Bunge: CEO History

3 leaders · 1999 to present

Who is the CEO of Bunge?

Gregory A. Heckman is the CEO of Bunge, in the role since 2019. The first chief executive was Alberto Weisser, from 1999.

Current CEO: Gregory A. Heckman (since 2019)
First CEO: Alberto Weisser (1999)
Leaders documented: 3
Founded: 1818

Name	Role	From	To	Years in role
Gregory A. Heckman	Chief Executive Officer	2019	Present	7
Soren Schroder	Chief Executive Officer	2013	2019	6
Alberto Weisser	Chief Executive Officer	1999	2013	14

Who was CEO of Bunge before Gregory A. Heckman?: Soren Schroder was CEO of Bunge from 2013 to 2019, before Gregory A. Heckman took over in 2019.

Company Overview

Bunge sits in the middle of the food system. It does not farm and sells few consumer products. Instead it buys crops from farmers in the Americas, Europe and Australia, stores them in elevators and port terminals, ships them across oceans and processes them into meal, oil, flour and specialty ingredients. Its customers are feed mills, livestock producers, food manufacturers, bakers and fuel refiners. The 2025 Viterra merger made it a much larger grain handler, and its four segments sold $70.3 billion of products that year. With about 34,000 employees, Bunge is the oldest of the four historic 'ABCD' traders, alongside ADM, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus. The massive global agribusiness titan is headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri, quietly operating as an absolute monopoly controlling the global trade and processing of oilseeds and grain.

Gregory A. Heckman

Chief Executive Officer

2019 – Present

7 years (current)

Legacy

Heckman joined Bunge's board in October 2018, when activist investors D.E. Shaw and Continental Grain pushed for change, became acting CEO on 22 January 2019 and CEO in April 2019. He had been CEO of The Gavilon Group from 2008 to 2015, a founding partner of Flatwater Partners, and earlier chief operating officer of ConAgra Foods Commercial Products. As CEO he moved headquarters to St. Louis, reorganized Bunge around global value chains, exited sugar and bioenergy, sold corn milling and US interior elevators, took Bunge into the S&P 500 in 2023 and completed the Viterra merger in July 2025. He holds a B.S. in agricultural economics and marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Soren Schroder

Chief Executive Officer

2013 – 2019

6 years

Legacy

Schroder became CEO in June 2013. His tenure included a takeover approach from Glencore in 2017 and a reported approach from ADM in January 2018. After investors pushed for board changes, Bunge announced on 10 December 2018 that he would step down, and Heckman replaced him on 22 January 2019.

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Alberto Weisser

Chief Executive Officer

1999 – 2013

14 years

Legacy

Weisser led Bunge as it moved its headquarters from São Paulo to the New York area and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001, then through the 2002 Cereol acquisition that made it the world's largest soybean processor.

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Challenges & Strategic Context

Bunge's profits swing with crush margins it does not control. Net income attributable to Bunge fell from $2.24 billion in 2023 to $1.14 billion in 2024 and $816 million in 2025, even as sales rose with the Viterra deal. US biofuel policy is the largest single swing factor for soybean oil demand: when it set 2026 guidance in February 2026, management flagged uncertainty over the EPA's Renewable Volume Obligations. Integration is the second test. Viterra nearly doubled grain volumes, added corporate costs and came with conditions such as Canada's requirement to sell six Western Canadian elevators and invest at least ~$374 million (C$520 million) in Canada within five years. Geopolitics is the third: Bunge has crushing and port assets in Ukraine, and a Russian drone strike hit its sunflower oil plant in Dnipro on 5 January 2026. Working capital is the fourth. Operations used $1.13 billion of cash in the first half of 2026 as inventories built, even though adjusted funds from operations were $1.29 billion.

Bunge CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who is the CEO of Bunge?

Gregory A. Heckman, CEO since April 2019. He joined the board in October 2018 and was acting CEO from 22 January 2019. Before Bunge he was CEO of The Gavilon Group from 2008 to 2015 and earlier chief operating officer of ConAgra Foods Commercial Products.

How did Greg Heckman become Bunge's CEO?

Activist investors D.E. Shaw and Continental Grain pressed for change in 2018, and in October the board added three directors, including Heckman. When Soren Schroder said in December 2018 that he would step down, Heckman took over, first as acting CEO.

Who were Bunge's previous CEOs?

Soren Schroder led Bunge from June 2013 to January 2019, and Alberto Weisser from 1999 to 2013, a period that included the 2001 NYSE listing and the 2002 Cereol acquisition.

Who are Bunge's other top executives?

John Neppl has been chief financial officer since May 2019, joining from Green Plains, where he was CFO. Julio Garros has been sole chief operating officer since December 2025, after co-COO David Mattiske stepped down on 12 December 2025.

Who is chair of Bunge's board?

Mark Zenuk, a director since 2018 and managing partner of agribusiness private equity firm Tillridge Global Agribusiness Partners, has been non-executive chair since the 2023 annual general meeting.

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