National Beef Packing Co. LLC has promoted Tim Klein to president and CEO and named him as a member of the board.

Klein had been the Kansas City-based companyź??s president and COO since 1997. He succeeds John Miller, who was CEO for 17 years. Miller is now a consultant to the company and remains on its board.

ź??We have had a succession plan in place for years, which included the continued development of our management staff to fulfill the leadership needs of an ever-changing and growing company,ź?ť Steve Hunt, chairman of National Beef and CEO of Kansas City-based U.S. Premium Beef LLC, said in a Monday release.

National Beef has operations in Kansas City, Kan.; St. Joseph; Liberal and Dodge City, Kan.; Brawley, Calif.; Hummels Wharf, Pa.; and Moultrie, Ga. The company had sales of $5.8 billion in fiscal 2008.

U.S. Premium Beef is National Beefź??s majority owner.