Aryzta North America appoints new CEO and new CCO

Aryzta North America has made a number of additions to its senior leadership team, appointing Tyson Yu as its new CEO and naming Jason Heffernan as its new president and chief commercial officer (CCO).

According to a statement from the bakery group, Yu will assume his position on 1 February, and he has also been appointed as a member of the company’s group executive committee. He will report directly to Aryzta group CEO Kevin Toland.

Yu succeeds Dave Johnson, who will transition to a new role as non-executive chairman of Aryzta North America.

Yu is currently chief operations officer of Aryzta North America and has been with Aryzta for ten years, holding various senior roles. He previously served as the president of Aryzta Canada, head of strategy North America, head of strategy and acquisitions of the company’s Fresh Start Bakeries unit. He assumed his current position as North America chief operations officer two years ago.

Meanwhile, John Heffernan is currently the group strategy officer at Aryzta AG, and has been at Aryzta since March 2018. In his new role, Heffernan will be responsible for commercial, innovation and strategy development in North America. He will remain as a member of the company’s group executive committee.

Aryzta AG CEO Kevin Toland said: “I would like to thank Dave for his leadership and contribution in refocusing our North American business in the past two years, improving our customer focus, restructuring and reorganising the region and successfully launching Project Renew.

“I am pleased that he will continue to stay involved with the Group. Tyson has significant experience in our business in various geographic, operational and functional roles in North America over the past decade.

“John has been deeply involved in the commercial, innovation and strategy development across the Group. I wish them both every success in their new roles.”