6 Leadership Shifts at Retail Food Suppliers
By Brett Dworski on Jun. 21, 2018CHICAGO -- Mondelez International named a new chief financial officer this month. It's the latest of several leadership changes made by packaged-foods manufacturers and distributors in recent weeks.
Here's a look at the Mondelez move and five other industry leadership changes since January ...
1. Mondelez International
Luca Zaramella, senior vice president of corporate finance for East Hanover, N.J.-based Mondelez International, will succeed Brian Gladden as executive vice president and CFO, the company said June 19.
Gladden has decided to pursue opportunities outside the consumer-goods sector after a decade in the industry. The transition will commence Aug. 1.
Zaramella will be tasked with leading Mondelez’s global finance, information and technology solutions and shared-services functions. He will report directly to Dirk Van de Put, Mondelez’s chairman and CEO, as the newest member of the company’s leadership team.
Zaramella has more than two decades of broad financial experience. Over the past four years, he has held various financial roles with Mondelez, including corporate controller, treasurer and global head of financial planning and analysis. He has also been the company’s international’s senior vice president of corporate finance since 2016 and was the senior vice president and corporate controller for two years prior.
This marks Mondelez’s second leadership change in 2018. In February, Nelson Peltz, former director of the Mondelez board, stepped down to join the board of directors of consumer packaged goods company Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati. He was replaced by Debra Crew, former president and CEO of Reynolds American, Winston-Salem, N.C., and Peter May, president of and Peltz’s founding partner at New York-based TrianPartners, on March 1.
2. Post Holdings
In early June, Brentwood, Mo.-based Post Holdings Inc. appointed Chris Neugent, president and CEO of Post Consumer Brands, as executive vice president of strategy for Post Holdings Inc., effective July 23. Howard Friedman, former executive vice president of the Kraft Heinz Co., will assume Neugent’s role with Post Consumer Brands.
Neugent had been chairman and CEO for cereal producer MOM Brands Co. (formerly Malt-O-Meal Co.) when Post acquired the company in 2015. He since has helped spearhead the integration of Post’s cereal business with MOM Brands.
3. Nestle USA
On April 1, Steve Presley, former chief finance and strategic transformation officer for Arlington, Va.-based Nestle USA, succeeded Paul Grimwood as market head and CEO of the company. Presley had held his previous role with Nestle USA since 2016 and had been with the company for more than 20 years before this new transition.
Grimwood moved to a nonexecutive-chairman role, tasked with providing strategic counsel on stakeholder relations, driving Nestle's Creating Shared Value agenda and engaging with government officials and industry leaders, according to the company.
4. Campbell Soup
Keith McLoughlin, former board member of Camden, N.J.-based Campbell Soup Co., succeeded Denise Morrison as CEO of the company May 18. Morrison retired unexpectedly after 15 years with the company. McLoughlin, the interim CEO, was tasked with leading Campbell until the board finds a new chief, according to the company’s recent third-quarter earnings call. No permanent replacement has been announced yet.
In April, the brand put its core business operations, including its portfolios of soup, simple meals, snacks and shelf-stable beverages, under the leadership of Luca Mignini, Campbell’s president of global biscuits and snacks, as COO.
5. Land O'Lakes
Farmer-owned food and agriculture cooperative Land O'Lakes said in late May that tenured CEO Chris Policinski is retiring. Peter Janzen, senior vice president, general counsel and chief administrative officer for the Arden Hills, Minn.-based company, will step in June 30 as interim CEO while the board finds a permanent replacement.
Since joining Land O’Lakes in 2005, Policinski has led the company’s global expansion in South Africa and Kenya, helped complete its merger with United Suppliers—the largest in company history—and has steered Land O'Lakes' investment with Minnesota’s communities.
6. Eby-Brown
Independent convenience-store distributor Eby-Brown’s longtime senior vice president, Ron Coppel, retired in January after more than 27 years with the company. During his time with Naperville, Ill.-based Eby-Brown, Coppel served as a member of the NACS Supplier Board from 1999 to 2009, as well as the NACS Board of Directors for two consecutive terms from 2004 through 2006. In 2006, he was named Supplier Board chairman for a one-year term.
Upon retiring, Coppel began training to become a docent at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Ill.