Aryzta AG has announced, as part of a planned organizational evolution, that Tyson Yu has been appointed at CEO of Aryzta North America effective February 1 and a member of the Group Executive Committee, reporting to Kevin Toland, Group CEO.
Dave Johnson – the current CEO – assumes the role of non-executive chairman of Aryzta North America, while John Heffernan has been appointed as President and Chief Commercial North America, reporting to Tyson Yu.
Yu is currently Chief Operation Officer (COO) at Aryzta North America and has been with the company for 10 years fulfilling various roles, previously as President of Canada, Head of Strategy North America, Head of Strategy and Acquisition of Fresh Start Bakeries before taking up this current position as North America Chief Operations Officer two years ago. Before this, Yu worked in private equity and investment banking and is a graduate of Georgetown University.
John Heffernan is currently Group Chief Strategy Officer Aryzta and has been with Aryzta since March 2018. He will remain on the Group Executive Committee. Before joining the company, Heffernan had senior positions as Chief Development Office in daa plc, as founder and CEO of Clearpower and AER, in private equity with Boundary Capital and worked with McKinsey and Company. In his new role of President and Chief Commercial Officer, Heffernan will be responsible for Commercial, Innovation, and Strategy in North America.
“I would like to thank Johnson for his leadership and contribution in refocusing our North American business in the past 2 years, improving our customer focus, restructuring and reorganizing the region and launching Project Renew. I am pleased that he will continue to stay involved in the Group. Yu has significant experience in our business in various geographic, operational and functional roles in North America over the past decade. Heffernan has been deeply involved in the commercial, innovation and strategy development across the Group,” commented Aryzta AG Chief Executive Officer Kevin Toland.