industry.
Today, she is leading groundbreaking work at Land O’Lakes, Inc. to help farmers grow more with less and answer consumer questions about where their food comes from. With nearly 4,000 member-farmers, $15 billion in net sales and a company that touches half the harvested acres in the country and feeds nearly 100 million animals every day, Beth has a rich perspective from which to draw.
Land O'Lakes, Inc. is a member-owned agricultural cooperative based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, focusing on the dairy industry. The co-op states that it has about 3,600 direct producer-members, 1,000 member-cooperatives, and about 10,000 employees who process and distribute products for about 300,000 agricultural producers;[1] handling 12 billion pounds of milk annually.[2] It is ranked third on the National Cooperative Bank Co-op 100 list of mutuals and cooperatives.[3] The co-op is one of the largest producers of butter and cheese in the United States.
