Niall FitzGerald KBE DSA
Date of Appointment: 9 September 2021
Niall was Chair and CEO of Unilever for 8 years and an executive board director for 18 years. During his 37 years with the company, Niall served as Finance Director, Foods Director and Detergents Director and during his Unilever career he lived and worked in the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, the US and South Africa. Niall is Chair of The Leverhulme Trust, Chair Hakluyt International Advisory Council and Patron British Irish Chamber of Commerce.
Niall has chaired a broad range of companies and public bodies including Reuters, Brand Learning, British Museum, Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust, International Business Council and the Advertising Association, and has also served on several Boards, including Bank of Ireland, the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, International Policy Council for Agriculture and Trade and was President of South Africa’s International Advisory Council.
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.
Patrick Coveney
Patrick Coveney became CEO of SSP Group plc in March 2022. Prior to this he was CEO of Greencore Group Plc, a position he held since 2005 and during which time he led Greencore’s transformation into an international leader in value-added convenience food. Prior to joining Greencore, Patrick worked for nine years at McKinsey & Company in Europe and North America. Patrick is a Non-Executive Director of Glanbia plc and Chair of Core Media.
Nancy Cruickshank
Nancy started her career in marketing and advertising roles with Conde Nast, before progressing to a range of general management and transformation roles with BSkyB, VideoJug, Telegraph Media Group, Weve, and until 2021 Nancy was the Chief Digital Officer for Carlsberg.Nancy currently serves as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of In The Style Group plc, Oodle Finance Ltd, Allegro EU SA and Flutter Entertainment plc. She was previously a Non-Executive Director at Bango plc, Carlsberg Group A/S, On-Mobile Global Ltd and Telecity Group plc.
Nagi Hamiyeh
Nagi is a Non-Executive Director of Olam Group Limited. He brings more than 28 years of experience in strategy, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, growth equity, private equity and public investing in multiple industries across the globe. Nagi is the Joint Head of Temasek’s Investment Group and is concurrently the Head of Portfolio Development. Prior to joining Temasek in 2005, Nagi was a banker with Credit Suisse First Boston’s Energy Group and began his career at Bain and Company.
Penny Hughes
Penny’s executive career in the consumer goods industry led to an extensive portfolio board career which spans retail, media, leisure, technology and financial services in both public and private company boards. Penny is currently Chair of the boards of The Gym Group plc and Riverstone Living Ltd and has served as Chair of Aston Martin Lagonda and Chair of the Remuneration and Sustainability board committees for several large cap companies including Royal Bank of Scotland, WM Morrison, The Gap Inc and Vodafone.
Brian May
Brian’s executive career with Bunzl plc spanned 26 years, including 14 years as Chief Financial Officer, during which period the business underwent significant strategic and operational transformation. Brian is a Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee member for Ferguson plc, a Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Remuneration Committee and Audit Committee member for ConvaTec Group plc, and he previously served on the board of United Utilities Group PLC.
Belinda Richards
Belinda was a senior partner at Deloitte LLP before embarking on her board career which has a particular focus on the consumer products and financial services sectors. Belinda is currently a Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee Chair for both Avast plc and Schroder Japan Growth Fund plc, as well as a Non-Executive Director for Phoenix Group Holdings plc and Monks Investment Trust plc. Belinda has previously served on the boards of WM Morrison, Grainger and Balfour Beatty.
Amanda Sourry
Amanda Sourry spent over 30 years of her executive career working for Unilever plc where she gained extensive global marketing and business experience in consumer packaged goods. Amanda was most recently President of Unilever North America, and previously President Unilever Global Foods. She was a Member of the Unilever Leadership Executive from 2015 to 2020. Amanda is currently a Non-Executive Director of The Kroger Co., Trivium Packaging and PVH Corp where she also Chairs the Compensation Committee.
Sunny Verghese
Sunny is Group CEO of Olam Group Limited and as part of the re-organisation within Olam, he also became CEO of Olam Agri. Sunny founded Olam in 1989 after having been with the Kewalram Chanrai Group (KC Group), prior to which he worked for Unilever in India. From 2018 to 2021 Sunny was Chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the global, CEO-led organisation dedicated to accelerating the transition to a sustainable world. He previously chaired CitySpring Infrastructure Management Pte Ltd, a listed Business Trust in Singapore and was also a Commissioner of the Business and Sustainable Development Commission (BSDC).
Carole Wainaina
Carole is currently Senior Advisor to the CEO at Africa50, an investment fund set up by African governments and the African Development Bank to help bridge Africa’s infrastructure funding gap. Carole was previously the Chief Operating Officer since 2017. Her previous executive appointments include EVP & Chief HR Officer at Royal Philips Ltd, and at the Coca-Cola Company where Carole held the roles of Chief of Staff for the Chairman & CEO, as well as HR Director for EuroAsia & Africa. In addition, Carole was Assistant Secretary General for Human Resources at the United Nations. Carole is a Non-Executive Director of Helios Towers Plc.
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How do you differentiate between the environmental impacts of organizations across different geographies, local conditions, products, local regulations etc.?
For several years, ofi has been working towards assessing the true value (cost or benefits) of some of our operations on the ground. Our latest case study on Natural Capital Valuation: Assessing Natural Capital costs in coffee operations, delves into year-on-year monetary impact of our select coffee growing operations in five origins.
Globally, an estimated 12.5 million to 25 million smallholder farmers depend on the coffee industry for their livelihoods, according to figures from Fairtrade1 and the FAO2. However, the majority of these farmers face significant challenges including limited access to formal agronomy training, inadequate resources, small farm sizes and insecure land tenure. These factors often hinder the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, which are crucial for preserving Natural Capital over the medium and long term. As a result, coffee production often imposes a cost on nature in the form of GHG emissions, degradation of soil structure and fertility, depletion of ground and surface water, and loss of natural ecosystem services critical to agricultural production.
To address these challenges, we employ Natural Capital valuation techniques, which leverage environmental economics to assign a monetary value (US$) to our impacts and dependencies, encompassing carbon emissions, water usage and ecosystem services. Quantifying Natural Capital in this way enables us to assess and mitigate risks while fostering investments that promote a positive impact on landscapes and ecosystem.
We evaluated twenty AtSource+ coffee farmer groups sourced from five different origins3 to assess their GHG emissions and water use related Natural Capital Costs (NCC). Reporting on the NCC is based on each metric tonne of product which makes the cost intensities very sensitive/ dependent on farm level yields. Thus, understanding the underlying yield dynamics is also crucial for interpreting these NCC footprints effectively.
The combined expertise of our local sustainability teams with partners such as Funcafé, TechnoServe, Côte d’Ivoire's National Nutrition program, USAID (United States Agency for International Development), and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) delivers solutions to improve access to clean water, healthcare services and supplies, and nutritious food.
Initiatives range from using geo-location to identify and screen for infant malnutrition in farming communities in Côte d'Ivoire - where one in five children experience stunted growth and development - to fortifying key staples with vitamins and minerals in our processing facilities.
Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS) have become increasingly valuable in helping us understand and tailor our interventions. They help us identify children at risk of, or in a situation of child labour, so that we can engage with families to improve and enable school attendance through training and facilitation of necessary certificates for example.
Drawing on best practices by the Fair Labor Association and the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), CLMRS has been scaled up to cover all nine of our direct cocoa sourcing countries, coffee in Guatemala, cashew in Nigeria and 100% of our hazelnut sustainability programmes in Turkey. To date, our CLMRS systems covers over 260,000 farmer households.
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