The 48-year-old was born in Switzerland but grew up in Spain, before returning to his homeland to attend high school and university, where he completed a business and administration degree majoring in finance.
He set his sights early on a career which would allow him to move around, and Nestle appealed with only 5% of its turnover being generated in Switzerland.
He worked first as an operations auditor, looking at factories and offices to make sure they were meeting compliance and efficiency standards.
He then spent five years in Chile in the finance area in one of Nestle’s companies then became chief financial officer of its operation in Argentina. Next he moved to Brazil where again he took up a chief financial officer role. In all these South American markets Nestlé has a strong presence in the dairy business.
Returning to Switzerland he led the creation and roll-out of Nestle’s global shared service organisation which leveraged, standardised and drove best practices of finance, human resources, facility and some purchasing services across the Nestle Group. He then stepped up to become chief financial officer for the company’s food service businesses globally, giving him exposure to Asian markets.
Most recently he was general manager of Nestle’s food service business in Europe.
While he said it was a big decision to come to New Zealand he was attracted to Fonterra which he knew as a highly efficient provider of dairy products into Latin America.
“It has a compelling strategy to deliver value to shareholders through its V3 strategy (volume, value, velocity),” he said.
He hadn’t met chief executive Theo Spierings before his first interview but said they had many similarities.
“We’re both straightforward characters and very transparent,” he said.
“You get what you see.”
His wife Rosemarie, a Chilean, daughter Mariana, 9, and son, Nicholas, 2, saw their time in NZ as a huge opportunity to experience a different quality of life and he was looking forward to meeting Fonterra farmers.
And high on his to-do list is encouraging his son to start playing rugby.
