The CEO of Russian dairy giant Wimm-Bill-Dann (WBD) has announced his intention to step down.
Tony Maher, who has led the firm as CEO for five years, will leave on 1 May, the firm said today (10 February).
Maher’s decision to leave follows PepsiCo‘s move to buy WBD, Russia’s largest dairy processor.
In December, PepsiCo announced that it had struck a deal to buy a 66% stake in WBD for US$3.8bn. The transaction was completed last week. After accumulating more shares in WBD, PepsiCo currently holds 77% of the business and is looking to buy the rest of the company, which also makes fruit juice and baby food.
WBD said that an announcement on Maher’s successor will be made in the coming weeks.
“On behalf of the board of directors and Wimm-Bill-Dann’s founders I want to thank Tony for a job well done and for delivering on his promise to create long-term shareholder value,” Sergey Plastinin, WBD’s chairman, said.
“He enhanced our leadership in dairy and baby food and led a brilliant recovery in our juice business. He will go down in history for leading Wimm-Bill-Dann to join PepsiCo in one of the most significant deals for modern Russia.”
