Mission Produce has appointed Douglas M. Stone to its Board of Directors, effective 26 November 2025. The company has expanded the board from ten to eleven members to make room for the new appointment. Stone will serve as an independent Class I director until the 2027 Annual Meeting.
Alongside the board role, Stone has also been added to the Compensation Committee. As part of this structural change, Bruce C. Taylor will step down from the committee.
Stone joins Mission Produce after decades in agribusiness leadership. Most recently, he was President of AgriBusiness at J.R. Simplot Company from 2018 to 2024. In that role, he oversaw global growth initiatives, operational strategy and supply-chain performance across multiple regions and product categories.
Before this, he held several senior roles at Simplot, including Vice President of Wholesale Sales between 2016 and 2018. Earlier in his career, he served as President and CEO of Consolidated Sourcing Solutions from 2010 to 2016, and as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Terra Industries from 2007 to 2010.
Stone holds an MBA from the University of South Dakota and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Iowa.
Mission Produce described his background as a strong fit for a global fresh-produce business that relies on international sourcing, year-round supply, and efficient distribution. The company works with more than 20 premium growing regions and is one of the world’s largest suppliers of Hass avocados. It also markets mangos and grows blueberries as part of its wider produce strategy.
The company’s operations include five packing facilities across the U.S., Mexico, Peru and Guatemala. These sites support sourcing and packing activity for retail, wholesale and foodservice partners. Its distribution network spans North America, Europe, China and the UK, using forward distribution centres to provide value-added services such as ripening, bagging, custom packing and logistics management.
Mission Produce supplies fresh fruit to more than 25 countries. It was founded in 1983 and has grown into a vertically integrated producer, sourcing and distributing avocados at scale while expanding into new produce categories.
The company said Stone’s appointment aligns with its plans to strengthen strategic sourcing, improve operational performance and support long-term growth in global markets.
Editor’s note:
All details in this article come from Mission Produce’s official announcement published on 26 November 2025.
