Smriti Canakapalli

Smriti is responsible for strategy development, strategy execution and commercial capability building for Cargill’s animal nutrition and health businesses globally.  In this role she works across 45 plus countries, over 10 livestock, aqua and lifestyle species, and more than 50,000 customers.  By facilitating clear strategic choices, creating greater cross-functional alignment to better serve customers and maturing the commercial system, Smriti enables the businesses to achieve their organic and inorganic growth goals.

Smriti joined Cargill in 2016 as a part of the company’s Corporate Strategy and Development department where she served as an internal consultant to businesses on strategy development. She also worked on mergers and acquisitions, identifying targets to facilitate multimillion dollar acquisitions and supporting strategic growth projects in protein, food ingredients, and animal nutrition.

Prior to joining Cargill, Smriti was consultant with Bain & Company, where she served clients in the areas of strategy, performance improvement and organizational redesign. She began her career with Dow Chemical, where she held progressive roles focused on engineering and operations.

Smriti earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Chicago. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin. She is originally from India, and in addition to the United States, has lived in Indonesia, Kenya and Zambia. She is married and has one daughter; her family enjoys travel and experiencing new cultures and cuisines.