Eric Halverson is the new chief executive officer of potato grower-shipper Black Gold Farms.
Halverson, who had been Grand Forks, N.D.-based Black Gold’s executive vice president of technology, succeeded his father, Gregg Halverson, on Oct. 23, Eric Halverson said.
Gregg Halverson has retained his position as president of the company’s board of directors.
“This is a planned succession—yesterday was my dad’s 65th birthday,” Eric Halverson said Oct. 24. “He’ll step back a bit, be untethered from the day-to-day operations.”
Eric Halverson said he doesn’t expect to lead Black Gold in a radically new direction.
“We hope it will be pretty much unnoticed from the outside. I don’t anticipate a whole lot of changes.”
All other Black Gold executives have retained their previous positions, he said.
In 2009, Eric Halverson was selected grower leader of the Potato Industry Leadership Institute. He represented North Dakota on the U.S. Potato Board in 2008 and was elected to the board’s administrative committee in 2009.
Gregg Halverson, who has served on the boards of the U.S. Potato Board, the National Potato Council and the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, won the 2013 Potato Man for All Seasons award, a joint presentation of The Packer, TheGrower.com and the Washington, D.C.-based council.
Black Gold Farms, founded by Gregg Halverson’s grandfather, A.E. Halverson, in 1928, markets potatoes from more than 20,000 acres in 11 states.
Source: The Packer