Omsco announces appointment of David Williams as chief executive

The Board of Omsco, the UK’s largest organic dairy co-operative, has announced the appointment of David Williams as its chief executive. Williams will assume the newly created role of chief executive at the start of April.

A skilled and experienced business leader, Williams has over 25 years’ experience of working in the dairy industry. This includes holding several board and senior executive posts in major UK and European farmer-owned dairy co-operatives.

Williams has held a number of senior-level finance roles in Arla Foods Amba, the co-operative owned by c.10,000 European dairy farmers and one of the world’s largest dairy food manufacturers. He is currently Arla’s global head of Finance, Members, Milk & Trading, based at its Head Office in Viby, Denmark.

Before joining Arla, Williams was for seven years the Corporate Finance and Strategy Director for Milk Link, the leading UK dairy co-operative, and prior to that its finance director. In these roles, he played an important part in helping to develop and implement Milk Link’s transition into a progressive farmer-owned dairy processing business.

Williams is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a BSC (Hons) degree from Queen Mary College, University of London.

Welcoming the appointment, Neil Kennedy, chairman of Omsco said: “I am delighted to announce David’s appointment as Chief Executive of Omsco.

“He has proven leadership skills which are complemented by his having a deep knowledge of the dairy industry and a significant track record of working with leading farmer-owned dairy businesses.  I believe the combination of both his dairy industry and co-operative experience makes David ideally positioned to lead the business as we enter the next phase in our growth and development.

“As Omsco’s new chief executive, David will oversee and drive forward the development of our value-added strategy based on investing in processing, products & brands.  One which will ultimately help us achieve our core objective of delivering a sustainable, industry leading organic milk price for our Members.”

Commenting on his appointment David Williams said: “I am both delighted and very proud to be assuming the role of Chief Executive of Omsco. I look forward to working with Neil Kennedy, the Board of Directors, the executive and the wider Omsco team to accelerate the growth and development of the business. Omsco has clearly made good progress in moving from simply being a broker of organic milk to establishing a strategic presence in value-added processing and more premium markets, both in the UK and overseas. The challenge now is to build upon these strong foundations and create evermore valuable and sustainable outlets for our Members’ organic milk – a challenge I’m incredibly excited to take on.”

Related content

Leave a reply

Dairy Industries International