Friday, 27 April 2018

Mars ITR strengthens team with 100+ years of international category experience


Mars international Travel Retail has strengthened its Veghel, Netherlands based leadership team with three new appointments to bring together more than 100 years of collective Mars experience.

Raghav Rekhi has joined the division as Category Director. In this role, and as a member of the ITR Leadership Team, Raghav will lead, guide and develop the marketing team to outstanding deployment of the Travel Retail Category Vision and ITR strategies, both globally and locally.



He will leverage category expertise of Chocolate, Gum & Mints and Fruity Confections within Mars Wrigley Confectionery (MWC) to develop a relevant & winning portfolio to connect with the ever increasing number of global travelers.

Raghav has almost 20 years of experience with Mars having worked his way up from Regional Financial Planner back in 1999. Prior to joining the Travel Retail team he spent the last five years as Marketing Director for Mars Chocolate India, leading the introduction of its brand portfolio into a strategically high priority market for the company. This followed three years as Marketing Director for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, overseeing a diverse multi-category portfolio across a wide geography of 30+ countries.

“Travel retail is a completely new channel for me but one which I am very excited and pleased to now be part of,” he says. “I am confident that the wide international experience I am bringing to the channel, following my many years with Mars working across different countries and product categories, will be of real benefit to the team.”

Tom van Ommen first joined Mars Food Europe as a Finance Trainee in 2009, rapidly moving through the ranks to become Regional Finance Manager Europe and Eurasia in 2014 for the Confectionery business.



In his new role as Chief Financial Officer and, as a member of the ITR Leadership Team, Tom will lead the finance agenda of the global Travel Retail channel in Mars Wrigley Confectionery. Tom brings international perspective and thorough understanding of the wider Mars finance organization and processes.

“I look forward to use my experience of working with a variety of markets and business models to play a key role in developing and executing our strategy for growth for the coming years, delivering value for both our customers and Mars”.


Appointed to the newly created position of Corporate Affairs Director Global Travel Retail is Maud Geerbex.  Having worked across various PR and communication roles, Maud first joined Mars Netherlands in 2011 as Corporate Affairs Director for the Dutch market, moving onto join Mars Global Food as Global Director Internal Communications and Food Academy in 2015.



In her new role Maud is responsible for all internal and external corporate communications, public affairs, issues management and crisis management and will work directly with appointed PR agency Essential Communications to build MITR’s share of media voice and ensure the delivery of clear key messages to promote and build on its category management principles and strategies through industry events and media sponsorship, advertising and editorial campaigns.

Says Maud: “It’s incredibly exciting to join the Mars ITR business in this new role. I look forward to getting to know the travel retail industry and addressing the opportunity for Corporate Affairs. With the ITR team, I will work to strengthen our communications in the industry, in line with our leadership in the category.”

Raghav, Tom and Maud all report directly to General Manager Gary Clarke.

The names and roles of the full MITR Leadership Team are:
  
Christophe Bouyé         Sales Director
Bas Bredenoord              P&O Director
Gary Clarke                      General Manager
Maud Geerbex                Corporate Affairs Director
Raghav Rekhi                   Category Director
Olivier Rondeau               Logistics Director            
Tom van Ommen             CFO


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