The supervisory board of ForFarmers N.V. nominates Chris Deen as member of the Executive Board of ForFarmers, to be appointed by the general shareholders meeting. Upon his appointment, Mr Deen will hold the position of Chief Executive Officer (‘CEO’), starting as of 1 July 2022. This requires convening an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (‘EGM’), which is expected to take place in June 2022.
Chris Deen (55) is currently CEO of Aviko, one of the four largest potato processors in the world and subsidiary of cooperative Royal Cosun. He started in this position at the beginning of 2020. Despite the outbreak of the Covid-pandemic, he managed to implement his assignment to continue the successful growth strategy of Aviko by making the right decisions at the right time.
Chris Deen has a degree in business economics and information management from Amsterdam University. He also attained a postgraduate degree as chartered accountant. He started his career in 1991 as accountant at EY. He moved to Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts in 1996, where he held various positions until 2010. These included CFO of Douwe Egberts Coffee Systems in the Netherlands and General Manager of Sara Lee International Foodservice Iberia (Barcelona, Spain). Subsequently, Chris Deen joined Bakkersland, at the time the largest bakery producer in the Netherlands, where he was CFO and CEO between 2012 and 2016. Prior to joining Aviko, he was COO and Integration Director at Euroma (products based on herbs and spices).
Jan van Nieuwenhuizen, chairman of the supervisory board of ForFarmers: ‘We are pleased to nominate Chris Deen as CEO. His broad and international experience in the food sector is characterised by initiating and implementing successful transformations within leading companies in quickly changing and challenging markets. He has an engaging and decisive personality. We are of the opinion that he fits well with the other members of the executive board and the executive team and that he has the skills and experience to positively influence the development of ForFarmers.’
The proposed appointment of Chris Deen relates to the current CEO, Yoram Knoop, stepping down after the AGM on 14 April coming. From 14 April until 1 July, Roeland Tjebbes will temporarily take on the CEO role next to his CFO responsibilities. As was previously announced, ForFarmers intends to disclose the outcome of the strategy update sometime after the new CEO has joined.