27 Jun 2020 Mondelēz International appoints new African and SA bosses
Snack giant, Mondelēz International, has made new appointments to top positions on the African continent and South Africa; one an insider, one an outsider.
Long-term employee, Nigel Parsons (top left), is the new President of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) operations, while Alisdair Sinclair (top right) is the new Managing Director, South Africa, effective 1 June 2020.
Parsons joins Mondelēz SSA in a newly created leadership role that will strengthen focus in the region, directly supported by Sinclair. Prior to this appointment Parsons held the position of Country Director of Mondelez Australia, while Sinclair held the position of CEO at the Vamara Group.
Notes from a Mondelēz press release:
Both Parsons and Sinclair bring with them a deep understanding of the confectionary industry locally and abroad, and their unique skill sets and global perspective make them the right leaders to drive Mondelēz’s focus on long-term growth across its SSA markets, as well as unlock the exciting business potential that exists in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
Parsons joined Mondelēz in 2001 and brings over 25 years’ experience in fast moving consumer goods. Having worked in senior sales roles across a multitude of markets, including Australia, South Africa, UK, Asia, Middle East and Africa, Parsons credits the almost 100,000 strong organisation for his robust career path and global career opportunities.
“After 13 amazing years with Mondelez in Australia and the last six years leading the Australian business, I’m delighted to take on a new and incredibly exciting challenge as Business Unit President for the newly created Sub-Saharan Africa business. With over 50 countries and more than 1/6th of the global population, it’s an exciting region with major growth opportunities for our snacking portfolio,” says Parsons.
Parsons’ insights and learnings will be reinvested into the vast Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (AMEA) region, bringing the company vision of Snacking Made Right to life. An independent SSA Business Unit will allow the company to keep a consumer-centric approach across a large geography with different cultures, a fragmented portfolio and varying emerging demand spaces.
Sinclair takes over from outgoing CEO, Swadheen Sharma. As SA MD, he will help support his SSA colleague’s mandate through his responsibilities for the day-to-day running of the South Africa commercial business.
He is a seasoned business executive and brings with him 24 years of extensive industry experience from multi-national and local corporates within the FMCG/consumer-driven business sector in South Africa and key African markets including East, Central & Southern Africa.
The experience he gained as CEO of Vamara Group for four and a half years, and before that in various executive/director roles at The Lion Match Company as its Group CEO; MD at General Mills; and Managing Executive for the Personal Care division at Tiger Brands.
“These have positioned him well to focus on driving profitable top-line growth, as well as ensure a relevant and optimised innovation pipeline and seek opportunities to manage talent, develop people and invest in broader communities.
“With more dedicated resources, we’ll be able to go beyond our current key markets and work on multiple projects at the same time, to strengthen our ambitious growth agenda, bring us closer to our consumers and allow us to allocate resources closer to where we need them most,” Parsons concludes.
Source: Mondelēz International