January 8, 2018

Chr. Hansen appoints new CEO

Chr. Hansen's board of directors has appointed Mauricio Graber as its new CEO as of June 1.

Graber has been president of the Flavours Division of Givaudan S.A. and a member of Givaudan's executive committee since 2006.

His professional career started in 1989 with The Nutrasweet Company in the US where he served as business development manager. He later returned to Mexico in 1991 to become the company's regional head of North Latin America.

In 1995, Graber joined the US-based flavour company Tastemaker as regional president of Latin America. Subsequently, he was appointed regional president of Latin America after Tastemaker was acquired by Givaudan. From his new base in Brazil, he continued in that role until 2006 when he was appointed president of the Flavours division based in Switzerland.

Over the past 10 years, Graber had led Givaudan Flavours to strengthen its global industry leadership. He built a customer-centric culture, accelerated commercialisation of innovation, invested in developing markets, drove productivity programmes, and delivered both organic growth and successful integration of strategic acquisitions.

"With over 20 years of experience in the global ingredients industry, Graber is a truly international executive," Ole Andersen, chairman of the board of directors, commented.

"He brings a strong track record and extensive global leadership experience from his current position. I am excited that Graber will take over as new CEO of Chr. Hansen and convinced that he is well suited to contribute to the continued strong performance and growth in Chr. Hansen."

Chr. Hansen's current CEO, Cees the Jong, will continue as acting CEO until Graber takes up his new position on June 1.

Graber holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico and a Masters in Management from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management (Northwestern University, US).