Executive Summary
Q3 2026 has been busy - so much so that it’s delayed this report until late October! After a cautious return of confidence at the end of Q2, August broke the seasonal pattern entirely and became one of our busiest months of the year, before September settled into a steadier pace at C Suite level alongside a marked increase in hiring at C-1 and C-2.
Across the quarter, we tracked 34 Executive Leadership appointments globally (6 in July, 19 in August and 9 in September). Just 2 of these were Chief Procurement Officer appointments, with the remainder focused on Supply Chain and Operations leadership. Food & Beverage dominated, accounting for around half of all moves, with Pharma & Life Sciences again the second most active sector.
Beyond the headline CSCO placements, the wider market has picked up substantially. Pod Talent are the busiest we have been for a long time, as are many of our competitors, and candidates are reporting far more interest and momentum in their searches than earlier in the year. This isn’t limited to the C Suite: leadership teams are being built out at C-1 and C-2 across almost every function.
This Quarter’s Takeaways
Here’s a snapshot of the top Supply Chain, Operations and Procurement moves in Q3:
North America
🥫 Kraft Heinz : Alvaro Cantillo joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, North America Zone, from Haleon
🍺 Constellation Brands: Alex Alvarez joins as SVP & Chief Supply Chain Officer, Beer Division, from his role as Chief Supply Chain Officer at Suntory Global Spirits
🍒 Ocean Spray Cranberries: Brad Hartzell joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from kdc/one
👟 Converse: Kristin Bauer joins as Chief Operating Officer, from Foot Locker
🎵 Universal Music Group: Tseyin Foo joins as President, Global Supply Chain, from Skechers
🥗 The Marzetti Company: Mark Carter joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from Schwan’s
🏥 Providence: Amanda Chawla joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from Stanford Medicine
🍹 Tilray Beverages: Rahul Khound joins as Chief Operating Officer, from Whole Earth Brands
🥜 Second Nature Brands: Olivier Bouret joins as Chief Operations Officer, from Ferrara
🥤 Spindrift Beverage Co, Inc.: Alex Baxter joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from 5th Season Fruit
🔧 ASC Engineered Solutions: Ramon Gonzalez joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from Kohler
🔋 Maverick Power: Brandon Ray joins as Chief Procurement Officer, from Samsara
⚡ IPG Photonics: Xiaodi Sui joins as Global Head of Procurement
Europe
🍫 Barry Callebaut Group: Thomas Gaengler joins as Chief Operating Officer, from his role as CPO of Mondelez
🛍️ Action: Lewis Jones joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer
💊 Sandoz: Pascal Bouye joins as President, Manufacturing and Supply, from Danone
🥤 AG Barr Group: Saqib Qureshi joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from Danone
⚕️ Elekta: Rodolfo Velasco joins as Chief Operating Officer, from GE HealthCare
🥐 ARYZTA: Alex Bolinelli joins as Group Head of Operations, from Emmi Group
💊 Siegfried: Giovanni Barbella joins as Global Supply Chain Head, from Sandoz
👟 CCC Group: Marcin Mezyk joins as Chief Operating Officer, from Shein
🧪 Jungbunzlauer: Marcus von Twistern joins as Chief Operating Officer, from his role as VP Operations at UPM
🔌 CEL Critical Power: Martin Corner joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from Aston Martin Lagonda
APAC
🔧 Reece Group: Aamir Mehdi joins as Chief Supply Chain Officer, from Danone
Regional Snapshot
North America remained the largest market, accounting for 21 of the 34 moves tracked. Consumer brands led the way, from major listed businesses such as Kraft Heinz, Constellation Brands and Ocean Spray to fast-growth challenger brands. Demand for manufacturing leadership continues to be substantial, with hiring at Plant Director, Plant Director-1 and senior engineering level especially active.
Europe matched its Q2 total with 12 appointments, a strong result given July and August are typically quiet months for the region. C Suite activity was concentrated and high profile, with Switzerland standing out through Barry Callebaut, Sandoz, Siegfried, Jungbunzlauer and ARYZTA, and the UK contributing through AG Barr and CEL Critical Power. Hiring below the C Suite was more subdued over the summer, but the pipeline of vacancies has been building and October has already seen a substantial increase in activity.
APAC saw just one C Suite appointment tracked in Q3, but the wider market has continued the momentum we reported in Q2, with demand rising across manufacturing and supply chain leadership. Corporate leadership roles in Singapore are increasing significantly, and we’ve seen a spike in country-level leadership hiring across Southeast Asia as China +1 strategies continue to mature.
Functional Hiring Trends
Trade Compliance hiring remains strong, driven by shifting Canada-US-EU regulation. The scope of these roles is widening well beyond the traditional customs and duties remit, as businesses invest in leaders who can shape strategy and prevent issues rather than react to them.
CapEx is up, engineering is short. Capital programmes are outrunning the reliability and engineering talent needed to deliver and run them, making senior plant engineering roles among the hardest to fill right now. Multiple businesses are chasing the same small pool of people, many of whom are reluctant to move.
Procurement Excellence is in high demand, particularly leaders able to set the foundations of an AI-capable procurement strategy.
Manufacturing Excellence demand is shifting in kind, not just volume: a strong capex delivery and Continuous Improvement track record now carries more weight than BAU plant stability, as operations remain under constant scrutiny to do “more from less”.
AI and data leadership is a growing but still narrow category. Leaders are under pressure to “do more with AI”, but data integrity and a single source of truth remain unresolved underneath that ambition. We’re increasingly seeing roles created solely to fix this foundation before anything else can be built on top of it.
Conclusions & Q4 Outlook
Q3 was far busier than the summer months usually allow, and the volume of high-profile C Suite movement this year points to a real shift in Supply Chain hiring. As these new leaders settle in and reshape their teams, we expect that activity to continue cascading through C-1 and C-2.
Based on the market indicators so far, Q4 looks set to be incredibly busy. If you’d like to discuss any of the above in the context of your own organisation, explore specific regional or functional insights, or simply compare notes on what you’re hearing in the market, please don’t hesitate to reach out at sam.berke@pod-talent.com.