D.E Master Blenders 1753 N.V. (DEMB) recently announced several appointments of new senior management members. Jan van Bon will join as president of retail developed markets, Oliver Hasler as president de professional (out of home) and Fiona Hughes will become senior vice president of marketing.
Together with Michel Cup, CFO and executive board member; Harm-Jan van Pelt, president retail developing markets; Luc Volatier, senior vice president operations; and Rogier Rijnja, senior vice president human resources, they will form the new executive committee for DEMB, under the leadership of CEO and executive board member Pierre Laubies, whose proposed appointment was announced last week.
Jan van Bon will join as president retail developed markets. With over 25 years of experience, van Bon, a Dutch national, is a consumer goods industry veteran. Van Bon began his career at Mars in 1986 as a strategic planner in finance for the Netherlands business. He worked in finance, sales and marketing and held numerous leadership positions such as vice president Europe and vice president petcare Europe and South Africa. Among many other achievements, van Bon led a European Multisales business, which grew rapidly, brought profitability to some markets for the first time ever and developed a strong talent pool.
Van Bon is taking over from Eugenio Minvielle. Minvielle brought a drive for quality and customer focus and leaves behind a strong management team. In order to ensure a proper handover to the new management, Minvielle will continue to be engaged as advisor to the company for the foreseeable future. DEMB would like to thank Minvielle for his many contributions to the business.
Oliver Hasler, of Swiss nationality, will join as president de professional (out of home). In the past ten years, Hasler played an instrumental role in setting up and developing the foodservice business of Arc International, the worldwide leader in tableware. His latest position was CEO Europe and senior vice president global foodservice. Prior to Arc, Hasler held various leadership positions at Oneida, a leading tabletop foodservice company. Hasler has extensive international experience and has effectively led large teams across markets throughout his career.
Fiona Hughes will join as senior vice president marketing, a newly created position to fully leverage DEMB's strong brand portfolio. Hughes, an Australian national, has over 15 years of marketing and brand management experience. She started her career at Telstra Australia in 1996 where she was brand manager for the second largest revenue contributor. In 2000, Hughes joined Mars where she held various positions in the Australian, U.K. and global marketing teams. Since 2010, she was the global portfolio director for Mars Global Petcare responsible for defining the global vision, strategy and deployment tools for the several billion dollar portfolio of cat brands.
Following the change in control, Onno van Klinken, general counsel and corporate secretary, and Tom Hansson, head of strategy, will depart the organization. Van Klinken was instrumental in the successful spin off and listing of DEMB on the Amsterdam stock exchange. Hansson was key in the development of the current strategic direction of DEMB and was also a key driver behind the successful spin.
