Amy Held Joins Conagra in New Chief Administrative Officer Role From September

Conagra Brands has appointed Amy Held as executive vice president and chief administrative officer, creating a new senior role that brings human resources, corporate communications and chief-of-staff responsibilities under one leader.

The Chicago food company announced on 4 August that Held will start in the role on 14 September and report directly to president and chief executive officer John Brase. Conagra also said Charisse Brock, executive vice president and chief human resources officer, will retire in October after 20 years with the company. Jon Harris, executive vice president and chief networking officer, will leave in September to pursue opportunities outside Conagra.

The appointment is a leadership story because it shows how a major consumer-food company is redesigning the corporate center. Brase said bringing HR and communications together is consistent with Conagra's focus on simplicity and accountability. In practical terms, that means the person responsible for talent, culture, internal communication and executive alignment will have a direct line to the CEO at a time when packaged-food companies are managing cost pressure, brand portfolios, changing consumer habits and public reputation.

Held arrives with more than 25 years of experience across corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, organizational transformation, consumer goods and professional services. Most recently, she served as chief human resource officer at The Simply Good Foods Company, where Conagra says she advised the CEO and board on executive succession, compensation, governance and human-capital risk. Before that, she spent more than a decade at The J.M. Smucker Company and ultimately became chief transformation officer. Her work there included aligning the organization around strategic priorities and driving operating improvements.

For SheMeansNews readers, the useful angle is not only that a woman executive has been appointed to a senior job. It is what kind of job this is. Chief administrative roles often sit at the point where strategy turns into operating behavior. They can determine how leadership messages travel, how quickly decisions are made, how performance is measured and whether a company's culture supports the stated business plan. When HR and communications are treated as separate support functions, companies can end up with mixed signals. Conagra is now putting those functions into one executive structure.

The change also highlights succession and transformation as central leadership work. Conagra thanked Brock for shaping culture and elevating HR into a strategic partner, and Harris for strengthening communications as an enterprise function. Those comments show that the company sees these roles as more than personnel and messaging. They are part of how a large branded-food business executes.

Conagra reported fiscal 2026 net sales of more than $11 billion and owns brands including Birds Eye, Duncan Hines, Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's, Reddi-wip, Slim Jim and Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP. A company of that size needs leadership systems that can connect brands, employees, operations, customers and investors. Held's new role will be judged by whether it makes that system clearer. The appointment is therefore a work-and-careers story as much as a corporate announcement: it shows how executive influence increasingly belongs to leaders who can connect people, strategy and communication in one operating rhythm.