Brussels, Belgium – 5th October 2009 – Univar, a leading European company specialising in the sales, marketing, application and safe, efficient handling of a wide range of chemicals and ingredients, has announced the appointment of Michael Cooke as Marketing Manager Pharma EMEA.
From 1st October, Cooke, previously Univar’s Director of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ), takes up his new role in this highly regulated industry. The pharma market, a key sector for Univar for many years, is where consistent compliance to the highest quality standards is a critical success factor. Cooke’s background in SHEQ and strategy lends itself ideally to creating the right ‘go to market approach’ and to driving forward Univar’s pharma business in the EMEA region.
In his new role, Cooke will work with Univar’s specialist pharma team to create and drive its pharma business plan, ensuring a strong emphasis on customer focus and sales channel strategies. He will lead initiatives to further enhance our high-performance operational and technical platform, critical in order to meet the needs of the highly regulated pharma industry and provide customers with the assurance that they are dealing with a supplier with the right capabilities and understanding of their business needs.
“This new appointment of Michael Cooke brings specific expert knowledge and experience to our pharma team. Not only will Michael be able to help Univar develop and expand the business further in this key industry for us, I am certain his knowledge in the area of SHEQ will be an added value to our customers and suppliers,” said John van Osch, President EMEA, Univar Europe. “Michael has led the development of Regulatory Assurance processes for Univar sites and procurement teams, ensuring that product quality meets the exacting standards required by our customers.”
Cooke joined Univar in 2006, as European SHEQ Director. He devised and introduced the U+ integrated SHEQ management system, a goal-based combined procedure that allows each site to continually improve their Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality performance. U+ has helped Univar become one of the safest companies to work for not only in the chemical distribution sector but when benchmarked against other companies with leading SHEQ practices. U+ is now recognised internally and externally as a valuable programme, encouraging continual improvement in SHEQ performance, creating value for Univar, its customers and suppliers.
Prior to joining Univar, Cooke worked for several “Blue Chip” companies in senior SHEQ roles and also in strategic and M&A roles. Cooke has an MSC in Chemistry from Manchester University and an MBA from Henley Management College. He speaks French and fluent German.
Operating from 56 distribution locations in 20 countries across Europe, Univar’s 2,400 local employees serve more than 50,000 European customers in a diverse range of industries including coatings, food, personal care, pharma and other major sectors.
To learn more about Univar Europe, please visit: www.univareurope.com
About Univar
Univar is one of the world’s leading independent distributors of industrial and specialty chemicals and related services. Univar provides its customer base, made up of 250,000 customers, with a full portfolio of products. Univar operates a network of approximately 170 distribution centres throughout North America, Europe and China. In 2008, Univar reported sales of $9.4 billion. For more information, visit: http://www.univareurope.com/ / http://www.univarcorp.com/.
For further information please contact:
Catherine LENNON
Communications Manager Europe – Univar Europe
Tel: +32 2 525 05 63
Mobile: +32 478 251 588
mailto:Catherine.lennon@univareurope.com
Eva BÖCKLE
HILL & KNOWLTON
Tel: +32 2 737 95 00
Mobile: +32 478 52 35 16
mailto:eboeckle@hillandknowlton.com |