Jamie Miller

Agribusiness giant Cargill has named its first female CFO, appointing former General Electric executive Jamie Miller to succeed David Dines.

Miller also broke the glass ceiling at GE, serving as its first female finance chief from November 2017 to February 2020. She had joined the company in 2008 as controller and chief accounting officer.

At Cargill, she will lead the finance team of what was the nation’s largest private company until Koch Industries surpassed it last year. It had revenue of $114.6 billion in fiscal 2020.

Miller’s appointment is the latest in a series of management changes at Cargill. Brian Sikes was recently named chief operating officer, becoming the heir apparent to succeed Chief Executive David MacLennan.

“We know that to feed a growing population in a safe, responsible and sustainable way, we need innovative leaders like Jamie to guide our growth and maintain our strong balance sheet,” MacLennan said in a news release. “Jamie is a resilient and decisive leader with a learning mindset, and she is a champion of leveraging data and digitalization to deliver business results.”

Dines, who had held the CFO role since December 2018, will retire in September after 29 years with Cargill, with Miller joining the company in June.

At GE, Miller also served as CEO of the transportation business and chief information officer. She also had operational responsibility for GE Capital, the once-sprawling lending unit that will be wound down following GE’s recent deal to combine its jet-leasing unit with AerCap Holdings NV.

She was appointed CFO of GE during the brief tenure of former CEO John Flannery, who was forced out in October 2018 after the company missed its financial targets. His successor, Larry Culp, announced his decision to hire a new CFO in July 2019, roughly 10 months after he took over from Flannery.

Cargill processes crops, packages meat, and distributes sugar, salt, cotton, and other commodities.