Heineken, AB InBev and Constellation Brands are among those welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Heineken, AB InBev and Constellation Brands are among those welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Ekaterra has appointed Nathalie Roos as chief executive officer and Pierre Laubies as chair of the board: following the completion on July 1 of its divestment from Unilever.
The company has a portfolio of more than 30 brands – including PG Tips and Pukka in the UK and TAZO in the US – and annual revenues of around 2bn euros.
Nathalie Roos was previously head of L’Oréal’s Professional Products division and prior to that CEO of Germany for the Group. She has held senior roles at Mars for nearly 20 years. She is also currently a non-executive director of Pret-a-Manger and Bel Group, the French healthy dairy and fruit snack manufacturer.
Pierre Laubies brings 30 years of leadership experience at Mars, Campbell Soup Company, and more recently as CEO of Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Coty. He continues to advise as a Member of the Board at Philips Domestic Appliances and Groupe Panzani.
Constellation Brands has appointed Joseph Saurez as head of investor relations: effective July 1.
Suarez will serve as a member of the company’s corporate communications and finance leadership teams and will have oversight responsibility for all aspects of Constellation’s investor relations strategy development and execution.
Patty Yahn-Urlaub, who has served as Constellation’s investor relations lead for the past 15 years, will retire on July 22.
Suarez joined Constellation Brands in November 2021 as Vice President, Investor Relations. Prior to joining Constellation, he served as Managing Director, Strategy at Teneo, a global CEO advisory firm. Prior to his time at Teneo, Suarez served in a range of commercial, governance, finance, and investor relations capacities at BHP and Rio Tinto, two leading global resources companies.
Tropicana Brands Group – which markets, manufactures and distributes premium juice products across North America and Europe – has made two c-suite appointments.
William J. Kelley, Jr. becomes Chief Financial Officer (effective end of June) and Rogier Smeets becomes Chief Executive Officer, Europe (effective June 13).
These appointments come as the newly formed joint venture between PAI Partners and PepsiCo continues to build out its leadership team.
Kelley brings more than 30 years of experience in the areas of finance, transformation and strategy. He joins from Treehouse Foods where he has spent the last six years, most recently as EVP and CFO. A food industry veteran, he also served in executive leadership roles at The Kraft Heinz Company and The Hillshire Brands Company.
Smeets comes to Tropicana Brands Group via Upfield, the world’s largest plant-based consumer packaged goods company, where he held several leadership positions including President, Europe. Prior to Upfield, he built his career at Unilever in various marketing and commercial functions across Europe, US and Asia.
The world's first female master blender, Appleton Estate’s Joy Spence (third from left), has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS).
She also becomes the first Caribbean Master Blender to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) of the United States, shedding light on the calibre of rum produced by Jamaica and the region at large.
The DISCUS Lifetime Achievement Award honours an individual who supports the industry during their lifetime through significant innovation and promotion of the industry, commercial strategy, advocacy, and responsibility.
Spence, who has been the master blender at Appleton Estate for over 23 years, received the honour at the council's annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Over the course of her career, Spence has combined the art and science of rum making to create ‘some of the finest, most highly decorated rums in the world’, including Appleton Estate 8-Year-Old Reserve and Appleton Estate Rare Blend 12-Year-Old. Her crowning achievement was the Limited-Edition Appleton Estate 50-Year-Old Jamaican Rum – the oldest rum blend ever introduced to the consumer marketplace.
She has also travelled the world engaging with consumers and sharing about J Wray and Nephew’s premium aged rums, and what makes them unique and different from their competitors.
Spence has received numerous honours and awards during her career, including the highest Jamaican civilian commendation, the Order of Distinction in the Rank of Commander in 2017, in recognition of her contribution to the promotion of Jamaica’s rum industry and Jamaica globally.
In 2018 she became the first female to receive the National Medal for Science and Technology for her significant advances in the field of science and technology and contributions to the economic, cultural and social development of Jamaica.
Additionally, Spence was named Fortune magazine’s most influential woman in food and drink, and in 2011 received a Golden Rum Barrel Award for the most influential rum blender for the last 10 years.
She has also received two honorary doctorate degrees.
EverGrain, a sustainable ingredient company created by beer giant AB InBev, has announced the launch of its scientific advisory board.
The brewing industry generates nine million metric tons of dry spent barley grain a year. Most goes to animal feed or is discarded, but EverGrain sees it as an ‘untapped sugar grain’ with nutritional value as a protein and a low carbon impact.
The company has appointed five members to the board:
- Prof. Dr. Elke Arendt, MSc, PhD, DSc, University College Cork (Ireland): Professor in the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences and specializing in cereals, malting, and brewing science with a particular focus on gluten-free foods and beverages, starter cultures, functional beverages, rheology, and food structure.
- • Prof. Dr. Christophe Courtin, PhD, KU Leuven (Belgium): Professor of Food Biochemistry at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry specializing in the molecular biology of cereal starch, non-starch carbohydrates, and dietary fiber, with a focus on the functionality of dietary fibers in human health and applications in other areas of technology.
- Dr. Diederik Esser, PhD, Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands): Senior Researcher specializing in the study of nutrition quality and bio-functional activity of emerging, sustainable protein sources, especially as they relate to the performance of endurance athletes and metabolic systems.
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Hofmann, PhD, Technical University of Munich (Germany): President of the Technical University of Munich and Professor in the newly established Chair of Food Chemistry and Molecular Sensors specializing in screening, identifying, and quantifying chemical compounds that are naturally occurring and/or formed during processing and can influence the sensory, appearance, and metabolic health impact of foods and beverages.
- Prof. Dr. Justin Siegel, PhD, University of California, Davis (United States): Associate Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine and Faculty Director of the Innovation Institute for Food and Health specializing in understanding proteins and designing enzymes for diverse applications spanning many sectors, including the food and beverage industry.
The ESAB is led by EverGrain’s Global Head of R&D Steffen Münch and Dr. Harold Schmitz, PhD, ESAB Chair and Senior Scholar in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis.
Heineken UK has named Boudewijn Haarsma as managing director (MD).
Boudewijn will join the UK business on August 8 having been MD of Heineken Russia, a post he has held since 2018. During his time in Russia, he developed Heineken’s premium portfolio, accelerating innovation and implementing operating efficiencies.
Boudewijn joined Heineken in 1995 as a management trainee. He has since worked in a number of commercial and management roles before moving to Nigeria in 2010, where he led the merger of Heineken's breweries in Nigeria as MD of Consolidated Breweries. In 2015, he was appointed as MD for East & West Africa. During his tenure, the operating companies in his area achieved double-digit revenue and profit growth, often underpinned by innovation.
Boudewijn will be a member of Heineken's Europe management group and will report to Soren Hagh, president, Europe.
UK soft drink manufacturer Britvic has moved Sudeep Shetty, previously Group Chief Information Officer, into a new role of Chief Information and Transformation Officer.
He also joins the Executive team with immediate effect.
Shetty joined Britvic in 2016 as IT Transformation Director, before becoming Chief Technology Officer in 2018 and CIO in 2020. Prior to joining Britvic, Sudeep led an international business transformation program for J.P. Morgan, supported M&S on its e-commerce transformation project and led the creation of digital consumer experiences for both Selfridges and Jack Wills.
In his time as Britvic CIO, Sudeep has overseen several crucial projects, including the creation of Britvic’s technology investment roadmap and the delivery of the company’s commercial, procurement and customer relationship management transformation programs. These projects have contributed to Britvic’s overarching growth strategy, giving instant access to real-time data, and enabling Britvic to better partner with customers and anticipate consumers’ needs.
In his newly expanded role, Sudeep will retain responsibility for IT, data and analytics, while leading cross-business unit transformation programs vital for the business’ strategic growth. Sudeep will also lead a department focused on the delivery of future technological and digital change.