Organizational Changes

New structure for ExCo and IPT arrangement

We are excited to announce a new organizational structure with our Executive Committee (ExCo), along with the restructuring of our IPT arrangement, to create a more customer-focused and action-oriented company.

1. Executive Committee

Effective today, the Executive Committee will consist of the following team members:

 

This organizational chart reflects the new regional structure that was created last year with the appointments of Keith Cable as President of North America and Noelia Mansilla as President of EMEA. Harry Kloppenburg will continue his role with Dümmen Orange as the Ambassador of our business to our major customers and he will also be responsible for licensing contracts. Harry will also continue to oversee the regions APAC (Asia-Pacific) and LATAM (Latin America) until further notice.

Perry Wismans re-joins the ExCo  to focus upon Global Business Development and will be responsible for accelerating sales. Perry will be the catalyst in the process of bringing the very valuable R&D pipeline of Dümmen Orange to the most appropriate markets. 

Johan van ‘t Hag joined Dümmen Orange effective 1 February 2020 and is responsible for the Strategy/M&A function. His main focus will be the execution of our defined strategies and supporting our new business unit leads in defining and executing their operational action plans.

Olivier Aretz has decided to leave our organization effective 1 March 2020. We appreciate the contributions and passion that Olivier has added to our team and we wish him much success with his future endeavours.

The Executive Committee intends to appoint a Global Human Resources manager later this year. This person will become the HR business partner to the ExCo members, and will be responsible for global talent management, implementing a true feedback culture within Dümmen Orange and establishing relevant HR policies on a global level. As a global multi-national company, and leader in our sector, supporting and developing our talent is more important than ever. This role is key to establishing a company-wide culture that invests and develops our employees in order that we can distinguish ourselves from our competition.

Our ExCo will focus on profitable growth and execution of the already well-defined strategies for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and NA (North America). After 15 acquisitions and concentrated internal integration work, the time has come to focus externally and intensify our attention on our customers as the largest and most innovative breeder worldwide. All members of the ExCo will increase their visibility within our markets and will pro-actively support regional business units. The ExCo will operate as one aligned team and will create an environment in which Business Units will have freedom to act to meet objectives and targets that will be discussed during the quarterly business reviews. The ExCo commits to promote direct communication between all functions on all levels so that we can make fast decisions and execute projects more efficiently in the interests of our customers.

2. New Business Unit Organization
The Integrated Product Teams will be transitioned into customer focussed Business Unit (BU) organizations, combining sales, marketing and regional product management with crop specialists.

• For EMEA the following BUs will be established effective 1 April:
- BU Annuals, Perennials and Pot Plants
- BU Cut Flowers
- BU Tropicals
- BU Geophytes
- BU Quick Plug
Further detail is outlined in the EMEA section below.

• In North America (NA), we will continue to work with the four BU’s that were already established last year:
- BU Annuals, Perennials and Pot Plants
- BU Dümmen Delta (Tropicals, Succulents, Calla)
- BU McHutchison/Vaughan’s
- BU Quick Plug
The impact of these changes on the NA region are explained in the NA section below.

For the company as a whole:

• Product Management continues in Global and Regional roles. Regional product managers will report into the regional BU organization. Global Product Managers and Product Managers with a combined global/regional role will report to Global Product Management that will be headed by Hans van den Heuvel on a temporary basis. The Product & Business Support Unit also reports into Global Product Management.
• Planning (MPS, MRP) will become part of our Supply Chain organization. This global planning team will be led by Jan Nelissen. Jan is promoted to Global Head of Planning and reports to Jakob Treffers. In addition, a dedicated project team addressing how to manage our forecasting and supply planning process after 1 April will be established under the supervision of Jakob Treffers. Further information will be communicated by the end of March.
• The Marketing function will become part of the BU organizations in order to be closer to our customers and serve them best. As a result we will dissolve the Global Marketing organization. Corporate Communications will report to Johan van ‘t Hag effective 1 April 2020. Marco van der Sar has chosen to pursue his career outside Dümmen Orange and will leave us effective 1 April 2020. We wish him lots of success with his future plans and thank him for his contribution to the company.

3. EMEA
As mentioned above the new EMEA organization will consist of 5 Business Units. The organizational structure for EMEA will look as follows:

 

The BU heads will be responsible for commercial functions and directly lead sales and marketing. Colleagues from Supply Chain Management, Research & Development, Global Product Management and Finance will be designated to the 5 BU’s to become part of the BU teams in order to facilitate communication between all functions and a fast decision making process. This will be managed by the responsible BU heads. During quarterly business reviews, the ExCo and BU teams will agree on key priorities and execution of defined actions. Johan van ‘t Hag will support the BU teams in this effort and establish a structured framework. For the avoidance of doubt the SCM and R&D teams will continue to be led by and report to the global functional heads (Jakob Treffers and Hans van den Heuvel respectively). Regional BU’s are responsible for driving commercial excellence and serving the customer’s best interests.

BU Annuals, Perennials and Pot Plants
The Pot Plants business will merge with Annuals (previously Bed & Balcony) and Perennials into one BU. The new BU “Annuals, Perennials and Pot Plants” will be led by Tristian Bentvelsen. The organizational chart of his team can be found in the appendix of this announcement. The goal is, as with every BU, to always serve the customer’s best interests and where relevant cross-sell product.

Thomas Bousart (IPT leader for Pot Plants) will leave Dümmen Orange effective 1 April 2020. We would like to thank Thomas for his long years of service and committed support to build a new future for Rheinberg within the Dümmen Orange organization. Please join us in wishing Thomas lots of success in his next career step. 

BU Cut Flowers
The BU “Cut Flowers” will be led by Reinoud Hagen. An organizational chart for this BU team can be found in the appendix of this announcement.

As envisaged when Olij was acquired, Philippe Veys has followed his wish to start his own business in Kenya. He will leave Dümmen Orange effective 1 April 2020. Although leaving our family, Philip remains available to support further growth and build our Roses business. He will also be an important customer of our Rose program. We look forward to collaborating closely with Philippe in his new venture and wish him huge success in doing so.

BU Tropicals
The BU “Tropicals” will be led by Maurice van Leeuwen supported by Wander Tuinier. The Tropicals organizational chart can be found in the appendix of this announcement.

We would also like to take this chance to welcome Ton Witmer to the Dümmen Orange family as Production Manager Orchids based in Taiwan. Ton brings enormous experience of Tissue Culture to the company and we are very pleased to have him on board as we make this important crop category a key part of our global offering. Ton will report to Jakob Treffers but support both BU Tropicals EMEA and Dümmen Orange Delta in the US.

BU Geophytes
Our bulbs and tubers business activities will be combined in the BU “Geophytes”, which will be led by Foeke Gardenier. His organizational chart can be found in the appendix of this announcement.

In 2017, after the acquisitions of Geerlings, Sande and Golden State Bulb Grower, the management team was tasked with integrating three companies into one Calla business, prior to further integration into Dümmen Orange. With that task now completed we have decided to integrate the Calla business into the BU Geophytes.

As agreed at the time of the acquisition, Rob Geerlings will leave Dümmen Orange effective 1 May 2020 after approximately 40 years of full dedication to Calla. With the integration now complete Hanh Nguyen will also leave Dümmen Orange effective 1 March 2020 to continue with her professional advancement outside our company. Please join us in wishing both Rob and Hanh a lot of success in the continuation of their careers and life outside Dümmen Orange.

BU Quick Plug
The BU “Quick Plug” will be lead globally by Freek Tromp. Within this team John van der Maarel will remain responsible for EMEA with a strong focus on our commercial efforts and operations. Their organizational chart can be found in the appendix of this announcement.

4. North America
While much of this structure has been in place since early 2019 it is important that we continue to evolve and improve how we approach the market and our customers.  Here too, BU heads will directly lead sales and marketing. From SCM, R&D, Global Product Management and Finance, colleagues will be designated to the 4 BU’s and become part of the BU teams in order to facilitate communication between all functions and support a fast decision making process. This will be managed by the responsible BU heads. During quarterly business reviews, the ExCo and BU teams will agree on key priorities and execution of defined actions with the BUs then given autonomy to deliver on those agreed goals. Johan van ‘t Hag will support the BU teams with this effort and establish a structured framework.

BU Annuals, Perennials and Pot Plants
The already existing Annuals, Perennials and Pot Plants product classes will be led by Eduardo Flores. The organizational chart of his core team is included in the appendix of this announcement. Effective 1 April, Emily Mason and Jeff LaCourse will report directly to Keith Cable.

BU Dümmen Delta
Dümmen Delta was formed in November 2017 and encompasses our high growth specialized Orchid, Succulent, Anthurium, Callas, and other tropical lines.  Dümmen Delta is led by Andrew Konicki. An organizational chart of this team can be found in the attachment of this announcement.

BU McHutchison/Vaughan’s Horticulture
McHutchison and Vaughan’s Horticulture are our brokerage businesses which were acquired in late 2017.  Nathan Lamkey continues to lead this BU and the organizational chart of this team is also added to the appendix of this announcement.

BU Quick Plug
As already described the BU “Quick Plug” will be led globally by Freek Tromp. Within this team Bill Maartense will be responsible for NA with a strong focus on the commercial function and operations, including new capacity investments. The organizational chart is added in the appendix of this announcement.

Starting today we will initiate the transition from the current IPT structure into the new BU organizations. This process will be concluded by 1 April 2020. We would like to ask all stakeholders to ensure that where needed their tasks and responsibilities are properly transferred to the new business owners, together with their uncompromising support. If support is needed in achieving this please approach the responsible members of the ExCo. The first business review sessions for the new BU’s will be organized on 23/24 March for EMEA and on 6/7 April for NA with the aim to have a strong launch of these new structures immediately thereafter.

For any questions regarding the changes and the transition ahead, we would like to ask you to consult any ExCo member or your respective BU head.

5. Finance
To support the transition to a Regional (Commercial) structure, we are also (re)aligning the Finance team set up, resulting in the creation of a dedicated EMEA Finance function, and the integration of the Business Control and Financial Control teams at Group level into a single ‘Group Control’ team.

The EMEA Finance team will be led by Anneke van der Sanden. She will continue to report to the CFO, as well as being a member of the EMEA leadership team, supporting the EMEA operation. Anneke will be joined by Stef Ramaker (focus EMEA Supply Chain), Barbara Hooites-Hoefeijzers (focus EMEA Sales), Nick van Trigt (focus EMEA BU’s Geophytes & BU Quick Plug). Anneke, together with Joost van der Wijden, will focus on the BU’s Cut Flowers, Annuals/Perennials/Pot Plants, and Tropicals.  EMEA accounting operations will report to the EMEA Finance Director.

As from the January results onwards, we will be discussing regional (financial) performance through regular monthly finance sessions, on a single day (typically working day 12 of the month), starting
with APAC in the morning, followed by EMEA, and concluded by NA and LATAM.

The Group Control team will be led by Carola de Bie and will consist of Wouter Kanselaar and Jasper Kloos (Group Reporting & Consolidation), Ewout Langenberg (Regional Control NA/LA) and Michiel Visscher (Regional Control EMEA) and Michael Lin (Regional Control APAC as well as Group Reporting and Information Systems development). Vincent Luiten is our Group Tax manager, while Jacques-Paul Huveneers is (temporarily) responsible for Group Treasury. 
 
In conclusion

More than anything in our lives, our gardens bring us joy, teach us the great value of change and resilience. As the leader in Floriculture these are all characteristics we should aspire to demonstrate and take great satisfaction in. Much as in Mother Nature if we stay still and do not evolve, we will not survive and grow.

We as an ExCo are excited about this new structure which will create a clearer and more focused company that is nimble and reactive to our customers’ needs putting them first. While change can cause moments of friction and stress, we are dedicated to delivering a smooth transition as roles are re-defined and colleagues are reassigned. The aim is also to give you room to grow, develop and be challenged. Our Executive Committee is proud of this Dümmen Orange family, and we look forward to moving ahead with all of you. 

Hugo Noordhoek Hegt on behalf of the ExCo/5 February 2020

 

All org charts for EMEA and NA can be found via this link: https://intranet.dummenorange.com/site/en/organisation/organisational-charts