VEVEY, SWITZERLAND — Nestle SA named Jeff Hamilton chief executive officer of its Zone Americas division.

Hamilton will replace Steve Presley, who is retiring from the company, on July 1.

Hamilton is currently the CEO of European operations (Zone Europe) for the company’s pet food subsidiary Purina PetCare. Outside of his current role at Purina, he has held many other leadership positions across three Nestle zones since 1991, including CEO of Nestle Canada, president of the company’s US food division, and vice president of marketing at Nestle Purina Asia, Oceania and Africa.

“We are very grateful to Steve for his many years of dedicated service to our company and extend our best wishes to him for his future endeavors,” said Laurent Freixe, CEO of Nestle.

“We are excited to announce that Jeff will become the new CEO of Zone Americas,” Freixe continued. “Jeff has consistently demonstrated exceptional performance and a remarkable ability to inspire and motivate his teams. We look forward to working with Jeff to drive our growth strategy in Zone AMS.”