Fort Myers firm squeezes leadership team, names new CEO

FORT MYERS — Florida orange producer Alico announced Remy Trafelet will become president and CEO of the Fort Myers-based holding company, effective Jan. 1. He replaces CEO Clay Wilson, who will step down from his role Dec. 31.

A group of investors led by Trafelet, a former Fidelity Investments portfolio manager who built a New York City hedge fund that managed billions of dollars, bought Wilson's groves in 2013 and hired him to run the operations. Trafelet and his partners later acquired Alico for $137.8 million from the heirs of the Ben Hill Griffin family. That deal and several other subsequent ones transformed the company into one of the nation's largest citrus producers. It had $157.5 million in revenues in 2015.

Trafelet has been chairman of the company's executive committee since 2013, the company says in a statement. Wilson, meanwhile, will continue to serve on the Alico board. “He will continue to share his lifetime of experience with the Alico team and remains committed to his vision of strengthening Alico's role within the Florida citrus industry,” the company says in a statement.

Alico Inc. announced other leadership changes, including:
• George Brokaw will become executive vice chairman;
• Hank Slack will become executive chairman;
• Jerry Newlin, vice president for citrus operations, will oversee the operational management of Orange Co. Newlin previously supervised citrus operations for Orange-Co., prior to Alico's acquisition of its assets in 2014, the release states. He's worked for Alico, Orange-Co and predecessor companies in various capacities since 1978.