44 The Directors


Finsbury Food Group Annual Report and Accounts 2020


Better… skills for future growth


The Board is made of up two Executive Directors, three independent Non-Executive Directors, and the Chairman, Peter Baker, who is also considered to be independent. The matters overseen by the Board are detailed in section 9 of the Corporate Governance Report.


Peter Baker Non-Executive Chairman


Appointed to the Board 1 July 2014


Peter joined the Board on 1 July 2014 and is also Chairman of the Nominations Committee. Peter has over 30 years’ senior CEO and Board level experience within the global bakery and consumer packaged goods industry. He chairs one other Board, is a Non-Executive Director and a Trustee of two charities. Peter held the position of Managing Director of Maple Leaf Bakery from 2009 to 2013, moving into this position after the sale of La Fornaia Bakeries, where he was the CEO. Prior to these roles, Peter held COO and Divisional Managing Director positions at RHM in the Consumer Brands, British Bakeries and Cereals Divisions (including Rank Hovis Mills). Peter was previously a Non-Executive Director at Jordan’s Cereals, now a part of Associated British Foods.


He has also served as Vice President of CIAA now Food Drink Europe (a European trade association for food and drink) and was on the Executive Board of FDF, the UK Food and Drink Federation. Key areas of expertise are knowledge of food industry, strategy, change management, leadership, corporate governance.


John Duffy Chief Executive Officer


Appointed to the Board 30 September 2009


John was appointed CEO of Finsbury Food Group with effect from 30 September 2009 to lead a turnaround of a then overleveraged and decentralised Group. Through a combination of strong organic growth, M&A activity, restructuring and investment, it has been transformed into a broadly diversified speciality bakery Group with over £300 million of sales across both retail and out of home channels in the UK and Europe.


Following an engineering degree and initial career with Shell International, John completed a full-time MBA before pivoting into the food industry and enjoying 10 years in director level manufacturing and logistics roles at Mars. This was followed by private equity experience as Operations Director at crisps and snacks manufacturer Golden Wonder and Managing Director of WT Foods’ largest chilled foods subsidiary, Noon Products, before and after its sale to Kerry Foods. John has non-executive director experience in both start-up and established businesses.


Key area of expertise are strong leadership and general management skills, operations and engineering experience, turnaround and change management, M & A.


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