General Mills Names First Woman CEO, Effective 2027

Dana McNabb becomes chief executive officer of General Mills on January 1, 2027. She is the first woman to lead the company in its 160-year history. She succeeds Jeff Harmening, who becomes executive chair of the board of directors the same day.

The board voted unanimously to elect her. General Mills disclosed the leadership transition through a press release and a Form 8-K filing on September 29 and 30, 2026. Maria Henry, the board’s lead independent director, announced the succession in a Wednesday statement on behalf of the board. “Following a robust, multi-year succession planning process, the board is confident that Dana is the right executive to lead the company through its next chapter of growth and value creation,” she said. “Dana has made significant contributions as a key member of the executive leadership of the company over the past few years, and across the business globally throughout her career,” Henry said. “She has a strong track record of success, and a deep understanding of our consumers, our brands, our company, and our industry. Dana is an outstanding leader with a clear strategic vision that she will translate into tangible outcomes for our shareholders, employees, and the communities we serve.”

McNabb answered in a Wednesday written statement. “Returning the company to profitable growth is the priority, and we know how we’ll get there.” She named the method at once: “By building industry-leading, digitally enabled demand generation, and modernizing our supply chain, we will fundamentally improve how we operate.” “This is a company with the brands and the people to win — my job is to make sure we do.”

The filing fixed the name at the top. What it left open was the weight already on the desk. Weak consumer sales, inflation, and rising costs still defined the job the next chief would take.

On September 23, a week before the transition papers went out, Jeff Harmening had called the first quarter of fiscal 2027 an encouraging start. Net sales came in at $4.4 billion, down 3 percent. The company tied part of the drop to the sale of its U.S. yogurt business and reported organic sales as flat.

The wider set of numbers was steeper. Fiscal 2026 net sales had fallen 5 percent, to $18.4 billion. Operating profit had dropped 73 percent, to $886 million. Sales had declined three fiscal years in a row. Shoppers squeezed by years of food-price inflation were reaching more often for discounts and store brands. General Mills had already cut prices on about two-thirds of its North America retail grocery portfolio to try to pull them back. The stock had lost roughly 45 percent of its value over five years.

Harmening pointed to stronger product innovation and renovation while the company kept executing cost cuts in a volatile environment. Returning the business to profitable growth remained the stated aim.

McNabb was 50. She had joined the board of directors upon her promotion to chief operating officer. She joined General Mills in Canada in 1999 and is a 27-year company veteran. She holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Ottawa and an MBA from London Business School. She worked marketing roles across the cereal, snacks, meals, and dairy businesses. In 2016 she began leading the U.S. cereal operating unit. In 2021 she became chief strategy and growth officer around the launch of the company’s Accelerate strategy, the plan to fuel growth through strategic acquisitions and divestitures. She began leading North America Retail, the largest business unit, in 2024. Named chief operating officer since June 1, 2026, she has overseen all four operating segments: North America Retail, North America Pet, North America Foodservice, and International.

David Clark, former CEO of the company’s international cereal partnership, said McNabb had helped shape the playbook General Mills is following. He read the succession as a message of staying the course, without continuity in every respect. The four segments already answered to her.

She was raised on a grain farm in the region of Canada that is General Mills’ largest oat producer. Dana McNabb said her bond with the maker of Cheerios began years before her tenure there. “Growing up on a farm, it instills in you a very big work ethic, discipline and just immense respect for the hard work and the people that deliver the ingredients that go into General Mills food every day,” she said. “And I bring those values into my work here.”

She spoke next of the groundwork already in place under Jeff Harmening. “He laid new groundwork for our digital and technology capabilities, revamped our portfolio for growth and challenged us to work and operate in ways that better match today's world,” McNabb said. “We are a more resilient company today thanks to his leadership and foresight.” She kept the profitable growth she had named as the priority tied to a single requirement. “The way that we're going to do that profitably is to make sure that we understand consumers better than anyone else and meet them where they are.”

The transition hands day-to-day control of the four operating segments she already runs to the new chief while keeping Harmening on the board in the chair role. Both titles take effect January 1, 2027.