Executive Summary
January has seen an incredibly busy start to the year. We've seen huge amounts of movement in the market, with a 73% increase in appointments in January 2026 when compared to January 2025.
We expect this to be the start of a busy Q1; with such a quiet market in 2025, companies are returning to the market; the impact of not hiring into your Supply Chain is often felt tangibly quite quickly, and companies are beginning to accelerate their hiring strategies moving forward in 2026.
This Month’s Takeaways
- Strong demand for end-to-end Supply Chain leaders
- Substantial hiring of Chief Procurement Officers in January
Retail, Life Science and Food have seen a particularly high volume of movement, and we have seen some high profile departures and moves at the likes of Walgreens and Mondelez. With 26 total moves, there has been a huge amount of activity, and we expect this to continue into February.
Key Appointments and Moves
- Walgreens: Greg Smith joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from Medtronic
- FRoSTA AG: Tobias Schulze joins as Chief Operations Officer & Chief People & Culture Officer, from Beiersdorf
- Mondelēz International: Claudio Parrotta promoted to Chief Supply Chain Officer, succeeding Frank Cervi
- GXO Logistics, Inc.: Bart Beeks joins as Chief Operating Officer, from CEVA Logistics
- Envirotainer: Aymeric Chandavoine Chandovine joins as Chief Executive Officer, from Maersk
- Takeda: Sebastien Bals joins as Chief Procurement Officer, from Merck Group
- Amgen: Mikaella Gorelik joins as Head of Procurement, Manufacturing & Operations, from Bristol Myers Squibb
- Canada Packers Inc.: Andrew Scuccato joins as SVP Supply Chain, from Ferrero
- Vestacy: Brett Hopkin steps into the role of Chief Supply Officer at Reckitt’s PE carve-out
- Johnsonville: Dan Braswell joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from Michael Foods
- Ball Corporation: Scott Vail rejoins as Chief Supply Chain & Operations Officer, from Reynolds Consumer Products
- Agfa: Annick Courtmans joins as Global Head of Supply Chain, from Ascend Performance Materials
- Dechra: Ian MacKellar joins as COO & President, Global Supply Chain, from AgroFresh
- APP Group: Tugba Demiroguten Arikan joins as Global Head of Supply Chain – Tissues International, from La Lorraine Bakery Group
- Viega LLC: Dave DeLater joins as Chief Operating Officer, from Thermo Fisher Scientific
- Xellia Pharmaceuticals: Henrik Drud joins as Chief Procurement Officer, from Carlsberg Group
- NextFoods, Inc.: Darren Smith joins as Chief Operating Officer, from Magic Spoon
- Superior Wellness: Jason Crossland joins as Chief Operating Officer, from London Lash Pro
- V/Line: Thomai Veginis joins as Chief Procurement Officer, from Department of Transport and Planning
- Meiban Group: Christina Montrado joins as Chief Operating Officer, from ResMed
- McMurray Fabrics: Rick Elmore - MBA joins as Chief Operating Officer, from Hanesbrands
- Blommer Chocolate Company: Ben De Schryver joins as SVP, Procurement & Sustainability, from Barry Callebaut
- Conair: Chaoyang (Charles) Liu joins as Chief Operating Officer, from Away
- Parfums de Marly: CÉCILE MANSUY Mansuy joins as Chief Operating Officer, from Clarins Group
- Vision Sugar Group: Ozan Yenigun joins as Group Chief Procurement Officer, from PepsiCo
Regional Snapshot
North America – Very high levels of activity in the US as markets rebound and companies look to bring in new talent to lead, transform and bolster their operations. Significant Private Equity-driven hiring activity, creating retention challenges for larger multinationals, and a significant demand for Manufacturing, Operations and Transformation leaders.
Europe – Hiring levels are at their highest we’ve seen for a while, with significant activity across most markets. Europe has been clearing the “hiring backlog” of a quiet 2025, with a high demand across France, Benelux, DACH and some increasing demand in the Nordics. The UK market is steadily picking up, with only the Swiss market continuing to lag behind in terms of hiring activity.
Asia Pacific – APAC continues to be active, although generally the largest spike is post Lunar New Year, which will see a busier February and March than January. Companies are continuing to make investments into Asia, with significant demand across key markets.
GCC – Dubai and the UAE continue to see steady hiring activity, although there has been some caution over the Saudi market as a result of slowing infrastructure and mega-project spending.
Functional Trends
As the year starts, there is a wide variety of hiring activity across numerous functions. However, several areas have seen increased activity:
- Procurement highly active, with extensive Chief Procurement Officer movement in January
- Expected cascade of hiring at VP, Director and below as Procurement organisations undergo redesigns and transformations
- Strong demand for C-1 and C-2 talent as companies prepare for new strategies
- Increased focus on Safety and Quality roles to secure mission-critical talent pipelines
- Continued prioritisation of Plant Director pipelining, particularly in critical locations
Outlook for February
Considering how busy January has been, we expect that February will continue to see high levels of activity at C Suite, SVP, VP and Director level. In particular, Asia is likely to see an increase in late February after Lunar New Year, and we expect there to be continued high levels of hiring in Europe and North America.
2026 is shaping up to be a busy year, with a significant amount of hiring being unpaused following the quiet market of 2025. We will continue to monitor and track activity, but the market appears to be far busier than we saw at any point in 2025.
Thank you for reading!