By Brazil Stock Guide – JBS N.V. is returning its day-to-day leadership to the Batista family, naming Wesley Batista Filho as global chief executive officer (CEO) from January 2027 as part of a planned succession at one of the world’s largest food companies.
Batista Filho, currently CEO of JBS USA, will succeed Gilberto Tomazoni, who has led the company globally since December 2018. Tomazoni will oversee a five-month transition before becoming vice chairman of the JBS board and a senior adviser to the company.
Batista Filho, 34, is the son of Wesley Batista and the grandson of JBS founder José Batista Sobrinho. His appointment represents both the return of a Batista to the company’s top executive position and a generational handover within the family that controls JBS.
Batista Filho will be 35 when he takes office. He joined JBS 15 years ago and has held senior positions across several of its largest businesses and markets. His promotion also underscores the strategic importance of North America, where JBS generates more than half of its global revenue.
“I am honored to take on this responsibility and continue the extraordinary work Tomazoni has done during his tenure as CEO,” Batista Filho said. “Our priorities remain clear: supporting our teams, serving our customers and producer partners, operating with excellence and creating long-term value for our shareholders.”
Closing a circle opened in 2017
The appointment closes a circle opened by the political, legal and governance crisis that engulfed JBS and its parent company, J&F, in 2017.
In May of that year, Joesley Batista’s secretly recorded conversation with then-President Michel Temer became public as part of J&F executives’ plea-bargain agreements with Brazilian prosecutors. The disclosure triggered a political firestorm in Brazil and intensified pressure from minority shareholders and state development bank BNDES for the Batista brothers to step away from JBS management.
Joesley resigned as chairman of JBS, while Wesley initially remained CEO. In September 2017, Wesley left the top job after being arrested as part of an investigation into suspected insider trading involving transactions made before details of the plea bargain became public.
JBS founder José Batista Sobrinho, then 84, returned as CEO following his son’s departure. Tomazoni, who had been elevated to global chief operating officer during the crisis, replaced the family patriarch in December 2018.
Tomazoni’s appointment established a professional executive outside the Batista family at the top of the company, although the family retained ownership control throughout the period. Batista Filho’s promotion now places operational command back in the hands of the family’s third generation.
From trainee to global CEO
Batista Filho began his career at JBS in 2011 as a trainee at the company’s beef operation in Greeley, Colorado. He later moved to São Paulo to work in the beef export division before leading the company’s operations in Uruguay and Paraguay between 2012 and 2013.
He subsequently moved to Calgary and served as president of JBS Canada from 2014 to 2015. Batista Filho then returned to Greeley to lead JBS USA Fed Beef, the company’s largest individual business unit, between 2016 and 2017.
He returned to Brazil in 2017 and was named CEO of JBS Brasil the following year. In 2020, he also took charge of Seara, the company’s poultry, pork and prepared foods business, while retaining his leadership of JBS Brasil.
In 2022, Batista Filho was appointed global president of operations, overseeing JBS’s footprint across North America, South America, Oceania and Europe. He returned to Greeley in 2023 to become CEO of JBS USA, the company’s largest platform by revenue.
JBS USA has more than 60 production facilities covering beef, pork, poultry, prepared foods and other products, with approximately 70,000 employees across 31 U.S. states.
Tomazoni said Batista Filho’s operational experience and familiarity with the company’s culture made him the right person to lead JBS through its next phase.
“He started on the shop floor, led JBS Brasil and Seara with excellent results and, over the past three years, has strengthened our business in the United States, making it more competitive and advancing important strategic initiatives,” Tomazoni said.
“He understands our business, our culture and our people, and I believe he will build on the strong foundation we have created while taking the company into new opportunities for growth and value creation,” he added.
Tomazoni’s legacy
Tomazoni is stepping down after eight years as global CEO and 14 years at JBS. During his tenure, the company became larger, more geographically diversified and less dependent on individual protein categories and markets.
JBS said its annual revenue grew 73% under Tomazoni, from $49.7 billion to $86.2 billion. The company also expanded into new protein categories, strengthened its portfolio of branded and value-added products, invested in biotechnology, achieved investment-grade status and completed its long-planned listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
The NYSE listing marked a significant milestone for JBS, broadening its access to international investors and reinforcing the increasingly global nature of a company that began as a small slaughterhouse in central Brazil in 1953.
Tomazoni joined JBS in 2013 as global president of its poultry business and later became president of Seara. He was named global president of operations in 2015, became global chief operating officer in 2017 and took over as global CEO in December 2018.
Before joining JBS, Tomazoni spent 27 years at Brazilian food company Sadia, where he began as an intern and eventually became CEO. He later spent three years at Bunge Alimentos, leading its food and ingredients division and serving as executive director for South and Central America.
After leaving the CEO position, Tomazoni will remain chairman of Pilgrim’s Pride and become chairman of the J&F Institute, which focuses on training future business leaders.
“JBS is stronger, more diversified and better prepared for the future than at any other point in its history,” Tomazoni said. “With a strong leadership team, a clear strategy and exceptional businesses around the world, I believe this is the right time for the company to begin its next chapter under Wesley’s leadership.”
For investors, the succession combines operational continuity with an unmistakable symbolic shift. Tomazoni professionalized and internationalized JBS during one of the most consequential periods in its history, restoring stability after the 2017 crisis and leading the company through its eventual New York listing.
Batista Filho will now be responsible for turning that larger global platform into its next phase of growth. Nearly a decade after his father left the top job at the height of JBS’s most serious governance crisis, a Batista is once again set to lead the company.
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