WATSONVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 29, 2026--
Driscoll's, the world's leading berry brand, today announced two leadership appointments to support CEO Soren Bjorn's long-term strategy to scale the company's proven, flavor-first business model globally, bringing the same deliberate approach that made Driscoll's the #2 retail food and beverage brand in the United States to consumers in every market the company serves.
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Wyard Stomp has been appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO), a newly created role, while continuing to lead Driscoll's Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) business. As COO, Stomp will partner closely with the Executive Leadership Team to turn strategy into action, lead cross-functional initiatives, and ensure the company executes at the pace required to support its global growth ambitions.
Stomp joined Driscoll's in 2012 and has held several senior leadership roles in Europe and the United States, including Chief Commercial Officer of Driscoll's of the Americas. With a background in agribusiness and a strong track record of building market leadership across more than 20 countries in EMEA, he is well positioned to drive consistent global execution.
Shaily Sanghvi, currently Chief Financial Officer of the Americas, will expand her role to take on global responsibility for strategy. In this expanded scope, she will integrate financial, M&A, and strategic planning to guide Driscoll's long-term priorities worldwide. Sanghvi brings extensive experience in corporate strategy, M&A, and finance from leading consumer companies including PepsiCo and Del Monte.
"Driscoll's has spent more than a century focused on one thing, growing the finest, most flavorful fresh berries and delighting the consumers who love them," said Soren Bjorn, CEO of Driscoll's. "Becoming the #2 retail food and beverage brand in the United States proves that a brand built on flavor and quality can outperform even the most iconic names in food. But this is just the beginning of what's possible globally. People are our greatest strength, and Wyard and Shaily give us the operational and strategic foundation to scale our model with discipline and intention over the next decade and beyond."
Driscoll's success has been built on a deliberate choice: to invest deeply in fresh berries, lead the category in flavor innovation, and build an independent grower network that delivers consistent quality year-round. In the United States, home to the company's headquarters for more than 100 years, that disciplined focus has produced one of retail grocery's most trusted brands, achieved through depth of specialization rather than breadth of portfolio.
Today, the fresh berry category continues to expand globally, driven by rising demand for fresh, great-tasting food. With its proprietary flavor innovation, year-round supply capabilities, and the farming communities it depends on, Driscoll's is uniquely positioned to lead that growth while continuing to invest in technologies that strengthen operational efficiency and supply resilience. That same system is now being scaled globally.
About Driscoll's
Driscoll’s is the global market leader of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. With more than 100 years of farming heritage, Driscoll’s is a pioneer of berry flavor innovation and the trusted consumer brand of Only the Finest Berries™. With more than 900 independent growers around the world, Driscoll’s develops exclusive patented berry varieties using only traditional breeding methods that focus on growing great-tasting berries. A dedicated team of agronomists, breeders, sensory analysts, plant pathologists, and entomologists help grow baby seedlings that are then grown on local family farms. Driscoll’s berries are grown in more than 20 countries and are available for consumers in more than 40 countries across North America, Australia, Europe, and China.
Driscoll's Names Wyard Stomp Chief Operating Officer and Expands Shaily Sanghvi's Role to Lead Global Strategy
Driscoll's Names Wyard Stomp Chief Operating Officer and Expands Shaily Sanghvi's Role to Lead Global Strategy
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Nations around the world on Monday repatriated passengers from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and quarantined or isolated them, including a French woman and an American who tested positive.
Passengers from the ship began flying home aboard military and government planes Sunday after the MV Hondius anchored in the Canary Islands. Personnel in full-body protective gear and breathing masks escorted the travelers from ship to shore in Tenerife, an effort that continued Monday.
Three cruise ship passengers have died, and there are at least six confirmed hantavirus cases, according to the World Health Organization. The lab results of the American who tested positive were inconclusive, WHO spokesperson Sarah Tyler said Monday.
Health authorities say the risk to the broader public is low from the first-ever hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. While there is no cure or vaccine for hantavirus, the WHO says early detection and treatment improves survival rates.
The ship's captain, Jan Dobrogowski, issued a video message Monday praising passengers and crew for their perseverance and calling for respect for their privacy.
“I’ve witnessed your caring, your unity and quiet strength amongst everybody on board — guests and crew alike — and I must commend my crew for the courage and the selfless resolve that they showed time and again in the most difficult moments,” he said. “I could not imagine sailing through these circumstances with a better group of people, guests and crew alike.”
The French woman tested positive for hantavirus and her health worsened in the hospital overnight, French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Monday. The woman was among five French passengers repatriated on Sunday. She developed symptoms on the flight to Paris, Rist told public broadcaster France-Inter.
One of 17 American passengers evacuated from the ship and flown to Nebraska also tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, and another had mild symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday.
After landing in Nebraska early Monday, the American passengers were being taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has a federally funded quarantine facility. Once there, they were being assessed to determine whether they have been in close contact with any symptomatic people and their risk levels for spreading the virus.
“The passenger who is going to the Biocontainment Unit tested positive for the virus but does not have symptoms,” said Kayla Thomas, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Medicine network that will help care for the passengers.
The university medical center also has a special unit for treating people with highly infectious diseases that was used early in the pandemic for COVID-19 patients and previously for Ebola patients.
The planes arriving in Tenerife were to fly out passengers from more than 20 countries in an evacuation effort that was due to wrap up on Monday.
A Dutch plane expected to reach Tenerife Monday afternoon will carry passengers that were previously going to be evacuated on a plane sent by Australia, Spain’s Health Minister Mónica García said. On Monday, 54 passengers and crew remained on the ship, of which 22 were expected to disembark, while the remaining 32 will remain on the ship as it returns to the Netherlands.
South African health authorities said on Monday that the condition of a British man admitted to a hospital in Johannesburg and being treated for hantavirus was gradually improving. He was evacuated from the ship on April 27 after becoming ill.
The Hondius left the southern Argentine port of Ushuaia on April 1 and a Dutch passenger died on board April 11. It wasn’t until early May that the World Health Organization said it was reacting to a suspected hantavirus outbreak on the ship, which by that time was off the West African island nation of Cape Verde.
Hantavirus usually spreads from rodent droppings and is not easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms — which can include fever, chills and muscle aches — usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday that the general public should not be worried about the outbreak. “This is not another COVID. And the risk to the public is low. So they shouldn’t be scared, and they shouldn’t panic.”
WHO is recommending that passengers’ home countries “have active monitoring and follow-up, which means daily health checks, either at home or in a specialized facility,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness
Numerous countries have said their people will be quarantined or hospitalized for observation.
The ship's captain, Dobrogowski, said his thoughts “are with the ones that are no longer with us, and whatever I say will not ease this loss, but I’d like you to know that they are with us every day in our hearts and our thoughts.”
Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed reporting.
Nebraska Medicine's Davis Global Center is seen on Sunday, May 10,2026 in Omaha, Neb. where American passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship will quarantine. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)
Passengers leave a plane at Manchester Airport, after being repatriated to the United Kingdom from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was hit by hantavirus, Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Manchester, England. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)
Passengers are sprayed with disinfectant by Spanish government officials before boarding a plane after disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)
Ambulances carrying patients evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infection, leave the Bourget airport, north of Paris, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A plane carrying patients evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship with suspected hantavirus infection, lands at the Bourget airport, north of Paris, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
