A. Shekhar
Shekhar was appointed CEO of ofi in January 2020 upon its creation following the reorganization of the Olam Group. Shekhar joined Olam in 1992 and has been an Executive Director and a member of the Group Board since 1998. Shekhar held a variety of roles in the Olam Group, he was previously Group Chief Operating Officer, Executive Director – Finance and Business Development, and prior to this he incubated and managed various global businesses including the Nuts, Spices and Packaged Foods businesses, where he led many of the Company’s organic and inorganic growth initiatives.
Rishi Kalra
Rishi was appointed CFO of ofi in January 2020 upon its creation following the reorganization of the Olam Group. Rishi began his career with Olam in 2000 and during this period has served as CFO India, CFO West Africa, and President and Global Head of Corporate Finance. He is a founding member of the first Circle of Practice in Asia of The Prince of Wales Charitable Project, Accounting for Sustainability (A4S). A4S inspires action by finance leaders to drive a fundamental shift towards resilient business models and a sustainable economy.
Ashok Krishen
Ashok is a management graduate with almost 30 years’ experience. He has been with Olam since 1992 and is the Global Head of the nuts business which includes almonds, cashew, hazelnuts, peanuts, pistachios and walnuts. He is also Chairman of the Executive Human Resource and Compensation Committee.
Gerard Manley
Gerard has over 30 years’ experience in the cocoa and the chocolate industry and was a former Chairman of the Federation of Cocoa Commerce. He has been with Olam since 1998 and is Chairman of the Executive Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Committee.
Prakash Jhanwer
Prakash joined Olam in 1998, taking responsibility for coffee operations in Uganda. He moved into the risk function in 2001 and relocated to Vietnam in 2007 to take on the role of Country Head, extending to a regional role in 2010.
Since 2016, he has been responsible for Olam’s Southeast Asia and China operations, which he continues to manage today. His key markets include China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and Thailand.
Prakash is a Graduate of Commerce and holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. He was recently awarded the prestigious Young Alumni Achiever Award by his alma mater for Corporate Leadership.
Vivek Verma
Vivek joined Olam in 1992 to head operations in India. He is currently responsible for the Coffee and Commodity Financial Services businesses. Originally trained as an engineer, Vivek has over 30 years’ agri‑commodities experience.
Sandeep Jain
Sandeep adopted the responsibility for nuts and cocoa operations in Indonesia in 1998, when he joined Olam. He moved into the coffee business in 2003 and relocated to Singapore. In 2004 he started ofi’s dairy business. Today, Sandeep leads ofi dairy globally and is also responsible for driving growth and synergy for ofi across Asia Pacific.
Sandeep is a Graduate of Commerce and holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
Tejinder Singh Saraon
Teji joined Olam in 1997 and went on to manage ofi’s cocoa business in Togo, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Singapore. He moved to London in 2009 to manage the company’s global cocoa beans and products business, returning to Singapore in 2019.
He was integral in the integration process following the acquisition of ADM Cocoa in 2015. He is an expert in cocoa trading and origination, and previously served on the Board of Cocoa Association of Asia.
Briony Mathieson
Briony joined the Olam Group in 2011 as part of the global sustainability team, becoming Global Head of Group Communications in 2012. She was responsible for promoting and protecting Olam’s reputation across all stakeholder groups, including employee communications and engagement. In 2020 she took on the role of CMO to ofi, encompassing customer marketing, employee engagement and reputation management.
Ian Haslegrave
Ian joined ofi in January 2022, taking responsibility for the global legal, compliance and company secretarial teams.
Ian has over 30 years of experience working in both private practice and global FTSE listed companies across a diverse range of sectors including food, media and distribution. He has significant commercial, M&A and management experience with previous roles including executive management responsibility for HR, information security, indirect procurement and risk at a global level.
Kamesh Ellajosyula
Kamesh joined Olam in 2010 and held various senior manufacturing, innovation and quality roles. In 2020 he became Chief Innovation & Quality Officer at ofi, overseeing a global network of Innovation centers and driving quality and food safety across 100+ food ingredient manufacturing plants.
Kamesh holds a Master’s degree in Food Science from the Pennsylvania State University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the State University of New York.
Paul Serra
Paul joined ofi in October 2020, taking responsibility for ofi’s Safety, Engineering, non-commodity procurement, planning, logistics and manufacturing footprint of 117 manufacturing assets and over 11,000 employees in 36 countries. Paul has over 20 years of experience in the branded FMCG food industry with roles spanning supply chain, general management & business transformation.
Dan Turney
Dan joined ofi in January of 2022, bringing with him 35 years of FMCG food industry experience. His industry experience includes many iconically branded food companies, several private label manufacturing entities as well as multiple private equity portfolio companies. Specializing in end to end operations and supply chain disciplines, Dan’s focus is delivering the ‘one-ofi’ business for all stakeholders across a balanced scorecard of performance. As the global, functional lead for operations, Dan is responsible for aligning and realizing successful, holistic results for ofi across more that 115+ facilities around the globe.
Sathyamurthy Mayilswamy
Sathyamurthy (Satya) joined Olam in 1996 to manage Sesame and Cashew operations in Nigeria, before moving on to lead Cocoa and Cashew operations. He moved to Cameroon as Country Head in 2001 before taking the role of Country Head – Nigeria & Benin in 2004. He then established the business across South America in 2007. In 2020 he began his current role at ofi as Regional Head for Latam and head of Cocoa Americas
Satya has over 30 years of international industry experience. He is an agricultural Engineering Graduate from CAE, TNAU (India) and holds an MBA from IRMA.
Yusuke Kurosaki
Yusuke joined Olam in 2016 and has worked across a wide range of initiatives, including corporate strategy, re-organization & re-structuring, operational excellence and customer excellence.
He has been in the food & beverage industry for over 15 years and has held various positions within the sector from supply chain & procurement, international sales & marketing, to business development and M&A.
Yusuke holds an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business.
Usha Kakaria-Cayaux
Usha joined ofi in September 2022, taking responsibility for driving the company’s one-ofi strategy and amplifying its unique entrepreneurial culture leading global diversity, inclusion and equity, organization effectiveness and global talent management.
With over 25 years of professional experience across a diverse set of industries and iconic brands, she has expertise across finance, sales, marketing, project management and strategy. Usha has worked across all areas of HR – leading HR strategy, talent management, organization transformation, leadership development and succession.
Steve Byers
Steve joined ofi in September 2022, taking responsibility for expanding ofi’s leadership position on sustainability by digitizing traceability, supply chain delivery, and social impact transparency.
Steve has over 30 years of experience, which includes working at blue chip global listed companies across a diverse range of sectors including distribution, consumer goods and food ingredients. He holds significant experience in Information Technology (IT) management and leading large-scale digital transformational initiatives.
Read ofi news
Be the change: How women in Ghana are pioneering a more prosperous future for cocoa growing communities
International Women's Day is a moment to celebrate the progress toward achieving gender equality and women's empowerment. But it's also a chance to reflect and consider what still needs to be done to help achieve gender parity worldwide.
Take cocoa production, for example. On average, women earn only 21% of the income that men do1. At ofi, as part of our Cocoa Compass sustainability ambition and as a signatory to the UN Women's Empowerment Principles, we've been promoting gender equality in our cocoa supply chain for many years. I'll explain three ways we've approached this where I'm from, in Ghana.
How can companies implement effective workforce nutrition programs?
By Clara Tessler, Nutrition & Health Manager, ofi
Malnutrition and poor health around the world continue to negatively impact businesses as result of working days lost to illness and reduced workforce productivity.
As well as benefiting employees, investments by companies in health and wellbeing can lead to better employee engagement, reduced absenteeism and higher performance and productivity.
We want to create an environment where employees want to come to work every day – it’s in everyone’s best interest.
To that end, at ofi we’ve set a goal that by 2030, everyone in our primary workforce will have access to nutrition support. This is the goal we are working towards to ensure the health and wellbeing of all our employees, driven by our purpose to be the change for good food and healthy future.
In 2021, with support from the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), ofi began the roll-out of the Workforce Nutrition Alliance’s Workforce Nutrition Scorecard to assess our baseline and develop or strengthen workplace nutrition programs that tackle issues related to malnutrition across our worksites globally. This includes initiatives across four pillars: healthy food at work, nutrition education, nutrition-focused and breastfeeding support, and resources for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
Discover more from my discussion with GAIN and the Consumer Goods Forum in the Healthier Lives podcast:
ofi announces retirement of Gerard Manley
Company and industry veteran retires after a stellar career spanning over 25 years with the company and 40 years in the industry
ofi, a global leader in naturally good food and beverage ingredients, today announced that the CEO of its cocoa business, and the group’s Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), Gerard Manley, will retire at the end of June 2023.
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