GARNER, N.C. — Jay Jandrain has been named president and CEO of Butterball LLC. He succeeds Kerry Doughty, who is stepping down for health reasons.

Jandrain most recently was chief operating officer, overseeing plant operations, corporate purchasing, transportation and warehousing, demand and supply planning, corporate engineering and R&D. He joined Butterball in May 2002 as the director of product R&D and has since held roles including vice president of deli sales, vice president of product R&D, vice president of integrated business strategy and executive vice president of sales. Prior to Butterball, Jandrain held multiple sales, marketing and R&D management positions with companies such as Cargill and Plantation Foods.

He received his bachelor’s degree in food science from Cornell Univ.

Doughty steps away from Butterball after 10 years with the company and more than 40 years in the industry. He joined the company as executive vice president of sales, marketing and R&D in 2007 after a lengthy career in foodservice sales and branding. He was named president and CEO in 2014.

“I knew when I took the job that Butterball had a great brand and strong presence in the market,” Doughty said. “What I didn’t know was how good the people were at Butterball. I’ve been extremely impressed with the quality of people up and down the line, from hourly associates to senior executives, I feel like we have the best team in the industry.”

Headquartered in Garner, North Carolina, Butterball is the largest producer of turkey products in the United States, producing more than 1 billion lbs. of turkey each year. Butterball products are distributed throughout the United States and in more than 45 countries. Butterball operates six processing plants located in North Carolina, Arkansas and Missouri.