The CEO to succeed McCarthy is Edmond Scanlon. As of today he becomes chief executive designate to ensure a smooth transition until McCarthy retires at the end of September.
Scanlon holds an impressive CV, having joined Kerry’s graduate programme in 1996 from University College Cork. He has worked across many key functions including mergers and acquisitions and finance.
In his early years with the group, he worked in commercial financial management for the consumer foods business and transferred into Kerry’s dairy ingredients business in 1999 based out of Listowel.
He performed several roles before relocating to the US in 2004, where he was then promoted to VP operations for the supply chain and financial functions.
Asia-Pacific experience
He brings a great depth of experience in Kerry’s key future growth region, Asia, and has held the title president and CEO of Kerry Asia Pacific for the past three years. Prior to this, he was president of Kerry China.
The Asia-pacific region now accounts for 13% of the business and volumes have been growing over the last number of years. In 2016, volumes grew by almost 11%.
In some ways, Scanlon was a surprise appointment and not an obvious candidate as he does not currently report directly to McCarthy. The timing also came as a surprise as it was widely expected that McCarthy would retire by the end of 2018, but few expected it would come so soon.
However, Scanlon does come with a depth of knowledge and large experience within the group. Perhaps most significantly in that his appoint mirrors that of McCarthy at the time.
When McCarthy was appointed CEO of Kerry Group in 2008, he was president of Kerry America, a side of the business that was seeing huge growth at the time. Similarly Scanlon is responsible for a region where Kerry has been growing and is expecting much future growth.
Last year, Stan McCarthy stepped back from his role as CEO of Kerry Co-op, which owns 13.7% of Kerry Group PLC. In January, the chair of the board of Kerry Co-op confirmed that Brian Leslie, former agribusiness editor with the Irish Farmers Journal, was appointed as chief executive of the co-op.
Scanlon inherits a company with a global footprint that is in a solid position with a strongly performance ingredients business. While the consumer foods division has had its challenges in recent years, it is in a much stronger position that a couple of years ago.
Geo-political changes such as Brexit and the new Trump administration may be the biggest challenges to face Scanlon and the Kerry group in the future. More mundane matters such as milk price and co-op relations may prove challenges closer to home.