Management Team
United Coffee is led by a strong and experienced management team, based in Geneva, and supported by highly skilled and dedicated local Managing Directors and their teams for the individual European countries in which the company is based.
Group Management Team
Per Harkjaer, Chief Executive Officer
Per has been the Chief Executive Officer of United Coffee since 2009. Prior to this, he was the CEO of Findus Group for five years. Per has extensive experience in the food industry having also held senior roles at Toms Confectionary Group, Unigate, Remy Cointreau and Mars Incorporated. He graduated from the Copenhagen Business School in 1987 with a Bachelor degree in International Marketing (HD).
Mark Tentori, Chief Financial Officer
Mark originally qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse in London and has more than 20 years of experience in various FD and CFO roles mainly in the packaging and manufacturing sectors.
For almost ten years Mark was the Group CFO of Linpac, a company with more than one billion Euros of turnover, worldwide operations and manufacturing facilities in over 35 countries. Mark joined when it was privately owned and played a key role in its transformation to private equity ownership and subsequent development. Mark also brings with him extensive M&A experience and a good international understanding for most of our markets.
Country Managing Directors
Heleen van Benthem, Managing Director Drie Mollen, Netherlands
Heleen joined United Coffee in 2010 after spending the previous five years at the Dutch food producer Stegeman, where she was the Managing Director. Until 2006, Stegeman was part of the Sara Lee organisation but was subsequently sold to the Group Smithfield, which has since merged with Campofrio. From 1988 to 2004, Heleen held a number of senior sales focused roles at Mars Inc, including as the Sales Director for Snackfood Nederland.
Rob de Laat, Managing Director, Smit & Dorlas, Netherlands
Rob is the Managing Director of United Coffee’s Dutch brand, Smit & Dorlas, and has been with the company since 1999. Rob has over 30 years experience in the industry and has held senior sales roles in the Netherlands at Douwe Egberts Coffee Systems and Sara Lee Douwe Egberts. Rob received an international management degree from Krauthammer International.
Elaine Higginson, Managing Director, UK & Ireland
Elaine joined United Coffee UK in 1996, formerly First Choice, as the Commercial Manager, which was acquired by United Coffee in 2006. Since joining, Elaine has progressed through the firm to board level and is the driver behind the UK’s sales growth. The UK business is responsible for roasting over 5,000 tonnes of coffee and serving over 12 billion cups of coffee a year out-of-home to leading foodservice operators and retailers. Elaine has over twenty years experience in the coffee industry and prior to United Coffee she worked in hospitality.
Guillermo Flores, Managing Director, Spain
Guillermo has been the Vice-President for United Coffee’s southern Europe division since 2004. He joined the firm following 18 years at Union Tostadora, the Spanish coffee company, where he held a number of roles, including most recently General Manager. Guillermo has a degree in Economics from the University of Zaragoza.
Marco Giuoco, Managing Director, Switzerland
Marco was appointed the Managing Director of United Coffee Switzerland in January 2012. He has more than 17 years of experience working in the drinks industry, among them the Carlberg Group and Pepsi-Cola GmbH. Marco was also the CEO of Inapa, a Swiss paper company.
Lionel Wolberg, Managing Director, France
Lionel became the Managing Director of United Coffee France in June 2011. He comes to us with considerable experience from the food and drinks industry, in particular Mars and Pepsico, where he managed Tropicana and later the entire drinks category in France. In recent years he has worked on a number of private equity deals in France. Lionel obtained a Business degree in Paris in 1987 and started his career on the same year at Mars Group where he promoted through internal moves every 2 years.