London, 11th April: The Jamie Oliver Group today announces Megan Van Someren has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer. Reporting directly to CEO Kevin Styles, Megan has been charged with driving commercial and brand growth, underpinned by the Group’s ambitious social impact agenda.
Bringing over 23 years of strategic brand development and a proven track record in leadership and commercial delivery, Megan will lead the digital, marketing, creative, product & partnership as well as the sustainability and social impact teams across the Group.
On her appointment, Megan Van Someren says, “I genuinely feel this is the role I have been working toward my entire career. It brings together all my experience working with global food businesses in brand transformation and commercial innovation but with meaningful impact at its core. And to do this with such a visionary founder & brand in Jamie Oliver, an exciting new CEO leadership in Kevin Styles as well as teams that are so deeply rooted in food culture. I feel incredibly fortunate and excited about the incredible potential to deliver on our mission of a healthier & happier world through the joy of food — one meal at a time.”
Kevin Styles, CEO said, “I am delighted Megan is joining us on a permanent basis as Chief Commercial Officer. Over the last 6 months, we’ve worked closely together on the new strategic direction of the Jamie Oliver Group and I have been impressed with her strategic planning, her in-depth and invaluable knowledge about the food market both locally and internationally, and her passion for the brand, the business and the people.”
Prior to joining the Jamie Oliver Group, Megan was the Global Food & Beverage Chair at Edelman, overseeing a global client portfolio, advising on the state of trust across the food system, while working with clients and cross functional teams in the US, Europe and APAC to solve a range of commercial, category and brand challenges.
Over the course of her career Megan has worked with food & beverage companies of all shapes and sizes including Nespresso, Kraft Heinz, Unilever, Kellogg’s and Danone. She has led multinational teams across a number of global brand & creative agency networks. She launched specialised F&B consultancies within both Publicis Groupe and WPP as a response to the explosion of food culture, helping established and emerging brands reimagine their positioning, innovation, sustainability and GTM planning against the rapidly changing landscape. Earlier in her career, Megan helped start-up and lead a number of digital agency teams bringing new ways of planning & delivering across CRM, digital, social & ecommerce channels.
Megan has been an ongoing contributor to media and industry events on food and beverage trends, covering topics such as Luxury in Food, the Future of Sustainability and Trust in F&B, including AdAge’s What Next for Food & Beverage, Progressive Grocer’s Future Leaders Forum as well as the Consumer Goods Forum and a handful of WBCSD events.
For more information, please contact:
Tamsyn Zietsman
+44 7803722461
