Kraft Heinz Finds New Legal Chief at Food Packaging Maker

Multinational food giant Kraft Heinz Co. has hired Angel Shelton Willis as its new global general counsel and corporate affairs officer, effective Nov. 18.

Shelton Willis has spent the last six years as general counsel for packaging company Sealed Air Corp. She succeeds former Kraft Heinz legal chief Rashida La Lande, who moved in mid-August into the top legal job at cosmetics manufacturer and marketer Estée Lauder Cos.

Kraft Heinz announced late Thursday that Shelton Willis will bring “strategic vision” to a role that reports to Carlos Abrams-Rivera, who took over as chief executive earlier this year. She will relocate to the company’s Chicago office.

“I’m thrilled to join Kraft Heinz as such a pivotal time for the company and the industry,” Shelton Willis said in a statement. She didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Kraft Heinz is facing critical challenges posed by climate change, as heat waves affect the crops used to make key products like Heinz ketchup. The company owns a stable of notable brands, including Grey Poupon mustard, Maxwell House coffee, Oscar Mayer cold cuts, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Shelton Willis wasn’t one of the seven highest-paid executives at Sealed Air in 2023, according to its most recent proxy statement. La Lande, her predecessor at Kraft Heinz, received nearly $5.2 million in total compensation that year.

La Lande and Shelton Willis are members of the Black General Counsel Initiative, which seeks to increase the number of Black legal chiefs at Fortune 1000 companies. Shelton Willis, who joined Sealed Air in 2019, has been an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the legal industry and broader corporate world.

Kraft elevated interim general counsel Prasanth “Prash” Akkapeddi to be its interim global general counserl after La Lande left two months ago. Heidi Miller, a deputy general counsel for corporate governance and securities at Kraft Heinz, serves as the company’s corporate secretary.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Baxter in New York at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catalina Camia at [email protected]; David Jolly at [email protected]

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