JDE Peet’s announces a new interim CEO, Scott Gray as the leadership shakeup continues
August 16 - 2024
Coffee Geography Magazine
JDE Peet’s announces that Luc Vandevelde will step down as Interim CEO and Chairman of the Board of JDE Peet’s, effectively due to unforeseen matters that require his immediate attention. JAB Managing Partner and Chairman, Peter Harf, who has served as Non-Executive Director of the Board since the inception of JDE Peet’s, will assume the role of Interim Chairman of the Board, effective immediately.
Scott Gray, who is currently CFO of JDE Peet’s, will assume the additional role of Interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Prior to joining JDE Peet’s, Gray spent 11 years in increasingly important roles in finance at Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABInBev), most recently as Vice President, Global Treasury and Risk Management. In this role, he led ABInBev’s global treasury organization with responsibilities that included capital structure, funding, currency, commodity, equity and interest rate exposure, pensions, insurance, bank relations, fixed-income investor relations, and rating agency relations.
Prior to this role, Scott was Vice President Finance for the European Operations and Vice President for Global Procurement Operations, both based in Belgium. He also served as Global Director, Funding and Financial Markets out of New York for the company.
Prior to ABInBev, he worked as a Vice President for Deutsche Bank Securities in their Financial Institutions Group. He spent six years with GMAC (Ally Financial) where he began his career, moving into a role as a Senior Manager/Senior Analyst for Capital Markets and Derivatives before leaving to join Deutsche Bank.
Scott is a graduate of Wake Forest University and received his MBA from the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Upon Vandervekde’s departure from JDE Peet’s, he will join JAB as a Senior Advisor focused on the FMCG sector. In April, JDE Peet’s initiated a search process for a permanent CEO, evaluating both internal and external candidates. This process is nearing completion, and the company intends to provide an update to the market later this year.
“On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Luc for his tenure with JDE Peet’s, from Lead Independent Director at the time of our listing to Chairman and Interim CEO. Although he can no longer dedicate the time necessary for an executive role at JDE Peet’s, we are pleased that Luc will advise JAB on its FMCG investments with the time he does have available,” said Harf. “JAB has strong conviction in the long-term growth prospects of JDE Peet’s, and we are fully committed to our investment in the world’s leading pure-play coffee and tea company.”
JDE Peet's N.V. is an American-Dutch company that owns beverage brands, mostly of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. It was formed in 2015 following the merger of the coffee division of Mondelez International with Douwe Egberts as Jacobs Douwe Egberts.
The company has its origins in De Witte Os, a general grocery shop that Egbert Douwes established in 1753 in Joure, Frisia, the Netherlands. In 1780, the company was transferred to his eldest son Douwe Egberts. It developed into a company dealing in coffee and tea..
In 1948, the company began to sell its products in Belgium, followed by France, Spain and Denmark. It founded a new holding company, Douwe Egberts Koninklijke ("Royal Douwe Egberts") in 1968, and a year later took over the Dutch coffee manufacturer Kanis & Gunnink. The company expanded throughout the years in Europe, acquiring other tea and coffee companies, such as the UK tea distributor Horniman's Tea.