New CEO for Arla Foods Ingredients

After a long career in Arla Foods, Henrik Andersen will withdraw from his position as CEO of Arla Foods Ingredients (AFI) to explore a new career path with more focus on Board Positions and diverse projects. The new CEO appointed for AFI will be Luis Cubel, who has been in AFI since 2002. Luis is currently holding the position as VP Commercial and will step into his new role on 1 February 2024. The process to find Luis Cubel’s replacement as the leader of Commercial has been initiated.

As of 1 February 2024, Luis Cubel will take over the role as CEO for AFI after Henrik Andersen, who has been a part of Arla Foods since 1994. Henrik will dedicate the coming years to work on diverse projects and explore opportunities to serve as a Board Member. Henrik Andersen has been Chief Executive Officer in AFI since 2010, and has been working for Arla since 1994.

On the changes Arla Foods CEO Peder Tuborgh, says:

“Henrik has shown dedication throughout his career with Arla and latest as the CEO of AFI. I understand and support that Henrik would like to define the next chapter focusing on different projects and board positions after his many years in Arla Foods and AFI. AFI is in a great shape and I would like to thank Henrik for an outstanding effort. He will continue to support AFI on its future journey of growth by taking on the role as Board Member of the AFI Business Board and I look forward to continuing our cooperation.”

Peder Tuborgh adds: “We are fortunate that I am also looking forward to welcoming Luis Cubel in his new role as CEO of AFI. Luis is a strong leader, who has shown significant capacity and excellent results over the years and he knows AFI’s business and culture. I am confident that Luis will lead AFI in a great direction in the future.”

Henrik Andersen has had a long career within Arla in different roles. He entered Arla Foods Ingredients in 1994, where he was responsible for Application and R&D. Since then his strong focus has been on the whey business. Henrik Andersen has been CEO in Arla Foods Ingredients since 2010. Henrik has headed up the impressive development and continuous growth journey of AFI initially based on utilising Arla's own whey; later from sourcing agreements in Norway, Sweden and other Danish dairies; through expansion to Argentina in 2001; with a Joint Venture with Deutsches Milchkontor GmbH (DMK) in 2010, as well as several other growth projects in AFI.

“I have been part of a fantastic development in AFI for many years, and feel proud of what we have achieved working together. It has been a journey of discovering and delivering powerful nutrition, and I continue to see great potential for sustainable growth. We have come a long way with our Strategy26 implementation and soon we will begin work to craft our next strategy – therefore I think it is a good time for me to move on, and let a new leadership take charge of this process,“ says Henrik Andersen.

Luis Cubel joined AFI in 2002. He has more than 20 years’ experience with the B2B sector and has had several commercial and management roles over the years. Including being the General Manager of AFI in Germany for three years, until AFI was separated as its own business from Arla Foods and established as a subsidiary. Since 2015, Luis Cubel has been leading the commercial part of AFI as Vice President.

On stepping into his new role Luis Cubel says: “I am honoured to have been appointed as the next CEO of AFI; An organization, I have been proud to serve during the last 20 years. Henrik leaves AFI in a very strong position to continue our growth ambitions, and I have truly enjoyed working with Henrik over the years. I am looking forward, together with the AFI team, to building on these strong foundations and taking AFI to the next level.”