Nicola CHIARANDA

Global Finance leader with 30  years’ career in  public multinational groups mainly  in Agribusiness and Food production in Italy, France, Switzerland , USA, Spain and Kingdom of  Saudi Arabia

Speaking Italian (mother language), English, French, Spanish, German

Strong strategic vision, investment capabilities, communication and people management skills

Broad experience in the day-to-day management of  all Finance & Control functions across different geographies

Significant experience in Strategy,  Mergers & Acquisitions and large-scale change management.

Executed tens of acquisitions, with cultural and financial integration of new acquired entities, corporate reorganizations, spin-offs and divestitures.

Designed and managed a large Finance transformation with annual savings of  several tens of  Million $, creation of multifunctional Shared Service Centers, introduction of new metrics and key performance indicators

Optimization of processes and controls, Implementation of new systems

Design and delivery of ad hoc finance people training and development programs in co-operation with HR

EXPERIENCE
 

G3 Group of Companies (Canada)  - Non Executive Director – June 2018 – now

G3 Canada Limited is Canada’s newest big scale grain handler. G3 purchase a wide range of grains, oilseeds and special crops from farmers and third-parties across Canada and market them to customers around the world.

Minerva SA (Brazil) listed to San Paolo Stock Exchange) – Member of the Finance Committee of the Board – April 2019 – now

Minerva Foods is one of the South American leaders in the production and sale of fresh beef and its by-products, as well as live cattle exports, and it also maintains operations in the meat processing segment.

Saudi Agriculture and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC)

Salic is the Food Security investment arm of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, controlled by the Public Investment Fund owned by the government.

SALIC Group Advisor to Salic CEO (London) – September 2019 – now

SALIC Group Chief Financial Officer (Riyadh / London ) -  January 2018 – August 2019

SALIC is in charge of food security on behalf Saudi Arabia  and investing several billion USD across over 20 countries to control access to and ability to buy 12 key soft commodities for which Saudi Arabia heavily depends on imports (wheat, barley, corn, sugar, rice, soybeans, greed fodder, vegetable oil, red meat, poultry, seafood, diary). At the moment the group, which is expected to grow 5x in the coming 6 years, holds investments in farms, logistic assets, industrial assets worth over $ 1 billion in Canada, Brazil, UK, Canada, Ukraine and Australia. Investments are a combination of fully owned subsidiaries, Joint Ventures and minority investments in public and private entities.

As SALIC Group CFO, I oversee all Finance activities (Treasury, Accounting, Control, Financial Transactions, Financial Planning & Analysis) in SALIC as well as in its fully owned subsidiaries and I am sitting in the Board of Directors and in Board Committees of its main invested companies. I manage with my team  the relationship with the financial institutions and investors. I also am very active in the definition of SALIC Strategy as well as in the investment activities, participating in the identification, due diligence, valuation and negotiation of the companies to acquire.

Key Achievements

-       Revamped Salic Finance Function, with several new hires, introduction of best practices, strong processes and policies

-       Completed new investments for over $ 400 Million in 2018

-       Obtained new bank lines for $ 1.3 billion in 2018 and

-       Obtained new equity from shareholder for $ 800 million

BUNGE  August 2002 – December 2017

Bunge is a leading global Agribusiness and Food industrial group listed at the NYSE, present in all continents with over $ 40 billion turnover and over 30,000 employees

Chief Financial Officer Bunge South Europe (Barcelona - Spain) - September 2015 – December 2017

South Europe is one of the largest Bunge regions, with over $ 3 Billion turnover, encompassing Portugal, Spain, Italy and Turkey, including 9  industrial plants, active in oilseed crushing, meal production, vegetable oil refining, bottling, branding & retail distribution, biodiesel and distribution of vegetable meals and grains.

I oversee all Finance, business development as well as all IT and procurement activities in the region, with a team of over 70 people in the different countries.

Key achievements:

-       revamp of the finance function in the region, with significant improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes

-       dramatic improvement of the control environment, with elimination of SOX deficiencies

-       creation of a regional Shared Service Center supporting 5 countries and over 30 business units

-       reduction of bad debts, in excess of $ 1 M per year

-       inorganic growth with important acquisitions and capital investment projects for over $ 400 Million.

Global Director of Finance Operational Excellence at Bunge Limited (White Plains, New York - USA)  - January 2011 – August 2015

Reporting to the Bunge Limited Chief Financial Officer, I lead a multi-year global transformation of the Finance area involving 1400 people and affecting all Bunge regions. I was also in charge of Enterprise Data Management, with the goal of improving data quality and introduce strong data governance across the group.

Key achievements of the position were:

-       standardization, automation and leverage all finance processes and activities

-       significant cost reductions (over $ 20 M /year) and improvements  in  the quality of data, systems and people,

-       Design and delivery of design of  ad hoc finance people training and development program in co-operation with HR

Vice President Business Development & Innovation at BUNGE Europe (Geneva - Switzerland)  - January 2008 – December 2010

Reporting to the Bunge Europe CEO,  I was in charge of M&A sourcing and execution, Capex project approval, coordinating innovation project across the region.

Major achievements of the position were:  

-       revamping the M&A function in Europe with optimization of the planning processes;

-       Capex projects for over $ 700 M  dollars approved;

-       acquisition of silos, ports, margarine companies, joint venture with partners in Africa;

-       launch of several new innovative products in different European countries

Strategic Planning director, Agribusiness at Bunge Limited (White Plains, New York - USA)  - April 2006 – December 2007

Reporting to the Group Strategic Planning VP, I was in charge of facilitating the definition of the group Agribusiness strategy, the capital allocation across regions and the approval by the CEO and the Board of directors of all major group agribusiness related acquisition and capital investment.

Key achievements of the positions were:

-       streamlining capital allocation (over $ 1 billion / year), capex and acquisition project approvals and the annual budgeting processes

-       promoting the entry of the group into the biofuel industry in North and South America, with the approval of new capital investments and JVs

-       approval of several crush plants and port projects across the globe for well over $ 500 Million

Director of Tax and Financial Control at BUNGE EUROPE (Paris / Geneva – Switzerland) - August 2002 – March 2006

Reporting to the Bunge Europe CFO, I was in charge of financial control, consolidation, and tax across BEMEA.

Major achievements of the position were:

- financial and tax integration in Bunge of the Cereol Group (4,5 billion USD turnover, acquired by Bunge in October 2002)

- migration from French Gaap to US Gaap reporting standard

- improved group reporting frequency and timeliness: from every 3 months on D+ 20 to every month on D+5 

- implementation of Sarbanes Oxley rules and control structure for all the European entities of the group

MONTEDISON Group from September 1994 to July 2002

Montedison was a conglomerate listed at the Milan stock exchange with about 13 billion € turnover, controlling Eridania Béghin-Say (with its sugar division (Beghin-Say), starch division (Cerestar), vegetable meal & oil division (Cereol) and animal nutrition division(Provimi)) and other companies in power generation (Edison), pharma (Antibioticos), chemical specialties(Himont/Montell), engineering (Technimont), cement (Calcestruzzi, Heracles) and insurance (La Fondiaria).

Chief financial officer at CERESTAR (Paris – France)  - September 2001 – July 2002

Cerestar, with about € 2 billion turnover, was the European leader in the starch industry and derivatives. It was listed at the Paris Stock exchange

Reporting to Cerestar CEO, major achievements of the position were:  

-       significant recovery of the operating result;

-       organizing and supervising the due diligence of the Cerestar Group by Cargill, concluded with the sale of  Cerestar to Cargill;  

-       financial integration of Cerestar in the Cargill Reporting System and

-       de-listing of Cerestar from the Paris Stock Exchange.

Group Tax Director at ERIDANIA BEGHIN-SAY (Paris - France)  - October 1998 – August 2001
 

Eridania Béghin-Say (EBS) was a multinational group active in the agro-industrial sector with an annual turnover of approximately 10 billions € and more than 200 subsidiaries in about 35 countries.

Reporting to the Group CFO, I co-ordinated 9 tax managers in different countries/areas with responsibility  for Group tax policy, tax optimisation and involved in all important M&A deals.

 
International Tax Manager at MONTEDISON SPA (Milan - Italy) - September 1994 – September 1998

Reporting to the Group tax director, I was responsible for international tax planning and for the tax optimization of the restructuring and divestiture of many foreign subsidiaries to allow the reduction of the very large group consolidated debt

OTHER EXPERIENCES

International Tax specialist at ASSICURAZIONI GENERALI (Trieste - Italy)  - October 1991 – August 1994

Assicurazioni Generali is one of the largest European insurance groups, listed at the Milan stock exchange
 

Tax specialist at STUDIO TOMASIN CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS (Venice - Italy) - October 1988 – September 1991

 
EDUCATION
 

Degree in Economy (University of Venice, 1988) 110/110,  Chartered Accountant (1989) and Statutory Auditor (1991)

Post graduate training: corporate training programs at INSEAD (Fontainebleau) in 1997/1998 and Olin School of Business (Saint-Louis, Missouri) in 2005

NC – September  2019