General Mills has named its chief operating officer, Dana McNabb, to succeed CEO Jeff Harmening, who will assume the role of executive chair of the board of directors, effective Jan. 1, 2027.
The announcement comes roughly five months after McNabb was named COO in May.
The maker of popular brands such as Cheerios, Nature Valley, Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso and more said on Wednesday that McNabb has served at General Mills for 27 years and has held a variety of leadership positions.
Harmening has served as CEO since June of 2017.
McNabb’s tenure at General Mills
She was named group president of North America Retail in 2024 and became head of General Mills’ North America Pet division in 2025.
McNabb earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Ottawa and a master’s degree in business administration from the London Business School.
“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,” Maria Henry, the board’s independent lead director, said in a press release. “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.
“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.”
General Mills’ return to growth
The announcement comes at a pivotal time for General Mills, as it spends $3 billion over the next four years to return the company to growth.
At the Barclays 19th Annual Global Consumer Conference in early September, McNabb said big food and beverage brands, as well as legacy products, are not destined to lose market share.
A winning strategy for food and beverage companies relies on understanding “what the consumer values” and whether the companies improve “remarkability to beat the competition,” McNabb explained.
She said at Barclays that the $3 billion in cost cuts will go toward innovation.
“If you think about a stressed consumer, changing food values, increases in GLP-1, inflation, geopolitical – you name it, we have faced it,” she said at Barclays. “But what we want everyone to understand is, in the face of all these challenges, General Mills is not standing still. We are making significant changes to address the changing food landscape and to make sure that we’re serving consumers.”
Profitability a priority
McNabb doubled down on growth in the CEO announcement Wednesday, calling the appointment an “honor and a privilege.”
“Returning the company to profitable growth is the priority, and we know how we’ll get there,” she said. “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.”
