Dean Banks assumed the role of CEO in October 2020. He has been president of Tyson Foods since December 2019 and has served on the board of directors since 2017. In his role, he leads 141,000 team members and familiar brands including Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Sara Lee, Ball Park, Wright, Aidells, IBP and State Fair.
Dean has a unique background in innovation and technology, which includes building and investing in early-stage advanced technology companies. Prior to joining Tyson Foods, Dean was a Project Lead and a member of the Leadership Team at X (formerly Google [x]), an Alphabet Inc. company, where he remains an advisor. At X, Dean founded and led multiple projects that are now moonshot projects, including Tidal, a technology-enabled sustainable food project.
Prior to X, Dean was Managing Partner of SEED Ventures, a group incubating and investing in early-stage healthcare technologies. Before this, Dean was the founding CEO of Vergent Bioscience, which was incubated at SEED, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors. Dean has also served in leadership and consulting roles with Cleveland Clinic Innovations; OrthoHelix (acquired by Tornier, Inc.); Connective Orthopaedics; Highland Capital Partners, Cytyc Corporation (acquired by Hologic), and Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson & Johnson company.
A former platoon sergeant and squad leader in the U.S. Marine Corps, Dean has a BA in Public Relations and Marketing from Miami University in Ohio and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Springdale, Arkansas, that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after JBS S.A. and annually exports the largest percentage of beef out of the United States. Together with its subsidiaries, it operates major food brands, including Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Sara Lee, Ball Park, Wright Brand, Aidells, and State Fair.[3] Tyson Foods ranked No. 80 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[4]
