CIO

Cosun is a leading agricultural cooperative that produces high-quality plant-based food and food ingredients, biobased ingredients, feed, and green energy from biomass. The Chief Information Officer shapes and executes the enterprise-wide IT and data strategy to secure an aligned and data-driven future.

About Cosun

Royal Cosun is a leading, international agro-food cooperative. Its purpose is to contribute to an enjoyable, nutritional, and circular world by unlocking the full potential of plants and people for current and next generations. Crops are turned into food and food ingredients, biobased ingredients for non-food such as personal care products, and feed. Biomass is also turned into green energy. The organization is highly committed to securing a future-proof earning model for its members and developing an impactful plant-based position toward the future.

The organization strongly believes that plants are the hero of the story and can be the solution to major nutritional, climate, and wellbeing challenges around the world. In its Unlock 30 strategy, Cosun sets out how it will achieve the cooperative’s ambitions through three pillars: continuous improvements, focused growth, and the development of a future-proof sustainable chain. Digitalization, innovation and partnerships, and people and change will be critical to help Cosun deliver its strategy and build a future-proof, sustainable chain through innovation and collaboration.

The evolving Cosun organization
With 8,100 members (both sugar beet farmers and owners), and a global network of partners and suppliers, operations in Europe, Asia, and North America, and more than 4,600 employees, Royal Cosun is a major player in the agro-food sector. Its business groups include Aviko, Cosun Beet Company, Cosun Protein, Duynie Group, and Sensus. Together, these companies generated a (preliminary) revenue of 3.4 billion euro in 2024.

Last year, Cosun transitioned from a collection of companies, teams, and functions to an organization with optimal collaboration across the entities. Driven by the joint strategy and vision, Cosun communicates, collaborates, and moves as one organization to achieve its shared objectives. As a result, the operating model is being optimized to set up the businesses for success, leveraging Cosun’s strengths. This allows the organization to respond quickly to market conditions and challenges, outperform competitors, and create even more value for customers and members.

Cosun’s structure of collaboration and support is built on data-based decision-making, effective strategic planning, a strong drive for commercial and operational excellence, optimal use of shared resources and capabilities, and focus on strategic acquisitions and partnerships. Clarity on roles and responsibilities is key. The target operating model for IT, Finance, HR, and Procurement is currently being designed in detail.

Vacancy: Chief Information Officer

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) brings a compelling vision to Cosun for the enterprise-wide IT and Digitalization strategy and architecture needed to deliver on the company’s ambitious strategy. After mapping the requirements and current IT landscape in the business groups, the CIO aligns the board on their vision for a unified IT and data infrastructure that helps Cosun stay ahead. Initial priorities include modernizing Cosun’s systems, implementing a consolidated ERP system, and generating buy-in from all parts of the organization. Bringing the board along with their strong vision, the CIO will also lead the digital transformation in Cosun to unlock more operational data for optimized decision-making.

In this new position, the CIO continues to build Cosun’s operational excellence. The company is currently changing the target operating model, focusing on improving professionalism, efficiency, focus, and governance. The CIO builds, leads, and mentors their high-performing IT organization. They foster a collaborative work environment with a clear performance focus and manage relationships with external vendors and partners.

“Digitalization plays a critical role in Cosun’s future. In face of rising cost, intensifying competition, a tight labor market and the growing need for best in class insights, digitalization is a top priority within our Unlock30 roadmap. Cosun is committed to advancing its infrastructure and data capabilities to optimize processes and generate lasting value for our employees, members and customers.” – Hans Meeuwis, CEO Cosun

Governance and collaboration
The Chief Information Officer reports to the CEO and is part of the Cosun Executive Board (CEB), which is responsible for setting the long-term vision and strategy objectives for the total organization with aligned business group goals. The CIO works closely with the CFO to align technology initiatives with the financial performance and growth strategies of the organization and to assess the ROI of technology investments.

The CEB monitors, supports and guides Business Group performance, and promotes synergies and resource sharing to maximize these synergies. The Board also develops leadership and secures succession across the organization. As a team, it manages risks and secures adherence policies and requirements. Through its strategic and operational leadership, the board members drive sustainable growth, competitive advantage, and long-term value creation.

Cosun strives for the best of both worlds through its governance model. It has a member engagement with a long-term perspective and a clear mandate to drive the organization forward for both current and next generations. The model secures a strong connection and involvement of the Cosun members and employees, which is key for the future of the cooperative. Ownership and control reside with the members, who are represented by the Cosun Raad van Beheer (RvB) and supervised by the Cosun Raad van Toezicht (RvT). The majority of the Cosun RvB and RvT consist of members of the cooperative, supported by external members. The Cosun Executive Board reports to the Cosun Raad van Beheer.

This is a unique opportunity to shape the digital future of a significant organization with the platform and budget to drive transformational change and modernization across all business groups. The CIO is an outstanding change leader with experience in digital transformations and the ability to align and energize stakeholders at all levels of the organization. With a strategic, long-term mindset, this professional translates Cosun’s vision into actionable IT programs. Their deep expertise in IT governance and people management ensures those programs are implemented effectively, enabling Cosun to fulfill its mission.

Interested?

Cosun is working with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
To express your interest, please contact Jessica Lim at jessica.lim@topofminds.com.