Tate & Lyle PLC (the “Company”) announces that Javed Ahmed will join the Company as its new Chief Executive by 15 November 2009. Iain Ferguson, currently Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle, will continue in that role until Mr Ahmed’s arrival and ensure an orderly handover.
Mr Ahmed is currently Executive Vice President, Europe for Reckitt Benckiser plc (“Reckitt”). He is a member of the Executive Committee of Reckitt having held a number of senior leadership roles within the group over the last 17 years in both Europe and North America.
Sir David Lees, Chairman of Tate & Lyle, said “Following our earlier announcement that Sir Peter Gershon will succeed me as Chairman by the end of the year, Peter and I are delighted that we are able to announce the succession arrangements for Iain Ferguson. We are most grateful to Iain for leading the transformation of the Group with such great skill and energy over the past six years. His contribution has been very significant and will continue as he leads the team in the next few months until Javed Ahmed joins us. We are confident that, in Javed, we have found a worthy successor to Iain to lead Tate & Lyle in the next phase of its development.”
Sir Peter Gershon said “I congratulate Javed Ahmed on this exciting new opportunity and very much look forward to working with him in the years to come as we build on the strong foundations Iain and Sir David have established at Tate & Lyle.”
Javed Ahmed said “I am delighted to have been offered the opportunity to lead Tate & Lyle, and look forward to working with the Board and the management team to drive the business forward.”
END
Notes to Editor
1. Biographical details of Javed Ahmed and Sir Peter Gershon are given below.
2. Iain Ferguson joined the Board of Tate & Lyle as Chief Executive on 1 May 2003.
3. Tate & Lyle will announce its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2009 on Thursday 28 May 2009.
Javed Ahmed
Javed Ahmed, aged 49, started his career with Procter & Gamble before spending five years with Bain & Co, working in both London and Boston.
In 1992, he joined Benckiser as General Manager, Canada, moving to the UK to run their UK and Irish operations in 1995. In 1999 his responsibilities, now within Reckitt Benckiser plc, were extended to Senior Vice President, Northern Europe. In 2001, he assumed the role of President, North America and two years later was promoted to Executive Vice President, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In 2008, he was again promoted to Executive Vice President, Europe. He has been a member of the Reckitt Benckiser Executive Committee since 2003.
Mr Ahmed graduated magna cum laude, phi beta kappa from Williams College (Massachusetts) in 1982 and obtained an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1984.
Sir Peter Gershon, CBE, FREng
Sir Peter, aged 62, has been Non-Executive Chairman of Premier Farnell plc since 1 March 2005. He also holds the position of Chairman at each of General Healthcare Group Ltd and Vertex Data Science Limited. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the UK Defence Academy and a member of the Council of Imperial College.
From 2000 until 2004, Sir Peter was chief executive officer of the Office of Government Commerce, where he led a major overhaul of government procurement practice and an efficiency review of the UK public sector. From 1999 to 2000, Sir Peter was chief operating officer and a member of the Board of BAe Systems. Prior to that, he was managing director of GEC Marconi, following earlier periods as managing director of GPT, the telecommunications joint venture between GEC and Siemens and of STC Telecommunications.
Sir Peter is a chartered engineer and holds a first class degree in mathematics from Cambridge University. Sir Peter joined the Board of Tate & Lyle, as Chairman Elect, on 1 February 2009.
