peter hawthorne
Peter Hawthorne is an accomplished senior executive with more than 35 years of success across agribusiness, food, logistics, ag- and bio-tech, industrial manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, and travel and hospitality industries. Leveraging extensive experience running emerging businesses and leading corporate strategy and business development for one of the largest agribusiness companies in the world, he is a valuable asset for companies developing long term strategies, pursuing growth, cultivating, executing, and governing investments from early-stage tech equity stakes to billion dollar acquisitions. Having done joint ventures in 20 countries, he is especially adept at building relationships and trust, finding aligned interests, and forming lasting, successful partnerships. He is experienced in hiring new executives and succession planning, HR and compensation committee challenges, financing and restructuring, and audit and compliance issues. His broad areas of expertise include governance, M&A, joint ventures, corporate finance, international business, team building, strategy development and execution, and cross-functional team leadership.
Throughout his career, Peter has held leadership positions at companies including Cargill and Carlson Companies. As VP of Corporate Strategy & Development with Cargill 2006-18, he led corporate development for the $115B revenue company across operations in 70 countries, was Chair of the Board for three of Cargill’s largest joint ventures in Ardent Mills, North Star BlueScope Steel, and NatureWorks, and has overseen more than $35B in transactions over the past decade. In three years as VP of Strategic Planning & Corporate Development with Carlson, he led strategy and M&A for the $20B global hospitality and travel company, initiating a repositioning of Carlson's portfolio and transforming Carlson Wagonlit Travel. He previously spent 12 prior years with Cargill in multiple roles, including General Manager, Emerging Businesses and Vice President, Strategy & Business Development - Asia Pacific, based in Singapore. He began his career as Assistant Treasurer in the Global Petroleum Division of Chase Manhattan Bank in New York prior to attaining his MBA at Stanford, and spent four years in strategy consulting with Bain & Company in San Francisco thereafter. He has been responsible for building a global team of 30+ professionals at Cargill charged with investing $2B in equity each year, was instrumental in leading a four-year process to evaluate strategic options in the fertilizer business resulting in the spin-off and monetization of Cargill’s 65% stake in Mosaic and the largest non-financial services secondary equity offering ever made at the time, and has led advanced materials company Natureworks through its development phase to full scale commercial success.
Peter holds a BA in Economics from Brown University and an MBA in Strategy & Marketing from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. As a seasoned non-executive board chair and director with more than 25 years’ experience, he has served on 13 for-profit and five non-profit boards and their committees, including allnex, Proeza, King Ranch and chairing the boards of Emery Oleochemicals, Kynetec, Citrofrut, NatureWorks, Ardent Mills, North Star BlueScope Steel, and Global Minnesota.