Our leadership team comprises some of the most seasoned executives in the food, fragrance, health, and biosciences industries. Their combined expertise and passion for what we do help drive our business forward each day.
Erik Fyrwald joined IFF as Chief Executive Officer in February 2024.
Fyrwald brings to IFF more than four decades of executive and operational experience driving innovation and profitable, sustainable growth at leading corporations in the nutrition, agriculture, and chemicals industries.
Previously, he held the role of Chief Executive Officer of Syngenta, where he helped establish Syngenta Group as a leading player in agriculture for global food security, sustainability and regenerative agriculture. During his tenure, he oversaw the company’s acquisition by ChemChina, the formation of the Syngenta Group, and led the business through exponential growth.
Prior to Syngenta, Mr. Fyrwald was the Chief Executive Officer of Univar Solutions, a leading global chemical and ingredient distributor and services provider; President of EcoLab, a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services; and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nalco, that was acquired by EcoLab in 2011.
Earlier in his career, he held positions of increasing responsibility at DuPont where he focused on strategic planning and leadership of regional and global business units, including two years as head of the DuPont Nutrition and Health BU and five additional years as President of the DuPont Agriculture and Nutrition Division.
Mr. Fyrwald has been a member of the Syngenta Board of Directors since 2016. He also has served on the Boards of Directors of Eli Lilly since 2005.
Yuvraj Arora has served as IFF’s Executive Vice President and President, Nourish since June 2023. An award-winning segment leader, Mr. Arora has more than 25 years of experience in the global food and beverage industry with vast experience in brand and category management, product marketing and innovation.
Prior to joining IFF, Mr. Arora was the president, U.S. Categories for Kellogg North America where he led the multi-billion portfolio through a period of significant growth and segment transformation.
Mr. Arora spent more than 20 years at Kellogg. Beginning in India, he held roles in marketing and category management. After relocating to the United States, he assumed roles of increasing responsibility in marketing, brand management and general management for the Cereals, Snacking and Salty Snack categories across the country. Additionally, he went on to lead marketing and innovation for the Asia, Middle East and Africa markets while based out of Singapore. At the culmination of his time with Kellogg, he was responsible for leading the U.S. portfolio across six categories.
Mr. Arora holds a Bachelor of Technology in Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Calicut and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Delhi, India. He will be based in IFF’s New York headquarters.
Deborah Borg has served as IFF’s Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion Officer since August 2022 and in December 2022 assumed leadership of IFF’s corporate communications function. With more than 20 years of experience, she is a leader in human resources, culture, employee engagement and business strategy and outcomes.
Prior to joining IFF, Ms. Borg was with the global Agribusiness and Food company, Bunge Limited where she served as Chief Human Resources and Communications Officer since 2016. While at Bunge, she was responsible for people, culture, communications strategy and operations.
Before her time with Bunge, Ms. Borg held a variety of leadership and HR roles in Australia, Switzerland and the U.S. for General Motors and Dow Chemical and oversaw multiple successful employee engagement, M&A integration and talent capacity initiatives. As president of Dow USA, she was responsible for overall business performance, regional business strategy, new business development and external relationships with customers, government organizations and joint-venture partners.
Ms. Borg holds a Bachelor of Business Management in Human Resources and a master’s in training and change management, both from Victoria University, Melbourne Australia.
Michael DeVeau is Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, where he oversees the company’s corporate and divisional financial planning and analysis team, with responsibility for corporate strategy, M&A and investor relations. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Chief Investor Relations & Communications Officer, where he led the company’s integrated communications strategy, overseeing investor engagement, corporate brand, executive and employee communications, crisis and issues management, digital and social media, and media relations.
Prior to these roles, he served as VP, Investor Relations, Communications and Chief of Staff from 2014 to February 2021, where he built a robust investor engagement and integrated corporate communications program, while managing IFF’s reputation management efforts and serving as a strategic advisor to IFF’s Chairman and CEO. During this period, he had dual responsibility as Chief Financial Officer, Scent from 2018 to 2020, where he led financial planning, forecasting, analysis, capital allocation, acquisitions and performance management for the IFF’s largest division, and was the head of Corporate Strategy from 2016 to 2018, where he led the development of the Company’s strategy, focused on long-term profitable growth, transformation and portfolio development.
Since joining IFF in 2009 as head of investor relations, Mr. DeVeau has held various roles of increasing scope and responsibility in finance, communications and corporate strategy. Prior to IFF, he served in leadership positions in investor relations, finance and corporate development at PepsiCo, a multinational food, snack and beverage company. Mr. DeVeau began his career as an Equity Research Analyst at Citigroup Investment Research.
He has a bachelor’s from Fordham University and completed a Global Executive Leadership Program at INSEAD.
Ralf Finzel has served as Executive Vice President, Global Operations Officer since November 2022. Mr. Finzel is an award-winning international operations executive with more than three decades leading operations and integrated supply chain management for multinational companies.
Prior to joining IFF, he served as vice president of Integrated Supply Chain for Honeywell International Performance Materials and Technologies Business Group in Houston. He first joined Honeywell in Germany as an operations manager in 1999, and his many successes led to roles of increasing responsibility and scope in Europe and the U.S. Before joining Honeywell, he worked in research and held plant management roles for Hoechst AG.
Mr. Finzel is a Six Sigma Black Belt and holds extensive training certifications. He has also published in industry periodicals, such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Mr. Finzel has a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Würzburg, Germany.
Simon Herriott has served as president of Health & Biosciences (H&B) since 2019 and leads the team in driving top-line growth and operational effectiveness through innovation, market segment intimacy and supply chain development.
Inspired by nature and distinguished by our creativity and innovation, H&B is a leading partner for our customers in bringing sustainable, high-performance solutions to a variety of categories. The portfolio includes solutions for health, food and home from our range of probiotics, cultures and enzymes.
In addition to leading H&B, Mr. Herriott was also president of the Scent business unit from July 2023 – March 2024 and will continue to focus on leveraging IFF’s world-leading biotechnology into the Scent ingredient portfolio.
In his career with DuPont, he had various leadership positions in industrial biosciences, sustainable solutions and chemical solutions businesses. Prior to DuPont, Mr. Herriott also held multiple leadership roles at ICI, Zeneca and Avecia in Europe, Asia and North America.
Mr. Herriott holds a bachelor’s degree in science degree from the University of Durham, UK; a management diploma from INSEAD, Paris; and an international master’s in practicing management from McGill University, Canada. He is based in the Company’s Wilmington, Delaware location in the U.S.
Jennifer Johnson was appointed Executive Vice President, General Counsel of IFF in 2021, where she is responsible for IFF’s global legal and corporate governance affairs. In addition, Dr. Johnson leads the Company’s global compliance and ethics initiatives.
She most recently served as Associate General Counsel at N&B, leading its legal department. She was appointed to this position in 2019 and has driven critical litigation wins, significant changes to N&B’s patent strategy and complex M&A transactions.
Dr. Johnson joined the DuPont legal team in 2013 and has served as Associate General Counsel and Assistant Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for its Industrial Biosciences division before joining N&B. Prior to DuPont, she was a Partner at the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P.
Dr. Johnson holds a J.D. from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from University of California, Berkeley.
Ana Paula Mendonça has served as President of Scent since April 2024. She leads IFF’s industry-leading Scent business unit, which includes fine fragrance, consumer fragrance and fragrance ingredients.
Having joined IFF nearly 30 years ago, Ms. Mendonça previously served as senior vice president of Commercial Excellence where she led the company’s global key account initiative, including IFF’s sales excellence program, commercial analytics, and digital enablement.
Prior to leading Commercial Excellence, she held roles of increasing responsibilities in Scent, namely president of fragrance ingredients and regional general manager of North America for consumer fragrances. Her broad experience extends across category management in fine fragrance, home, fabric, and beauty as well as global marketing, creative design, and product innovation.
Ms. Mendonça completed a Masters in Business Agility Program and Leadership Excellence Through Awareness and Practice at INSEAD and earned a degree in business management from UAM in Sao Paulo. An active IFF Global Inclusion Committee member, she is also the recipient of the 2023 Nancy Poulos Leadership Award from Women in Flavor and Fragrance Commerce, Inc.
Glenn Richter has served as IFF’s Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer since September 2021. He brings nearly 30 years of experience leading financial and corporate strategies, especially through complex transformation such as mergers and acquisitions and the related integration processes.
Prior to joining IFF, Mr. Richter was Chief Financial Officer of TIAA, having worked at the company in various leadership roles from April 2015 to July 2021. Previously, Mr. Richter worked for Nuveen Investments as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Administrative Officer where he helped lead the integration of multiple businesses and the financial transformation of the business through the 2008 financial crisis. Before joining Nuveen Investments in 2006, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer for RR Donnelley & Sons, and prior to that was Executive Vice President & CFO of Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Chairman of Sears Canada, a publicly-traded affiliate.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Richter held several finance and strategy leadership roles at Dade Behring and PepsiCo Frito-Lay and began his career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Mr. Richter received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from George Washington University and his M.B.A. from Duke University.
Angela Strzelecki leads IFF’s Pharma Solutions division as President, Pharma Solutions. This division includes heritage N&B’s leading portfolio of functional excipients for pharma and dietary supplements and provides specific solutions such as controlled and immediate release dosage formats, soft and hard capsules and alginates for anti-reflux applications. She was appointed in 2021 and is responsible for developing and executing the division’s structure, business processes and strategic direction.
Over a nearly 30-year career with DuPont, Dr. Strzelecki has held a variety of leadership positions across the company, including in Nutrition and Health, Corporate M&A, Titanium Technologies, Building Innovations, Corporate Strategy and Performance Coatings.
Dr. Strzelecki holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from King’s College, as well as a Ph.D. in Chemistry from The Pennsylvania State University.
Vic Verma is Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer (CIO). He has served IFF’s CIO since 2016. He is responsible for delivering on the company’s global information technology strategy, the digital technology transformation program and overseeing infrastructure, data, application delivery and end user services across the enterprise.
Before joining IFF, Mr. Verma served as Vice President of Global Infrastructure Operations at American Express from 2010 to 2016, where he was accountable for global infrastructure operations across the full breadth and lifecycle of technology products. Prior to that role, Mr. Verma held several leadership positions at American Express, as well as Vice President, Division CIO and management consulting roles with GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol Myers Squibb and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Mr. Verma holds an MBA from The University of Southern California, a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Marshall University and a bachelor’s degree in biochemical engineering from Rutgers University. He currently sits on the advisory board at Rutgers University’s Center for Innovation Education.
Steve Landsman has served as IFF’s Executive Vice President, Business Development since August 2024. Mr. Landsman has more than 30 years of experience in corporate law and mergers & acquisitions with global agricultural technology and industrial solutions firms.
As EVP of Business Development, he focuses on the corporate M&A strategy and execution, business development and real estate transactions, and works with the legal team on relevant topics.
Prior to joining IFF, he held the positions of general counsel and global head of mergers, acquisitions and integration with Syngenta. Before Syngenta, Mr. Landsman was general counsel, head of M&A and corporate secretary at Univar, Inc. and Nalco Company.
He holds a bachelor’s and a law degree from the University of Illinois. Mr. Landsman is also a certified public accountant.
IFF is fortunate to be overseen by an independent, diverse and highly accomplished Board that brings experience, commitment and rigor to our business.