Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) said Adrian Isman has accepted the role of chairman of the board of its sister company, Biosev, effective immediately, but he will keep on his roles as head of North America at LDC and chairman of Calyx Agro Ltd.
The agribusiness giant also announced that Patrick Treuer has stepped down as Biosev’s chairman, in order to focus on his responsibilities as LDC’s chief strategy officer, a key position, it stressed, as LDC enters a new phase of growth. He remains a board member of Biosev.
As a result of those changes, LDC said Anthony Tancredi will replace Isman as head of its grains platform. That move is also effective immediately. Tancredi joins LDC’s senior leadership team, reporting to CEO, Ian McIntosh.
A US national, Tancredi built his 30-year career within LDC, holding various key roles over the years, including as CEO of Allenberg Cotton Co. and subsequently Head of LDC’s cotton platform. He more recently served as head of the sugar platform at LDC.
Bartek Ingredients Inc is adding two new members to its leadership team.
The Canada-based feed ingredient company has appointed Jeff Billig as vice president of marketing and business development and Heinrich Schaefer as international sales director.
The company, which, among its many activities, looks to displace antibiotics in animal feed, said it recently executed several significant capital projects to expand its capacity and improve efficiency. In February, CEO, John Burrows, outlined objectives for 2019. One of the targets set is an increase in its malic and fumaric acid capacity, to the tune of an additional 5,000 tons per year, he said.
Previously, Billig was the general manager of Delavau Food Partners and a business director at Ingredion. His role at Bartek includes expanding sales, improving margins and encouraging further growth.
Schaefer will be based in Germany, in Bartek's new German branch. He has a background in international sales with a focus on food and specialty industries. Most recently he was the global sales director for HYET Sweet. He also worked at Jungbunzlauer piror to that and helped grow its global sales team and international distribution network, with an emphasis on citric acid. At Bartek, he is charged with developing and extend the direct sales and distribution programs in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
In addition to the new hires, Milad Moshfeghian was promoted to vice president of new product development at Bartek.
Cainthus, a Dublin-based computer-vision company exploiting facial recognition technology to optimize livestock production, said it has appointed Steve Kickert as its new chief operations officer (COO).
It said that Kickert, who was director of technology for Cargill’s animal nutrition business prior to this announcement, began working closely with Cainthus in 2018 when Cargill announced its equity investment in the tech company.
The company said Kickert has more than 30 years of experience, building and leading teams with expertise in emerging technologies.
“We have worked with Steve since our partnership with Cargill began,” said David Hunt, co-founder and chief strategy officer, Cainthus. “His consistently strong contributions and decision-making made it a natural transition for him to join us as COO once the company grew.”
Aker BioMarine has named a new sales VP for is fish feed ingredient business, QRILL Aqua, in Asia, Simon Seward.
Seward is a UK national, with more than 28 years of international sales and marketing experience across a number of business sectors with the last seven focused on the global nutrition and aquaculture markets, said the company, which develops krill-based ingredients for nutraceutical, aquaculture, and animal feed applications.
Previously, Seward worked with the Norwegian human nutrition group, SanaPharma, where he had several management roles.
In his time with SanaPharma, he helped develop new distribution partners in Asia and worked with country-specific sales and marketing plans, sales training, regulatory and R&D support, according to Aker BioMarine. That experience is anticipated to be valuable as the company expands its footprint in Asia, it said.
Seward also managed a UK-based marketing agency and is a member of the Institute of Directors & Chartered Institute of Marketing. He earned a master’s degree in marketing from Staffordshire University.
Amlan International, a company that focuses on products to support the intestinal health and production of livestock, is adding a new regional sales director.
Clare Mari Torralba is set to be the company’s new regional sales director for the Asia-Pacific region (APEC). She is expected to establish and execute the company’s sales strategy along with overseeing the regional sales team.
Previously, Torralba has served as a sales manager, regional vice president and, most recently, as the head of global business at Evonik Industries. Amlan said she brings an established track record in P&L management of multi-cultural businesses.
Veramaris said it has completed the hiring process for its global business development team. Six "seasoned professionals" have recently joined the Dutch-based firm to accelerate the launch of its marine algal oil for use in animal nutrition. The company said the new hires are experienced in aquaculture, human nutrition, and "stakeholder dialogues across the value chain." The six include:
- Ian Carr, Global Business Development Director
- Lalen Dogan, Asia Pacific Business Development Director
- Gaelle Husser, Global Business Development Director
- Christian Martin, Global Business Development Director
- Steven Severino, New Business Development Director
- Jorge Torres, Latin America Business Development Director
Veramaris generates its algal oil currently in pilot facilities in North America and Europe but its first commercial scale production facility – in Blair, Nebraska – is anticipated to be on-line later this year.
Rabo AgriFinance is adding to its RaboResearch team. Ben Laine has been hired as a dairy industry analyst for the company.
Laine will be a member of the RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness group. The global team includes 90 analysts, covering the various sectors in depth.
Laine has a master’s degree in resource economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His has a background n the dairy supply chain, and, before he joined Rabo AgriFinance, was a senior economist at CoBank, where he also followed the dairy industry.
“I try to bridge insights from across the whole value chain, starting at the consumer, back to the farm,” Laine said of the new position. “I want to bring a new way of thinking about topics to help dairies find business opportunities and mitigate risk.”
