Varnedoe is promoted to president by Flowers Foods
Since January of 2023, Mr. Varnedoe has served as Flowers’ chief operational officer. When he takes office as president on September 1, he will remain COO. After joining Flowers in 1990, Mr. Varnedoe held a number of managerial roles, including president of the business’s Jacksonville, Florida, bakery. In order to explore other business endeavors, he departed Flowers in 2000. He later returned to the company in 2012 as vice president of national accounts. He was elevated to the position of president of the business’s Phoenix bakery in 2016 and given the title of senior vice president of DSD regions/sales in 2017. He was elevated to the recently established position of chief transformation officer in January 2021, where he would be in charge of cross-functional projects centered on the long-term strategic goals of the business. His first responsibility as CTO was overseeing the business’s enterprise and digital
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management and history from Presbyterian College in South Clinton, South Carolina. Heeth Varnedoe III, the late father of Mr. Varnedoe, worked at Flowers for 37 years, serving as both the company’s president and COO.
The chairman, chief executive officer, and president of A. Ryals McMullian expressed his congratulations to Heeth on his well-earned promotion. Heeth has demonstrated his exceptional abilities as a senior executive at Flowers by leading several innovative projects during the past few years. Heeth will be taking on several more tasks going forward, and I have every confidence he will continue to significantly contribute to our success.
Currently serving on Flowers’ board of directors, Terry S. Thomas will step down to assume the newly established position of chief growth officer, answering to Mr. McMullian. Mr. Thomas will be in charge of marketing, customer relationships, product development and innovation, and growth efforts in his new position. The change will go into effect on September
Mr. Thomas has worked for Unilever PLC for about 11 years, serving as the company’s global chief customer officer for personal care for the last 18 months. He formerly held the positions of chief customer officer and executive vice president at Unilever US. He held many vice president positions at PepsiCo, Inc. for over six years before joining Unilever.
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One of Terry’s main duties in his position is to find new revenue streams for the business, and Mr. McMullian expressed excitement about working closely with him on this. “As we continue to transform Flowers into a consumer and brand-centric company, Terry’s global experience working at a senior level for some of the most respected CPG companies in the world will be invaluable to us.”
Flowers appointed two new independent directors to its board, starting October 1, in addition to the changes in leadership. Joanne Smith, executive vice president and chief people officer at Delta Air Lines, and Brigitte King, global chief digital officer at Colgate-Palmolive Co., are joining the board.