President and CEO of Smithfield Foods to speak at CNU

News Release - Feb. 28, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media contact:
Carolyn Cuthrell
Office of Communications and Public Relations
carolyn.cuthrell@cnu.edu
(757) 594-7331

C. Larry Pope

(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — C. Larry Pope, President and Chief Executive Officer of Smithfield Food, Inc., will address a university and community forum as Executive-On-Campus on March 13 at 7 p.m. in Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Center for the Arts Music and Theatre Hall. He will discuss essential factors in success, leadership skills in the corporate environment, and the value of community service. The event is free and open to the public.

The Executive-On-Campus program of the Joseph W. Luter, III School of Business provides an opportunity for a CEO to spend a portion of the day on campus interacting with business school faculty and students. The executive meets with student leaders, lectures in two classes and addresses the University community.

 “The Luter School is pleased to host Mr. Pope as this semester’s Executive-On-Campus,” said Dr. Donna Mottilla, dean of the school of business at CNU.  “His visit further strengthens the Luter School’s ties to Smithfield.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our students, who will have several opportunities, both in the classroom and in less formal venues, to learn about what it takes to run a Fortune 500 corporation.”

Smithfield Foods is the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer, with revenues exceeding $11 billion in fiscal 2006. Pope joined Smithfield in 1980 as controller, became vice president, finance in1999, chief financial officer in 2000, and was named president and chef operating officer in 2001. He succeeded Joseph W. Luter III as chef executive officer of Smithfield Foods in September 2006.

A Certified Public Accountant, Pope earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and an MBA from the College of William and Mary.

For more information about the forum, contact Clare Maliniak at the Joseph W. Luter, III School of Business, (757) 594-7184.