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Former dairy CEO Theo Spierings passes away
Theo Spierings, former CEO of Fonterra and before that top manager at FrieslandCampina, passed away last Saturday. His own company, The Purpose Factory, reports that this happened after a short period of illness. The memorial service for his death will be held in private.
Spierings (60) began his long dairy career at Friesland Foods. At the time of the merger with Campina in 2009, he was acting CEO of the former company and also of the merged company. After the completion of the merger, Spierings left. Cees 't Hart, who had no previous experience with either cooperative company, was appointed as the new CEO. Spierings took over as CEO of New Zealand Fonterra in 2011 and started an ambitious expansion trajectory there.
In 2018, Fonterra and Spierings parted ways. He returned to the Netherlands and founded The Purpose Factory, a company that focuses less on serious global issues, such as fighting hunger. In 2022, Spierings seemed to be making a return to a more prominent role. He was appointed as interim CEO at the then struggling ForFarmers, for a maximum of one year. Spierings had clearly defined plans on how to get the company back on track, but all kinds of unforeseen private circumstances threw a spanner in the works. Spierings later focused on his work at The Purpose Company, where he focused on fighting hunger in the world.
Spierings can be described as a striking and enterprising person who could think big. This took him far in his career which had both highs and lows.
Klaas van der Horst
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