Gary Anderson, CHS Ingredients
Gary Anderson 

CHS Inc., St. Paul, Minn., said Mark Palmquist, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Ag Business, will leave the organization effective Aug. 31, 2014, to become managing director and chief executive officer of GrainCorp, Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 1, 2014.

As a result, current CHS strategic leadership team member Shirley Cunningham will assume a new role as executive vice president and chief operating officer, Ag Business and Enterprise Strategy.

"We congratulate Mark on this new opportunity and thank him for his significant contributions to CHS and its predecessor organizations," said CHS President and CEO Carl Casale. "During his 35-year career with our organization, he was instrumental in launching and building the CHS global platform and identifying numerous growth opportunities in our grains and foods businesses that add value for the owners of this cooperative."

Cunningham, who joined CHS in 2013 as executive vice president, Enterprise Strategy, will continue to lead the company's Enterprise Strategy functions as well as the newly aligned Ag Business platform which includes International, North America and Agronomy.

"Shirley brings significant global strategic and enterprise experience to her expanded role," said Casale. "Aligning our Ag Business and Enterprise Strategy platforms under Shirley's leadership will position us well for continued growth on behalf of our owners."

 Newly named leaders for CHS Ag Business platform include:

  • Stefano Rettore, senior vice president, International, responsible for CHS South America, CHS Asia-Pacific and CHS Europe.
  • Gary Anderson, senior vice president, North America Grain Marketing and Processing and Food Ingredients, responsible for North America Grain Marketing, Terminals and Transportation, Business Development, Processing and Food Ingredients, and Ethanol manufacturing.

CHS’ ingredient offerings include a wide range of soybean products, sunflower seeds and wheat flours. 

CHS also supplies functional food, beverage, nutraceutical and nutricosmetic markets with specialty soy protein concentrates, isolates and Solgen soy isoflavones.

  • Rick Dusek, vice president, Agronomy, leading Crop Nutrients Supply and Trading, North America Crop Nutrients and Agronomy, which will include additional product and technology offerings.

Cunningham retains responsibility for CHS Information Technology, Human Resources, Enterprise Strategy and Marketing and Communications functions. She assumes her new role on Sept. 1, 2014.

CHS Inc. is a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States. Diversified in energy, grains and foods, CHS is committed to helping its customers, farmer-owners and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS, a Fortune 100 company, supplies energy, crop nutrients, grain marketing services, animal feed, food and food ingredients, along with business solutions including insurance, financial and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex® brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.