Milkiland N.V. › About Milkiland / Milkiland N.V.

Frederick Aherne (62) Board Member, Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director

Frederick Joseph Aherne was appointed as a CEO of Milkiland N.V. on 17 June 2011 after occupation of the position of Non-executive Director of the Company from December 2010 to June 2011.
Mr. Aherne started his career in Great Britain spending 12 years in various technical positions in local companies. Then Mr. Aherne joined Nestle where he spent the next 24 years with various positions in the UK and latterly in Ukraine where since 2003 he was Technical Director and (2008) HR Director. In 2010 he left Nestle and operated a consultancy based in Ukraine which worked with clients in the fields of operational improvement and senior management coaching. Mr. Aherne holds a degree in Fuel Engineering from Leeds University and has completed post graduate studies in IMD (Lausanne) and London Business School

Olga Yurkevych (63) Board Member, Chief Operation Officer, Executive Director

Ms. Yurkevych, the Issuer’s Board Member since 2007, has been with the Group for a long time. In 2000 she started in the Group as Director of Nizhyn Dairy Plant, and during 2002-03 accomplished major major turnaround and modernization of newly acquired Mena Cheese Plant. Ms. Yurkevych possesses broad managerial experience obtained during her tenure in a number of public and private companies. Prior to joining the Group she headed Financial Planning Department of Chimkent’s Regional Administration, Regional Consumer’s Association of Chimkent.. Ms. Yurkevych holds Masters Degree from Lviv Trade and Economy Institute.

Konstantine Laptsov (38) Director of DE "Milkiland Ukraine"

Konstantine Laptsov was appointed as Director of Daughter Enterprise “Milkiland Ukraine” at 25 January 2011. Mr. Laptsov joined Milkiland in 2005 as Director of Laktis Cheese Plant. Since 2006 he held Director position of Akhtyrka Cheese Plant, Group’s #2 cheese-making facility with over 500 employees. He has full P&L responsibility including raw milk collection, processing and quality control, sales and product delivery, modernization and efficiency optimization. In particular, he developed and implemented soft cheese with blue mold production line and elaborated modernization plan to be fulfilled in the year 2011, stipulating increase in cheese production capacity of Akhtyrka by 7 kt. His work experience prior to Milkiland includes confectionery, transportation and logistics, and several years at the local government administration. Mr. Laptsov graduated from Kharkiv Civil Engineering Institute with qualification of civil technologist engineer

Marek Stelmaszuk (45) New product development manager

Mr. Stelmaszuk is responsible for production technology and recipes. After joining the Group in 2007 he successfully launched production of specialty cheeses
such as gouda, camembert, Roquefort, and gorgonzola. He started his career in dairy industry in 1991 as a cheese technologist at OSM Gorowo Ilaw (Poland) and accumulated an in-depth experience in dairy industry, working at Warmia Dairy Lidzbark Warm (Poland), Rhodia Food Biolacta (Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan), CSK Food Enrichment (Poland, Latvia, Ukraine).

Raisa Gritsenko (53) Head of Human Resources

Ms. Gritsenko joined Milkiland in 2009 as Head of Human Resources. She has significant experience in Human Resources with recruiting companies such as Access and the American Distribution Committee. Ms. Gritsenko also spent 10 years as Branch Director of Kyiv Avia, and several years as Director of a prestigious private school in Ukraine. She is a professional teacher and holds MBA Degree from Moscow Management Institute.

Bogdan Cheremkha, Ph.D. (53) Head of Agricultural Division

Mr. Cheremkha joined the Group in April 2010, as Head of Agricultural Division. He is responsible for development of Milkiland’s cattle farming and crop production. Prior to joining the Group he worked for "Kompleks AgroMars" company, one of the Ukrainian leading poultry producers, where he spent 9 years as a Deputy GD and Head of Agriculture Division. Prior to this, Mr. Cheremkha was a researcher at Scientific and Production Center "Visokiy Urozhai" (1996-2001). He spent 15 years in Myronivskyi Research Institute of Selection and Seed Farming as a senior scientist and head of research lab. Ph.D. Agricultural science, Senior scientist. Member of Bureau of Seed Farming of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Science. Author of 3 seed varieties, 10 patents and 135 scientific research articles

Olga Stepanenko, Ph.D (50) Technology, product quality and sanitation manager

Prior to joining the Group in 2003, Ms. Stepanenko held a Chief Engineer position in Ukraine’s State Standards Bureau and was responsible for product certification. She also spent 9 years at Kyivskiy Molochniy Zavod (now Wimm-Bill-Dann), where she acted as Chief Technical Engineer. Olga holds a Technical degree from the Odessa Institute of Technology.

Management team