Boardroom Shuffle
Kimberly Nelson will join the Tate & Lyle Board as non-executive director from July. She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the food and beverage industry, having held numerous senior brand and general management roles at General Mills, over 30 years. Douglas Hurt will retire from the Board, having served as a non-executive director since March 2010, as the Chair of the Audit Committee since March 2015 and as Senior Independent Director since January 2017. Warren Tucker will take up the vacant role of Chair of the Audit Committee while Paul Forman has been appointed Senior Independent Director.
Lambert makes Meadow Foods move
Meadow Foods has named Gary Lambert as its new Head of Strategic Operations. Lambert has 30 years’ experience across manufacturing and engineering, including senior roles at Tangerine Confectionary and Cadbury Trebor Bassett. His post spans all major capital projects, mergers and acquisitions. Meadow Foods is one of the UK’s largest independent dairy groups.
Shake up at Heinz
Kraft Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees will step down on June 30, marking the embattled company’s most significant executive shake-up since its formation four years ago.
Hees, 49, will be replaced by Miguel Patricio, who has been at beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev for 20 years, most recently as its global head of marketing. Patricio, 52, who will officially take over the helm of the world’s fifth biggest food company on July 1, said he planned to focus more on efficiency, investing in brands and growing sales organically at a company that recently witnessed a $15.4 billion write down on some of its brands. “I think the obsession for efficiency has to be much bigger than the obsession for cutting costs,” he told Reuters after news of his appointment had been confirmed. “Cost cutting should be a priority for any company. However, you cannot cut costs every year.” Patricio has also previously worked at Philip Morris, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson.
New senior glass role at Aegg
Premium food and drink packaging specialist Aegg has a new Head of Glass.
Pawel Wieczorek takes on the newly created role after 15 years at Trend Glass. “We are experiencing a big increase in demand for our glass products”, said Aegg’s Managing Director, Jamie Gorman. “This was backed up by the level of interest visitors to our Packaging Innovations stand showed in our new glass offerings.”
New leader at Godiva
Premium chocolate brand Godiva has a new UK President. Olivier de Mendez has more than 25 years of experience in retail and F&B and is set to spearhead the Belgian chocolatier’s expansion across the region, with the introduction of new products, accelerating distribution channels, and entering new markets.
De Mendez was previously Managing Director, France and International at Optical Discount, Afflelou Group, where he played an integral role in growing the business by driving innovation and making its products more accessible.
“We are delighted to welcome Olivier and his tremendous leadership capability to our Godiva family,” said Annie Young-Scrivner, CEO of Godiva. “Through his years of experience working for large-scale, global brands, he has acquired a deep understanding of the UK and MENAT markets, which will be an incredible asset to us.”
Mondi investment
Global packaging and paper group Mondi has appointed Martin Gutberlet as Chief Digital Officer. He joins from machine tool maker DMG MORI. Peter Oswald, Mondi CEO, said: “We believe success in the digital age will go to organisations that don’t just try digital, but scale it and move beyond incremental change across all core processes along the value chain.”
