Christian Stammkoetter
Chief Executive Officer
German national
Born in 1971
Joined Givaudan in 2026
Appointed to current position in March 2026
Christian Stammkoetter assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer on 1 March 2026. He succeeded Gilles Andrier, who served as Givaudan’s CEO from 2005 onwards.
Christian Stammkoetter joined Givaudan from Danone, where he held the position of President Asia, Middle East and Africa and was a member of the Executive Committee, responsible for 25,000 Danone employees, delivering EUR 4.7 billion in net sales across multiple categories.
He is a global business leader with over 25 years of experience in fast-moving consumer goods, from personal care to food, beverage and nutrition, across multiple geographies, with a proven track record of driving sustainable growth and value creation.
Christian Stammkoetter brings a strong customer focus and deep consumer understanding and is recognised for strategic thinking, fostering a culture of creativity and innovation, operational excellence and leading high-performing teams with purpose.
He began his career in 1997 at Unilever Germany in Marketing & Sales, later founding and leading the tech start-up printium.com, serving as CEO. He then held senior marketing roles at Wella AG and, following its acquisition, at Procter & Gamble. In 2004, he became Marketing Director Germany at Numico, which was acquired by Danone in 2007.
From 2007 to 2017, Christian Stammkoetter held various general management roles at Danone, including Managing Director for Baby Nutrition in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, General Manager for Early Life Nutrition in Russia and Kazakhstan, and General Manager of Danone Waters Spain. In 2017, he became Vice President Integration, successfully leading the WhiteWave acquisition and integration.
From 2017 to 2021, he was Senior Vice President for Waters Europe, North America, and Evian-Volvic-International and joined the Danone Executive Leadership Team, later also heading Danone Waters Worldwide before leading the Global Plant-Based Category in 2022. In April 2022, he was appointed President of the AMEA Zone and Executive Committee member, overseeing operations across Africa, Türkiye, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia, with a focus on sustainable growth and value creation.
In April 2024, he was appointed President of Food Industry Asia, the leading industry association representing the food and beverage sector across Asia.
Christian Stammkoetter holds a Master of Business Administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) from the University of Muenster.