Wesley Batista Filho to become JBS global CEO in 2027

Wesley Batista Filho will take over as global CEO of JBS in January 2027. He will succeed Gilberto Tomazoni, who has led the company since 2017. Tomazoni will transition to the roles of vice chairman of the board of directors and senior advisor.

Batista Filho joined the meatpacker in 2011 as a trainee at its beef facility in Greeley, Colorado. Over a 15-year career within the group, he led beef operations in Uruguay and Paraguay between 2012 and 2013, served as president of JBS Canada from 2014 to 2015, and took charge of JBS USA Fed Beef in 2016.

He became CEO of JBS Brasil in 2018 and added the leadership of Seara in 2020. Between 2018 and 2021, net revenue at JBS Brasil grew from approximately BRL 27.6 billion to BRL 53.8 billion, with its Ebitda margin rising from 4.5% to 7.4%. During his first year leading Seara, net revenue rose more than 31% and Ebitda expanded nearly 88%, reaching BRL 36.5 billion in annual revenue by 2021. Between 2021 and 2025, Seara deployed a BRL 10.2 billion investment program that increased pork production capacity by 40%, poultry by 15%, value-added items by 18%, and deboning volume by 33%, generating BRL 3 billion in operational efficiency gains between 2024 and 2025.

After serving as global president of operations in 2022 across North America, South America, Europe, and Oceania, he returned to lead JBS USA in 2023. That division manages over 60 production facilities in 31 US states. Under his leadership, the North American beef arm returned to positive adjusted Ebitda in 2024, launched a plan to narrow its adjusted Ebitda margin gap to competitors by about three percentage points, and announced over $400 million in investments.