Mondelez International announces senior appointments in sub-Saharan Africa

Nigel Parsons

Parsons joins Mondelēz SSA in a newly created leadership role that will strengthen focus in the region, directly supported by Sinclair. Prior to this appointment Parsons held the position of country director of Mondelez Australia, while Sinclair held the position of CEO at Vamara Group.

Mondelēz said both Parsons and Sinclair bring with them a deep understanding of the confectionery industry locally and abroad, and their unique skill sets and global perspective make them the right leaders to drive Mondelez’s focus on long-term growth across its SSA markets, as well as unlock the business potential that exists in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

Alisdair Sinclair

Parsons joined Mondelēz in 2001 and brings over 25 years’ experience in fast-moving consumer goods, having worked in senior sales roles across a multitude of markets, including Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Independent sub-Saharan Africa business unit

“After 13 amazing years with Mondelēz in Australia and the last six years leading the Australian business, I’m delighted to take on a new and incredibly exciting challenge as business unit president for the newly created sub-Saharan Africa business. With over 50 countries and more than one-sixth of the global population, it’s an exciting region with major growth opportunities for our snacking portfolio,” says Parsons.

Parsons’ insights and learnings will be reinvested into the vast Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (AMEA) region. Mondelēz said that an independent SSA business unit will allow it to keep a consumer-centric approach across a large geography with different cultures, a fragmented portfolio and varying emerging demand spaces.

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Sinclair will help support this mandate through his role as MD responsible for the day-to-day running of the South Africa commercial business. He is a seasoned business executive who brings 24 years of industry experience from multinational and local corporates within the FMCG/consumer-driven business sector in South Africa and key African markets including East, Central and Southern Africa.

He gained extensive experience as CEO of Vamara Group for 4 and a half years, and before that in various executive/director roles at The Lion Match Company as its group CEO, MD at General Mills and managing executive for the personal care division at Tiger Brands. According to Mondelēz, this has positioned him well to focus on driving profitable top-line growth, ensure a relevant and optimised innovation pipeline, and seek opportunities to manage talent, develop people and invest in broader communities.

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Parsons concluded, “With more dedicated resources, we’ll be able to go beyond our current key markets and work on multiple projects at the same time, to strengthen our ambitious growth agenda, bring us closer to our consumers and allow us to allocate resources closer to where we need them most."