Chris Deen new CEO at potato processor Aviko

Royal Cosun will appoint Chris Deen (52) as CEO of the Aviko Group with effect from January 15th, 2020. Chris will succeed Ton Christiaanse who holds this position on an interim basis.

Chris Deen has a proven track record in leading businesses to continued success in food ser-vice, food ingredients and retail. Previously he held the CEO position of Bakkersland, a Dutch market leader in daily fresh bread, pastry and in-store bake-off bread.

Prior to that he held several positions at Sara Lee International, amongst which General Manager Foodservice Ibe-ria.

Most recently Chris served as Director at Royal Euroma, a European company offering herbs and spices to international leading food industry partners. One of his responsibilities was the integration of the recently required Intertaste organization.

Chris’ mission will be to continue and further build upon Aviko’s successful growth strategy, while expanding its leadership positions and effectively integrating recent and future invest-ments.

As CEO of Aviko, Chris will be a member of Cosun’s Executive Board and report directly to Cosun’s CEO Albert Markusse. A request for advice has been submitted to the work council of Aviko. Meanwhile Chris’ introduction to Aviko and Cosun has commenced. We wish Chris every success in his new role!

We would like to thank Ton Christiaanse for his great work for Aviko during the twelve months of his tenure. With his team he led Aviko’s result to an all-time high and realized well needed capacity expansion with an unequaled investment in a new factory for the production of French fries in Poperinge, Belgium.