WASHINGTON – Nicole Johnson-Hoffman was recently named the chief operating officer for the Meat Institute.
She will transition into her role in January 2025 as Mark Dopp, the outgoing COO and general counsel for the Meat Institute, plans to retire in March 2025.
“Nicole Johnson-Hoffman brings a wide breadth of experience in the regulatory, legal, and sustainability fields of the animal protein industry,” said Julie Anna Potts, president and chief executive officer of the Meat Institute. “Her various roles have prepared her well to oversee operations at the Meat Institute at a critical time for the industry and during a time of great change and innovation.”
Johnson-Hoffman holds more than 25 years of experience in various food manufacturing positions.
She started her career at Cargill as an attorney, later becoming vice president of law. She eventually worked as vice president and general manager of Cargill Beef, which is located in Fort Morgan, Colo.
After that, she held the position of managing director of Cargill’s value-added protein/Cargill McDonald’s business unit, where she managed Cargill’s McDonald’s business in the United States and Canada.
Following almost two decades at Cargill, she moved over to OSI Group as senior vice president and chief sustainability officer, where she helped manage the company’s McDonald’s business units in 64 markets along with OSI’s approach to sustainability and corporate responsibility.
During 2022, Johnson-Hoffman took a position as CEO of Future Meat Technologies, also known as Believer Meats, an Israeli company that developed technology for cultivated meat production.
There she developed a new consumer-facing brand and helped build a professional leadership team and worked on systems for finance, HR, legal, IT, and corporate governance.
She also previously served two terms as president of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and was the founding chairperson for the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which is a key partner with the Meat Institute’s Protein PACT.
