Our management

Stéfan Descheemaeker was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company on June 1, 2015. He was previously at Delhaize Group SA, the international food retailer, where he was Chief Financial Officer between 2008 and 2011 before becoming Chief Executive Officer of its European division until October 2013. Since leaving Delhaize Group SA, Mr. Descheemaeker held board positions with Telenet Group Holdings N.V. and Group Psychologies, served as an industry advisor to Bain Capital and is currently a professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Between 1996 and 2008, Mr. Descheemaeker was at Interbrew (now Anheuser-Busch InBev "ABInBev") where he was Head of Strategy & External Growth responsible for managing M&A and strategy, during the time of the merger of Interbrew and AmBev in 2004, and prior to that he held operational management roles as Zone President in the U.S., Central and Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. Mr. Descheemaeker started his career with Cobepa, at that time the Benelux investment company of BNP-Paribas. Mr. Descheemaeker served as a Director on the Board of ABInBev, a position he has held from 2008 to 2019. Since June 2019, SDS Invest S.A represented by. Mr. Descheemaeker has served as Chairman of the Board of Verlinvest.

Samy Zekhout has served as Chief Financial Officer of Nomad since April 1, 2018. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Zekhout most recently served as CFO and Vice President of Global Grooming at Procter & Gamble since 2007. Mr. Zekhout has held various finance roles at Procter & Gamble throughout the course of his more than 30-year career at that company. From February 2021, Mr. Zekhout is now also a board member of Algama, a French food-tech start-up.

Antje was appointed Managing Director of our Western Europe business in July 2018 (Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany) and additionally our Adriatics business in October 2021 (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovenia). In January 2023, Antje’s responsibilities extended further to include the Nordics (Sweden, Finland & Norway) as Executive President Adriatics, Nordics and Western Europe. She joined the company as General Manager, iglo Netherlands in 2014 and was then promoted to become General Manager, iglo Germany in 2015. Throughout her extensive international career in FMCG, Antje has held a broad variety of marketing, sales and general management positions at companies including Danone Baby Nutrition, Reckitt Benckiser and Kraft Foods and lived in several countries including Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland and UK. She is a strong believer in ‘people making a difference’ and is a certified and practising coach (CPCC).

Steven was appointed Managing Director of our Southern Europe region in July 2018 (Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal) after managing Western Europe since September 2016 and added Global Sales to his portfolio in 2021. In January 2023, Steven’s role expanded further with responsibility for the UK & Ireland business as Executive President Southern Europe, UK & Ireland and Global Sales. Prior to that, he was CEO of Findus Southern Europe, managing our businesses in France and Spain since May 2015. Since joining the Findus Group in 2000, his roles included Marketing Director and Sales Director Findus France and Managing Director Findus Spain. Outside of the Findus Group, Steven enjoyed stints as Managing Director at Senoble and Senior Equity Fund Advisor. His early management career included international marketing positions at Nestlé and BIC.

Neil joined Nomad Foods as a Senior European Counsel in April 2018, before becoming Head of Legal and then General Counsel. He was appointed to the Executive Committee in January 2020. He has over 20 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer. Prior to Nomad Foods, Neil worked at Unilever for 11 years in roles such as UK & Ireland General Counsel, Global General Counsel for Food and Refreshment and General Counsel for the Spreads division during its sale to American global investment firm KKR. Before Unilever, Neil spent six years in the Commercial and Intellectual Property team at international law firm SJ Berwin, where he provided counsel to a number of FTSE 100 and FMCG clients.

Harriet joined Nomad Foods as Chief People Officer in October 2020 following a number of years in the Retail and Hospitality sectors working with a variety of brands and business models. She has held various HR and Communication roles in John Lewis, Fenwick, McDonald’s and Marks and Spencer where she supported the leadership teams in achieving their growth and transformation plans. She also has extensive business experience, having held roles in General Management and Buying before focusing her career in HR and Organisation Development.

Stella joined Nomad Foods in September 2018 as Group R & D Director and became Chief R & D and Quality Officer and was appointed to the Executive Committee in February 2021.  She has extensive experience working internationally on some of the world’s largest brands and is responsible for driving innovations from “idea to freezer”, spanning new technologies, product and packaging development and leading a technical team of over 150 scientists, nutritionists, chefs and quality experts. Prior to Nomad Foods she spent 20 years at Unilever working in a number of global and European leadership roles across R&D, science and innovation, before becoming Vice President Science and Technology for Unilever’s €20bn Foods & Refreshment division in 2017.

Stella is a member of the Foods Bioscience Knowledge Transfer Network, a panel member for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and a member of the Nottingham University Food and Drink Advisory Board.

Steve was appointed Chief Marketing Officer and joined the Executive Committee in March 2023 after three years as General Manager for the UK & Ireland where he was responsible for the Birds Eye, Aunt Bessie’s and Goodfella’s brands. Steve brings a wealth of experience to the role, having successfully undertaken a number of senior UK and European commercial, marketing and category management roles during his career in frozen food which spans over 25 years.  He originally joined Birds Eye Wall’s as a Unilever graduate trainee before moving into his first Marketing role in 2002. Steve is a Fellow of The Marketing Society and The Marketing Academy.

Eduardo Bachiega joined Nomad Foods in July 2021 as Group Director of Planning & Supply Chain Go to Market and was appointed Chief Supply Officer in December 2022. He is responsible for the entire end-to-end supply chain organisation including strategy, manufacturing operations, planning, procurement, logistics and customer service. During his more than 20-year career, Eduardo has built a wealth of global supply chain experience, leading end-to-end operations turnaround and M&A integrations across Latin America, USA and EMEA, for a number of globally recognised organisations, including Unilever and Mead Johnson Nutrition. He joined Nomad Foods from Mattel, where he was Supply Chain Director, EMEA, covering operations in over twenty markets. Eduardo is passionate about entrepreneurship and has experience as a non-executive board member with several start-ups.