General Mills has named Dana McNabb as chief executive officer, making the company's chief operating officer the first woman to lead the Minneapolis food group in its history. The board announced the decision on 30 September 2026 and she takes the role at the start of next year. Jeff Harmening, chief executive since 2017, becomes executive chair of the board on the same day.
The board presented the move as a deliberate step towards reviving growth rather than a holding appointment. Maria Henry, the independent lead director, called McNabb "an outstanding leader with a clear strategic vision" and praised Harmening's "steadfast and calm leadership during nearly a decade of extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances." Harmening said he was "confident that Dana has the vision, urgency and intellect needed to advance our next chapter" and that "she is the right leader for this time." McNabb set out her own priority bluntly: "Returning the company to profitable growth is the priority, and we know how we will get there."
McNabb has spent 27 years at General Mills, joining in Canada in 1999 and working through the marketing and general management route. She was named group president of North America retail in 2024, the company's largest segment, and added North America pet to her remit in 2025 before being appointed chief operating officer earlier this year with oversight of all four operating segments and the central functions. Earlier roles include chief strategy and growth officer, group president of the Europe and Australia segment, president of the United States cereal operating unit, and vice president of global marketing at Cereal Partners Worldwide, the company's Swiss-based joint venture with Nestle. She holds a bachelor's degree in commerce from the University of Ottawa and an MBA from London Business School.
General Mills is one of the largest packaged food companies in North America, with brands including Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Nature Valley, Haagen-Dazs and Blue Buffalo. It operates across North America retail, international, pet, and North America foodservice, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The appointment reads as a response to volume pressure rather than to any single event. Packaged food groups across North America have spent recent years trading price increases against unit decline, and the pet segment that McNabb inherited in 2025 is one of the few parts of the portfolio with structural growth. That she was given pet alongside the core retail business, then promoted to chief operating officer, then to chief executive inside eighteen months suggests the board tested her on exactly the problem it wants solved. The framing to watch is her own: she set the bar at profitable growth, not margin defence, which implies willingness to reinvest in volume. Retaining Harmening as executive chair gives the board a check on how far that reinvestment goes.
