MEXICO CITY — Rafael Pamias has been promoted to chief executive officer of Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV, effective May 1. He will succeed Daniel Servitje, who has been named to the new position of executive chair.

Grupo Bimbo said the leadership transition is part of a broader company effort to “improve its corporate governance and strategic supervision, while strengthening its structure to better face the complexity of the growth and expansion achieved over the past years, while ensuring the continuity of its philosophy and culture.”

Pamias has been with Grupo Bimbo since August 2017, most recently as chief operating officer and chief sustainability officer since March 2023. Earlier he was senior vice president and executive vice president.  He has led the company’s Latin America region and has had responsibility for research and development and marketing. Before joining Bimbo, Pamias spent more than 11 years at Groupe Danone, most recently as a regional general manager, dairy.

“Rafa is an excellent operator and a strategist with a global vision, since he joined, I have been impressed by his commitment and intelligence,” Servitje said. “His personal and professional trajectory has given him the experience of leading large organizations. He clearly sees our strengths, but also our opportunities, and what we must carry out to be a better company for the world. He has managed to achieve good financial results in his teams, while also becoming a sustainable company that leaves a mark, as we aspire in our purpose. He has been the architect of our new sustainability strategy.”

Pamias holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business administration and management from ESADE in Barcelona and a master’s degree in international management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona.

“I’m honored to have been assigned this great responsibility,” Pamias said. “I deeply thank the trust placed in me by the board, shareholders and, of course, by Daniel. You can be sure that I am deeply committed and that I will work to continue with the success and sustainable growth that Grupo Bimbo has achieved for nearly 80 years.”

In his new role as executive chair, Servitje will focus on strategic decision making, ensuring that the interests of the company’s shareholders and board of directors are aligned, Grupo Bimbo said. He has been with Grupo Bimbo since 1982 and has been CEO since 1997. He has been chairman since 2013.

“Having just turned 65 years old and after 43 years of working full-time, I want to take a step forward and have made the decision to pass the CEO baton and become executive chair,” Servitje said. “On top of being the chairman of the board, I will continue highly involved in all aspects of the strategy and execution of the company.

“Serving our associates, customers, consumers, board members, shareholders and investors of this special company has been the privilege of my life. It has been thanks to all of you that we are eight times larger than we were in 1997 when I took over as CEO, having carried out 93 acquisitions in this period. We are the largest baking company in the world, with 227 bakeries, more than 151,000 associates in the 35 countries where we operate. Together, we have achieved an unimaginable growth while delivering solid results in each of our key metrics.”