Board of directors and company secretary
01 Anthony Hobson Chairman •‡
Joined the Board in 2002 and became Chairman in 2005. He is also Chairman of The Sage Group plc and a non-executive director of Glas Cymru (Welsh Water). A Chartered Accountant, he was the Group Finance Director of Legal & General Group plc from 1987 to 2001. He chairs the nomination committee.
02 Stefan Barden Chief Executive
Joined the Board in 2006 and was appointed Chief Executive on 5 February 2007. He was formerly Managing Director of Heinz UK and Ireland from 2003 to 2005. He has extensive experience of the food industry having held roles with Iceland, McKinsey & Company and Unilever. He sits on the policy issues committee of the IGD and is a director of Improve, the UK’s food and drink sector skills council.
03 Andy Booker Group Finance Director
Joined the Board in 2008. He was formerly European Finance Director of Japan Tobacco International Inc/Gallaher plc, a role he held from 2004. He has held senior financial, sales and general management roles with Gallaher Group over 19 years.
04 Orna Ni-Chionna Senior independent non-executive director •*†‡
Joined the Board in 2002 as a non-executive director. She is Chair of the Soil Association, a member of Eden McCallum’s Advisory Board, and is also a director of The British United Provident Association Limited. She was formerly a partner of McKinsey & Company. She is the senior independent director and chairs the remuneration committee.
05 Ronnie Bell Non-executive director •*‡
Joined the Board in 2005 as a non-executive director. He was formerly President of Kraft Foods Europe until 2004. He is Chairman of Milk Link and is a non-executive director of Ansell Limited, Tagboard Limited and The Edrington Group Limited.
06 Tony Illsley Non-executive director •*†‡
Joined the Board in 2006 as a non-executive director. He was Chief Executive of Telewest plc until 2000, and has held roles with PepsiCo and Colgate Palmolive. He is Chairman of Plastic Logic Limited, Velocix Limited, holds a non-executive position with Sepura plc, and is a trustee of the charity Whizz-Kidz.
07 David Nish Non-executive director •*†‡
Joined the Board in 2005 as a non-executive director. He is Group Finance Director of Standard Life plc. Formerly he held the positions of Executive Director, Infrastructure, and Group Finance Director of Scottish Power plc, prior to which he was a partner with Pricewaterhouse. He chairs the audit committee.
08 Carol Williams Company Secretary
Joined Northern Foods in 1990. She is Head of Legal and was appointed Company Secretary in March 2005. She is a director of C&I Group Services Limited.
• Non-executive director
* Remuneration committee member
† Audit committee member
‡ Nomination committee member