Iain Holding, Managing Director - Northern Europe
I took over the position as General Manager for Northern Europe as of August 2011. I am very happy to be part of the Northern Europe Group and this very dynamic team. Building a successful and strong business in Northern Europe is a great challenge with many exciting opportunities. I and the teams across the region are committed to developing a growing, sustainable and profitable business.
Having over 24 years of experience in Beiersdorf I have enjoyed an exciting and extremely international career with the Company. Prior to this role I have worked for Beiersdorf in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and the USA and am now very much enjoying working again in the UK.
Beiersdorf is a great company, with great people, great brands and a great history, which for me makes coming to work every day a pleasure and a privilege. I enjoy working with my team to serve our customers and consumers with our brands. Success and sense of having made a contribution to something really worthwhile are powerful motivators.”
Menno de Vries, Finance Director - Northern Europe
"I have worked at Beiersdorf for over seven years and have been lucky enough to experience fast career development and international working. I joined Beiersdorf Netherlands in 2004 as Manager Commercial Controlling and following a number of years in the position I was promoted to Finance Director. In June 2011 I was offered the opportunity to move to the UK as Finance Director Northern Europe and now have responsibility for the eight countries within the region.
Working internationally has always been important to me and something I have experienced from early on in my career. For me it is very interesting to learn about other cultures and value the differences each can bring to building a successful and diverse business.
As well as working with fantastic brands, I really value Beiersdorf’s approach to driving results, thinking first and then acting with speed. We are a multinational organisation but our size means we can work incredibly close together, developing valuable relationships across business functions and borders the ensure delivery of shared goals.
The Finance teams across Northern Europe work passionately to drive our business by partnering with commercial functions and positively challenging decisions and creating the best possible results."
Andrew Patterson, Human Resources Director - Northern Europe
"I joined Beiersdorf in 2001 as Human Resources Consultant partnering with Commercial functions in the UK business. Following an exciting and challenging couple of years I was offered the opportunity to move to the role of Human Resources Manager responsible for the entire function and a growing team. I became HR Director UK & ROI shortly after and today I am responsible for Human Resources across Northern Europe.
I have been fortunate enough to have had many opportunities for development, rewarded with multiple successes and tested with a lot of tough challenges. I now have the chance to work across borders and to drive success within a growing region.
The passion of the teams I work with is what motivates me most to work at Beiersdorf. Having great colleagues really does make it a great place to work. We have always been focussed on our people, as well as our results and this makes our role in Human Resources very engaging. My team and I work together to recruit, develop and retain the best talent so we can continue to experience outstanding results in what is a truly dynamic environment."
Nicolo Pome, Marketing Director
"I joined Beiersdorf Milan in 2002 as a Brand Manager for Suncare and ever since have experienced structured progression within Marketing. Shortly after joining I transferred to Beiersdorf’s headquarters in Hamburg as International Brand Manager Suncare to gain experience of international Marketing. Following promotion to Senior International Brand Manager this time on Haircare, I joined the UK business as Marketing Director.
I am very grateful of the international opportunities offered to me by Beiersdorf, for me it is great to experience marketing from both local and central perspectives.
Sharing the brands values is a key driver in my passion for working at Beiersdorf, I would find it incredibly difficult to work for a brand I could not relate to. The challenge of working on an international brand is very exciting and in the UK we are striving to make Nivea as successful as it is internationally, ensuring we strengthen our emotional bond with our consumers."
Richard Couch,Supply Chain Director
"I have had a long and successful career with Beiersdorf starting in 1997 when I joined Smith & Nephew on a temporary contract working as Project Officer on the first SAP implementation project. After the project I moved to a Supply Planner role and was transferred, along with many employees, to Beiersdorf in 2000.
I was promoted to Forecasting Manager, then shortly afterwards to Forecast & Supply Manager before moving to the role of Supply Chain Development Manager. To add breadth to my career I also undertook a role in Sales as Tesco National Account Manager responsible for Deo, NFM and Sun. Shortly afterI waspromoted to Supply Chain Director.
You can see from my career that Beiersdorf offers personal growth and development, being a global company there are plenty of opportunities for talented people to advance.
Beiersdorf has great brands and inspiring people, with both we are able to enjoy great success in what is a challenging and highly rewarding environment.
In Supply Chain we strive to consistently deliver the highest levels of service internally and externally. To achieve this our processes are efficient, our costs are low and we are careful to focus on our customers needs, serving them in a sustainable way."
Paul Price, Sales Director
"I joined Beiersdorf UK in 2003 as Sales Manager for the Drug and Pharmacy Channel. In 2005 I moved to UK Sales Director and in 2007 Shopper and Customer Marketing was added to the remit. I have spent 25 years building some of the world’s biggest brands with some of the world’s most advanced retailers in both the UK and Ireland.
Beiersdorf UK is a fantastic company to work for, big enough to have scale and be seen as best in class, yet small enough to know most people personally. In NIVEA we have a Brand that is world class, many successful companies have world class brands, but what singles Beiersdorf UK out is that we have an organisation that is small enough to be focused enabling us to act with speed which gives us competitive advantage.
Our goal in UK Sales is to create a bond with our customers that goes beyond the day to day activities and translates into a long term and mutually beneficial business relationship. We measure our success in terms of market share, net sales and profit contribution.”
