JBS Returns Leadership to Batista Clan as Scion Named Next CEO

(Bloomberg) -- The world’s largest meat supplier, JBS NV, will be led once again by a member of Brazil’s Batista family, a pivotal move for a global food powerhouse that’s increasingly focused on the US.

Wesley Batista Filho will take over as global chief executive officer starting January, after spending the past three years leading the company’s US division, according to a Monday filing with regulators. He is the grandson of JBS founder Jose Batista Sobrinho and son of former top executive Wesley Batista.

“It’s a natural transition, and we are carrying on the legacy,” Batista Filho said in an interview on Monday before JBS was scheduled to report second-quarter earnings.

The move returns a member of the Batista clan back to the top spot for the first time in about eight years. The family has gained global prominence over the last two decades, transforming their Brazilian slaughterhouse business into an empire spanning meatpacking and energy to mining, finance and consumer goods.

Batista Filho will replace Gilberto Tomazoni, who in 2018 became JBS’s first CEO from outside the Batista bloodline after a corruption scandal ensnared the two most high-profile family members: the billionaire brothers Wesley and Joesley Batista. 

The transition was planned for years, said Tomazoni, who will stay at the company as a vice chairman. JBS hasn’t announced details on the future of leadership at the US operation.

Batista Filho is part of a younger generation who has taken on a more prominent role as the family grows its investments. In the US, he has led the division through a period of market turmoil when a slow rebuild of the American cattle herd kept supplies tight. He’ll now take over a company that’s expanding globally, having recently made deals to grow operations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. 

Still, the US business remains a key focus, with a recent listing of shares in the US bringing the company closer to New York investors.

--With assistance from Rachel Gamarski.

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