Bunge Names Leadership Team for Proposed Future Combined Organization Upon Close of Viterra Transaction

Published 8 months ago via Business Wire

Bunge Global SA (NYSE: BG) today announced the executive leadership team for the combined Bunge and Viterra business following the close of the proposed transaction. As previously announced, following the close of the transaction, the combined company will be led by Greg Heckman, Bunge’s Chief Executive Officer and John Neppl, Bunge’s Chief Financial Officer.

Viterra CEO, David Mattiske will become Co-Chief Operating Officer (COO) along with Julio Garros, Bunge’s Co-President, Agribusiness. In their roles as Co-COOs, they will jointly oversee the commercial activities of the future combined organization which includes commodity value chains, country/regional structures, Centers of Expertise and Industrial Operations & Safety.

“The future combined company will expand its reach into more crops and countries, offering farmers greater market access and differentiated, value-added solutions in all key origins. Food, feed & fuel customers will benefit from a broader product portfolio and expanded global supply options,” said Greg Heckman, Bunge’s Chief Executive Officer. “Creating the Co-COO positions ensures we have the right level of leadership focus on the multiple commercial and operational streams so that we identify the strengths of our current organizations and leverage them globally as we come together as One Bunge.”

Also serving on the executive leadership team of the future combined company will be Kellie Sears, Chief Human Resources Officer; Joe Podwika, Chief Legal Officer; Robert Wagner, Chief Risk Officer; Pierre Mauger, Chief Transformation Officer; Debra King, Chief Technology Officer; and Robert Coviello, Chief Sustainability Officer and Government Affairs.

These global functional leaders will set strategy globally, focused on streamlining and standardizing processes and systems to more effectively support the business. This global effort will be complemented with strong regional/local execution. This approach sets the combined company up for success by ensuring greater agility across our value chains, improve utilization of the combined assets and opportunity for the combined team to innovate and deliver for customers.

Other key commercial leaders of the future combined organization include Christos Dimopoulos who assumes the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Global Markets. He will partner with the Co-COOs to deliver results by driving the commercial strategy and risk deployment, while being directly responsible for the ocean freight, global logistics, research, financial services, central hedge desk and special risk units. Aaron Buettner will continue to lead Food Solutions, which includes the tropical oils value chain, specialty oils, food protein, lecithin and corn milling. He will be responsible for leading Bunge’s food go-to-market strategy, working closely with the value chains to grow our business with food customers.

These leadership appointments are effective once the transaction closes, which is anticipated to occur in mid-2024, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals.

About Bunge

At Bunge (NYSE: BG), our purpose is to connect farmers to consumers to deliver essential food, feed and fuel to the world. With more than two centuries of experience, global scale and deeply rooted relationships, we work to strengthen global food security, increase sustainability where we operate, and help communities prosper. As a world’s leader in oilseed processing and a leading producer and supplier of specialty plant-based oils and fats, we value our partnerships with farmers to bring quality products from where they’re grown to where they’re consumed. At the same time, we collaborate with our customers to develop tailored and innovative solutions to meet evolving dietary needs and trends in every part of the world. Our Company has its registered office in Geneva, Switzerland and its corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. We have approximately 23,000 dedicated employees working across approximately 300 facilities located in more than 40 countries.

Website Information

We routinely post important information for investors on our website, www.bunge.com, in the "Investors" section. We may use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward Looking Statements

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward looking statements to encourage companies to provide prospective information to investors. This press release includes forward looking statements that reflect our current expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. Forward looking statements include all statements that are not historical in nature. We have tried to identify these forward looking statements by using words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue" and similar expressions. These forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from these forward looking statements: • the impact on our employees, operations, and facilities from the war in Ukraine and the resulting economic and other sanctions imposed on Russia, including the impact on us resulting from the continuation and/or escalation of the war and sanctions against Russia; • the effect of weather conditions and the impact of crop and animal disease on our business; • the impact of global and regional economic, agricultural, financial and commodities market, political, social and health conditions; • changes in government policies and laws affecting our business, including agricultural and trade policies, financial markets regulation and environmental, tax and biofuels regulation; • the impact of seasonality; • the impact of government policies and regulations; • the outcome of pending regulatory and legal proceedings; • our ability to complete, integrate and benefit from acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and strategic alliances, including without limitation Bunge’s pending business combination with Viterra Limited (“Viterra”); • the impact of industry conditions, including fluctuations in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other raw materials and products that we sell and use in our business, fluctuations in energy and freight costs and competitive developments in our industries; • the effectiveness of our capital allocation plans, funding needs and financing sources; • the effectiveness of our risk management strategies; • operational risks, including industrial accidents, natural disasters, pandemics or epidemics and cybersecurity incidents; • changes in foreign exchange policy or rates; • the impact of our dependence on third parties; • our ability to attract and retain executive management and key personnel; and • other factors affecting our business generally.

The forward looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

You should refer to "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 filed with the SEC on February 22, 2024, and "Risks Related to the Acquisition" section of the Company's definitive proxy statement filed with the SEC on August 7, 2023.

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