Chris Pledger has been named CFO of Westrock Coffee Co. LLC of Little Rock, effective immediately.
He will succeed John Ebner, who retired from the company in October.
Pledger has been with Westrock since it was founded in Rwanda in 2009. He first served as outside legal counsel and more recently as a member of the company’s executive team.
Since Westrock’s acquisition of S&D Coffee & Tea in February, Pledger has served as president of its international group, as chief legal officer and as head of corporate development.
Before that he was general counsel and chief development officer since October 2013 and president of Westrock Coffee International since November 2017.
Pledger has more than 25 years of experience. He was a corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions attorney at Thompson & Knight LLP, Vinson & Elkins LLP and Kutak Rock LLP. He was also a legal, international business and finance executive at Hunt Oil Co. before joining Westrock.
Pledger graduated from Centenary College with a bachelor’s degree in economics and earned his juris doctorate from Louisiana State University.