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Compass Group has announced the internal appointments of Shelley Roberts and Kathinka Friis-Møller to its Group Executive Committee.
Roberts, who joined Compass in 2017 as Managing Director for Australia, was appointed Group Chief Commercial Officer in January 2022, responsible for leading the Group’s Global Clients, Strategy, M&A, Health & Safety, Sustainability, Digital and Procurement functions.
Roberts brings extensive strategic, commercial, and operational experience to the role, having delivered record growth throughout the pandemic while building a diverse and inclusive culture as leader of Compass’ Australian business. Prior to Compass, she held leadership roles in a number of high-profile consumer and client facing businesses in the travel sector including easyJet, Tiger Airways and Sydney Airport. Roberts previously worked in investment banking at Macquarie Bank in Sydney and qualified as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG in London.
Roberts said: “With Compass’ strategic focus on sustained growth for the future, alongside our industry leading Net Zero commitment last year, I’m excited to work with our country and regional teams to differentiate and scale our market leading client services, drive collaboration to facilitate innovation and accelerate growth across the Group.”
Denham Mack, who joined Compass in 2008 and has been Finance Director for Australia since 2019, is acting as Interim Managing Director, Australia, whilst the process for recruiting Roberts’s replacement is concluded.
Friis-Møller, previously Managing Director of Compass’ Nordics business, has been appointed Regional Managing Director of the Europe and the Middle East (EME) region – the Group’s second largest region, which includes 24 countries – effective from 5 February 2022.
Friis-Møller has led the Group’s Nordics business since 2017, responsible for Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Estonia, and was critical to the onboarding and successful integration of Compass’ €475 million acquisition of Fazer Food Services into the Group in 2020. She joined Compass in 2012 as Operations Director for Norway, later serving as Managing Director of Norway from 2016 to 2020.
She commented: “In Europe and the Middle East, we have a strong business with a world class culinary offer, and a focused desire to lead the industry on both digital innovation and the sustainability agenda. I am excited for the future and see many opportunities to develop our region further, delivering the very best for our clients, consumers, our people and the planet.”
Petros Parras, who has served as Interim EME Regional Managing Director since September 2021, will return to his previous role of Chief Financial Officer for the EME region. Mika Pyyskänen, Finance Director of Compass Group’s Nordics region for the past seven years – first at Fazer and at Compass since 2020 – will act as Interim Managing Director, Nordics, whilst a search is conducted for Friis-Møller’s replacement.
Dominic Blakemore, Group Chief Executive Officer of Compass Group, said: “Both Shelley and Kathinka bring extensive commercial and operational experience to the Group Executive Committee and we welcome them to the table. I have every confidence that they will play an integral part in further accelerating our growth plans across the Group whilst developing the caring, winning culture that is such a key ingredient for our continued success.”
