Dive Brief:
- Chobani has appointed Mick Beekhuizen as the company's new CFO, its second in a little over two years.
- Beekhuizen replaces Dipak Golechha, who joined Chobani as CFO at the end of 2013 and left the company last year.
- Beekhuizen was previously CFO at for-profit college Education Management Corp. Prior to that role, Beekhuizen served in the private equity division of Goldman Sachs, and at that time, Education Management was a portfolio company.
Dive Insight:
As for Chobani's financial future, "Everything is on the table," Beekhuizen told The Wall Street Journal. Chobani had been seeking a potential partnership and entertained various offers. PepsiCo made an offer which Chobani refused because PepsiCo wanted a majority stake, which Chobani wasn't willing to offer.
Now instead of a partnership, Chobani seems determined to move forward on its own, including potentially filing for an IPO. One of Beekhuizen's initial tasks will be to weigh any potential opportunities outside the U.S. as compared with domestic ones, such as smaller markets, he told The Wall Street Journal.
Beekhuizen also said he wants to streamline parts of operations to make the company's decision-making capabilities faster by extending Chobani's finance function throughout the company, including sales, marketing, and the supply chain.