Heinz Realigns Leadership of its North American and European Businesses
The changes are part of Heinz's ongoing development process to broaden the capabilities and skills of its executive leadership team.
12/06/09 The H. J. Heinz Company has announced a leadership realignment involving five top senior executives who will each continue to play crucial roles in driving the growth and success of Heinz. The management changes, effective July 15, include a switch in responsibilities of the two current Heinz executives in charge of the Company's North American and European businesses. The changes are part of Heinz's ongoing development process to broaden the capabilities and skills of its executive leadership team.
Dave Moran becomes Executive Vice President, President and CEO of Heinz Europe after serving as Executive Vice President, President and CEO of Heinz North America. Moran has led Heinz North America to new heights by building a world-class team and driving the superior growth and performance of the business, which achieved record sales and profit in each of the last six years. Moran will bring his strong leadership skills and keen understanding of both consumers and customers to Heinz Europe.
Scott O'Hara becomes Executive Vice President, President and CEO of Heinz North America after serving as Executive Vice President, President and CEO of Heinz Europe. O'Hara has done a superb job in driving the growth of Heinz Europe while inspiring the European leadership team to new levels of performance as one unified and cohesive world-class team. Under his strong leadership, Heinz Europe has delivered impressive top- and bottom-line growth on a constant currency basis over the last three years.
Chris Warmoth will continue in his current role of Executive Vice President, Asia/Pacific, which recently expanded to include the key markets of Australia and New Zealand. Under his leadership, Asia Pacific has delivered double-digit growth and recently completed the important acquisition of Golden Circle in Australia, a transaction that grows the Company's business in Australia and New Zealand to almost $1 billion in sales. Warmoth will also remain focused on maintaining the Company's strong growth in the emerging markets of Asia.
Mike Milone will continue in his current role as Senior Vice President, Rest of World, Global Infant Nutrition & Enterprise Risk Management. Milone leads the Company's fast-growing Rest of World business and is driving the Infant/Nutrition business. Under his leadership, the Company's Infant/Nutrition business delivered strong sales growth in Fiscal 2009 and markets such as Mexico, South Africa and the Middle East have grown significantly. Importantly, he is also responsible for Heinz's expanding Global Enterprise Risk Management and Sustainability initiatives.
Art Winkleblack will continue as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Winkleblack is doing an excellent job in overseeing and building the Company's capabilities in Finance, Strategy, Investor Relations, Treasury, Information Technology, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Planning and Control functions. His current role will expand with the important global Keystone initiative designed to improve Heinz's processes and systems.
"Heinz has an exceptionally strong and deep executive leadership team, as these five executives have demonstrated in leading the Company to a year of record sales and profit in Fiscal 2009," said William R. Johnson, Chairman, President and CEO. "I look forward to working with these talented executives in the years ahead as we build on the strong momentum and growth that Heinz has achieved over the last three years."
