Unilever Executive Joins PureCircle as New Chief Financial Officer

19 Feb 2016 --- PureCircle, the world’s leading producer and marketer of high purity stevia ingredients, has announced the recruitment of its new Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Rakesh Sinha. Sinha will replace current CFO, Mr. William Mitchell who previously announced his retirement.

Sinha will join the Company from Unilever where across his 17 year career he has held a number of senior finance and strategic roles in both developed and emerging markets, including Finance Director of the Australian & New Zealand Ice-cream business and CFO of Unilever Taiwan & Hong Kong. He is currently CFO (Latin America, South and Eastern Europe) at Unilever Food Solutions and brings with him a strong track record of commercial leadership, profitable growth delivery, and strategy development and deployment.

Prior to joining Unilever, Sinha worked for BHP Billiton and Time-Life International. He is a British-Australian dual national, UK qualified Chartered Accountant, a Chemical Engineering Graduate from the University of Leeds and holds an MBA from Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management.

Sinha will join PureCircle on April 25, 2016 and will be based at PureCircle’s head office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Following a suitable handover period working with Mitchell, it is anticipated Sinha will join the Board as an executive director and take over from Mitchell as Chief Financial Officer on his retirement from that role.

Commenting on the recruitment Sinha as new Chief Financial Officer, the PureCircle Chairman Paul Selway-Swift said: “In seeking a replacement CFO we undertook a global search looking for candidates with the relevant experience, personal capacity and drive to help take the company to the next level of its development. The group has major long term growth plans and we are delighted to have secured the services of Rakesh Sinha to support and help lead those plans. We believe he will bring to PureCircle a great combination of relevant industry knowledge, proven international experience, strong leadership to our finance team and a valuable contribution to our Board.”