NEW ZEALAND – Zespri has appointed Simon Limmer to the new role of Chief Operation Officer (COO) to provide leadership on the supply side of the business.
Simon joined Zespri in 2008, and has held general management roles with Zespri Global Supply (ZGS) and Growers and Government Relations and, since early 2013, as GM China, according to a press release. He will transition out of his current roles as General Manager of both the Grower and Government Relations team and the China market by the end of the year.
Zespri Chief Executive Lain Jager says, “The new role of COO will better integrate Zespri supply as the Zespri Global Supply business continues to grow and new cultivars and markets are added to the business, as well as taking responsibility for relations with growers and the New Zealand government.”
According to a press release, Zespri is looking forward to strong global growth as the industry recovers from the impact of Psa and new SunGold volumes come online.
“The kiwifruit industry will experience very strong growth over the next five years and the new executive structure will support this growth,” says Lain. He added that the new COO will help to generate and ‘end-to-end’ view of the supply chain.
In this new role, Simon will help support global collaboration, best practice and standardization of metrics and processes in the supply chain, all while leaving regional and country managers accountable for in-market options.
“I’m also pleased to announce another two important appointments to Zespri’s executive leadership team, with David Hazlehurst starting as CFO in February and Blair Hamill’s appointment as General Manager Supply Chain. I’m confident that this new executive structure and these three appointments will support the strong increase in industry growth over the next few years,” says Lain.
Before this appointment, David served as CFO and Vice President, Commercial and Pacific Islands for NZ Steel, and Blair was recently the General Manager of Zespri Global Supply.
Congratulations on the new positions!
