Top 10: CPOs in Food and Beverage

The role of a Chief Procurement Officer is more vital than ever. From leading sustainability efforts to transforming sourcing initiatives, it's a job where much is expected of them.

Across the food and beverage sector, countless CPOs are working hard to ensure their companies stay at the forefront of innovation, resilience and operational efficiency.

Procurement Magazine has looked at the top 10 CPOs working across the food and beverage industry today.

10. Marcos Eloi Lima, Chief Procurement and Sustainability Officer (CPO), Kraft Heinz

• Revenue: US$26.64bn
• Employees: 37,000
• Founded: 1869

Marcos Eloi Lima has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Procurement and Sustainability Officer for Kraft Heinz since December 2023. He is responsible for leading the procurement organisation globally.

Marcos believes there are three key pillars when it comes to driving impact as a procurement function: operational excellence, innovative solutions and a talented team and great partners that help it move with speed and agility. 

He and Kraft Heinz prioritise projects and initiatives that deliver results, inviting suppliers to join the company on its journey to lead the future of food.

9. Hervé Le Faou, Chief Procurement Officer & Sustainability Leader, Heineken CSCO

• Revenue: US$50bn
• Employees: 150,000
• Founded: 1891

Hervé Le Faou manages a spend of €18.0bn and looks after a team of 1,000 people across 80 markets.

He also heads up Heineken's ESG sustainability net-zero carbon strategy delivery.

In his role, Hervé has led transformation and efficiency programmes, supplier-based consolidations and system standardisation implementations.

8. Amanda Davies, Chief R&D, Procurement and Sustainability Officer, Mars Wrigley

• Revenue: US$50bn
• Employees: 150,000
• Founded: 1911

Having dedicated the last 18 years to Mars, Amanda Davies is an influential and leading executive within the business. 

Having joined in 2006 as European Procurement Senior Manager of Mars Confectioner, today Amanda is Chief R&D, Procurement and Sustainability Officer at Mars Snacking.

Mars Snacking includes iconic brands such as M&M’s, Snickers, Kind, Dove, Skittles, Extra and Orbit. 

In her role, Amanda spearheads Snacking’s commercial and sustainability efforts with creativity and by prioritising sustainability in the business, ensuring robust value leadership and strategically expanding its partner network. 

Amanda is also tasked with accelerating the science, technology and innovation agenda powering three critical functions: sustainability, R&D and commercial.

7. Thomas Gaengler, Chief Procurement Officer, Mondelez International

• Revenue: US$36bn
• Employees: 91,000
• Founded: 1923 (as Kraft Foods)

With a career spanning 25 years, Thomas Gaengler is a seasoned procurement professional.

He strives to work with suppliers and partners with comparably high standards of conduct when it comes to responsible sourcing.

Thomas fronts the efforts of Mondelez International, which takes a risk-based approach and pragmatic steps to prioritise human rights due diligence.

The procurement team at Mondelez uses Tableau to turn its sourcing into a digital process, allowing it to connect 160 data fields and approximately 42 million transactions covering payments, purchase orders and invoices.  

6. Heather Ostis, Chief Procurement Officer, Global Supply Chain, Starbucks

• Revenue: US$35.98bn
• Employees: 402,000
• Founded: 1971

Heather Ostis is chief procurement officer, Global Supply Chain for Starbucks. In her role, she is focused on driving efforts that alleviate constraints, strengthen supplier relationships, enhance supplier performance and deliver supply network resiliency to serve Starbucks employees and customers.

Prior to joining Starbucks in January 2024, Heather served as the Vice President of Supply Chain Management at Delta Air Lines, where she oversaw the airline's end-to-end global strategic sourcing operations and supply chain systems.

Heather's focus at Delta included reframing its commitment to sustainable sourcing in support of Delta's Path to Sustainability, implementing Delta's Source to Pay platform, contributing to Delta's best-in-class customer experience, collaborating on Delta's IT and cloud transformation and significantly growing Delta's supplier diversity spend.

5. Marcelo Stefani, Chief Procurement Officer at PepsiCo

• Revenue: US$91.4bn
• Employees: 131,000
• Founded: 1965

As CPO at PepsiCo since 2023, Marcelo brings extensive experience in the consumer product industry and global supply chain management.

A seasoned C-Suite executive, Marcelo has demonstrated expertise in margin improvement, organisational transformation and M&A processes from due diligence to integration.

Marcelo is known for his ability to scale smaller businesses and lead successful turnarounds. He drives sustainability initiatives, develops innovative business and supply chain strategies and fosters a high-performance culture that consistently delivers exceptional results.

4. Jean-Yves Krummenacher, Global Chief Procurement Officer at Danone

• Revenue (approx): US$30.75bn
• Employees: 88,520
• Founded: 1919

Delivering breakthroughs and a competitive advantage in purchasing, circular economy and the top line, Jean-Yves is an experienced procurement professional who has been with Danone for almost 11 years.

Jean-Yves has been the food and beverage manufacturer's CPO since October 2020. 

He has delivered breakthroughs and a competitive advantage in purchasing, circular economy and the top line, Jean-Yves is an experienced procurement professional who has been with Danone for over a decade.

3. Daniel Coe, Chief Procurement Officer at The Coca-Cola Company

• Revenue: US$45.8bn
• Employees: 79,100
• Founded: 1892

As CPO of The Coca-Cola Company, Daniel is responsible for managing more than US$35bn in annual spend.

He also leads The Coca-Cola Company's procurement portfolios for agricultural commodities, equipment, logistics, marketing, general and administrative, IT, procurement analytics and supplier diversity.

Daniel is also the Vice Chairman of the Cross Enterprise Procurement Group (CEPG).

2. Willem Uijen, Chief Procurement Officer at Unilever

• Revenue: (Approx) US$66.2bn
• Employees: 127,000
• Founded: 1929

Willem's career at Unilever spans more than 23 years, having first joined the organisation in 1999 as a trainee engineer.

Since then, he has worked across numerous supply chain disciplines including logistics, manufacturing, customer service and distribution and planning. 

In 2022, Willem was appointed CPO, taking responsibility for the procurement of all goods and services globally, supporting the creation of 400 brands sold in more than 190 countries.

1. Patricia Stroup, Chief Procurement Officer at Nestlé

• Revenue: US$109.94bn
• Employees: 270,000 
• Founded: 1866

Patricia Stroup has been an instrumental leader in the procurement and sourcing industry. Specifically, she has been leading the sourcing of diverse materials and services for one of the world's largest food and beverage companies – Nestlé.

In her role as Chief Procurement Officer, Patricia has been dedicated to transforming the sourcing of key commodities, not only for Nestlé but for the entire food value chain.

Patricia believes in forging diverse relationships with teams of international experts to bring together priorities on social responsibility, environmental impact, business results and building long-term partnerships.

Having dedicatied almost 20 years to the transformation of Nestlé’s sourcing, Patricia recently announced her retirement from the CPO role. She will be remembered as a leading and influential figure in not only the food and beverage industry, but the wider procurement function itself. 

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