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Board of Directors and
Corporate Governance
The Hormel Foods Board of Directors consists of 13 members; 10 of whom are independent.
The Board of Directors oversees all activities at Hormel Foods and is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the company’s performance is based on strong ethical practices. The board consists of 13 members, 10 of whom are independent. Hormel Foods President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey M Ettinger serves as Chairman of the Board. The Board of Directors has adopted the Hormel Foods Corporate Governance Guidelines that outline their responsibilities to the company. The board has several committees — audit, compensation, governance and contingency. A detailed committee structure can be found on the corporate governance page of our corporate Web site.
Lead Director Position Established
To help facilitate the mission of the Board of Directors, the team adopted a well-recognized corporate governance practice by establishing a lead director position at the end of fiscal year 2008. The lead director is an independent director selected by its members to ensure additional independent leadership among the Board of Directors.
Our Governing Principles
The governance committee is responsible for identifying and recommending individuals qualified to become members of the Board of Directors, to oversee succession planning for the corporation's chief executive officer, to ensure the corporation's personnel resources are being managed responsibly and effectively and to develop and recommend to the Board of Directors a set of corporate governance principles applicable to the company.
In addition to policies outlined in the Hormel Foods Code of Ethical Business Conduct regarding conflicts of interest, we require our board members to submit a letter of resignation if they partake in any action that creates a conflict of interest with the company.
Open Communication with Stakeholders
We welcome feedback on our corporate responsibility performance and reporting from our stakeholders. In addition, we offer interested parties the opportunity to communicate with the Board of Directors. All communications, whether signed or anonymous, will be directed to the chair of one of the committees based on the subject matter of the communication, to the nonemployee directors or the specified directors on various topics related to business.