Our leaders

José’s farming background ignited his passion for agriculture and his strongly-held belief that what we eat, and what we feed our families, should be produced safely and sustainably. 

He completed his Baccalaureate in farming, gaining practical experience on poultry and swine production units. After graduating in biochemistry and molecular biology at the Universities of Rouen and Marseille, José began working in the biotech field, where his farming knowledge inspired him to pioneer the use of technology in agricultural production. This was the start of his extensive international career, which has taken him across Europe, the US, Japan, Latin America and China, and included the creation of crop protection company Arysta LifeScience EMEA, which he built and nurtured into a successful global business.

José has fulfilled a variety of executive and business development roles, operating across the human health, animal health, nutrition and feed, and crop protection sectors.

A certified public accountant with a varied portfolio of financial roles spanning many industries and countries – including a crop protection business as CFO of Europe, Middle East and Africa – Scott took on the role at AB Agri in 2019 and has never looked back. 

Committed to having an impact and empowering employees to develop and execute ideas, he makes a difference every day at AB Agri.

Before joining AB Agri in 2013 as HR Manager, Kelly completed a degree in human resource management at the University of Leeds. She is now responsible for the people and HR strategy across AB Agri globally. She ensures that flexibility and choice is at the heart of her leadership approach, while creating a place of trust and empowerment for her team and other colleagues.

Focused on supporting the people within the business, Kelly enables long-term performance and excellence for AB Agri’s customers and industry.
 

Having joined AB Agri in the late 80s as part of the graduate scheme in the UK, Simon has a passion for agriculture, stemming from his farming background. 
He held several sales and management positions across the UK before pursuing numerous business development opportunities in the US, Canada and China. 
Following the amalgamation of ABN, KW and Trident into new animal nutrition business AB Connect, Simon was appointed its Managing Director, overseeing a turnover of £1 billion and a workforce of more than 760 people.

In his role as Chief Commercial Officer, Simon is now overseeing our expansion in South East Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and the Americas. He is also supporting development of our products and services in the dairy, swine and poultry sectors and working with our CEO José Nobre on mergers and acquisitions.

Dino Kiriakopoulos was born and raised in Canada where he graduated with an Honours Degree in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and a Master’s in Business Administration from York University, Toronto. Dino has since held various leadership positions, running multisite businesses in recycling, paper mills, industrial and consumer packaging and engineered materials across Europe and North America.

Joining AB Agri May 2022, Dino is passionate in his goal to make ABN and Premier Nutrition world class manufacturing businesses by training and engaging our fantastic workforce.

Valerie studied economics at university in Germany and financed her studies by working in IT and as a freelance sports reporter. After her PhD, she moved to Ethiopia, working for a large German-Ethiopian development programme to kickstart the country’s industrialisation. From there, she joined the Boston Consulting Group, working all over the world in strategy for chemicals, energy and pro bono projects to prevent chronic malnutrition of children. 

Valerie joined the strategy team of AB Agri in the UK in 2015 and became Managing Director of Livalta in 2020.

Mr Nie joined the business in 2004 in the role of General Manager at the Liaoning Company. In 2012 he became responsible for leading our successful ABNA business, overseeing six feed mills across China. Today Mr Nie holds the position of Managing Director of AB Agri China, managing 10 mills, 1 trading company and 1 group management center, which in total employs around 1000 people.  

With Mr Nie's leadership, AB Agri China draws on three decades of feed safety management experience in the UK, bringing together international knowledge from across AB Agri and the ABF group, with a rich understanding of the livestock and feed sector in China.

Nacho became Managing Director of AB Vista in September 2020. He joined AB Vista in 2015 as Regional Sales Director for West and South Europe, before becoming EMEA Director in 2017. 

Nacho is an agriculture engineer by training, specialising in animal production. He has over 25 years’ experience, having worked for many different feed additive companies over the years. 

He holds an MBA from ESIC in Madrid, Spain and further qualifications in animal nutrition.

Following a degree in Animal Science and PhD in pig nutrition at the University of Edinburgh, Ian continued his academic career investigating nutritional alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters in weaned piglets. In 2007 Ian joined AB Agri as a pig nutritionist with ABN. Two years later he moved across to Primary Diets to focus on piglet nutrition. He became General Manager of Primary Diets in 2015 before taking up the opportunity to lead the newly-created AB Neo division in 2020. 

In his current role, Ian is building on the strong foundations of Agilia (Denmark), ASN (Spain) and Primary Diets (Poland and UK), to meet the nutritional needs of young farmed animals. 
The best part of working at AB Agri for Ian? The industry and people we are able to work with, our customers and colleagues.

In January 2012 Victoria joined AB Agri as Strategy Manager, after several years working for the Boston Consulting Group in London and South East Asia, and at Lloyds TSB in the UK and New York. She then took on the management of Aunir, one of our technology businesses, before joining the AB Agri board as Director of Strategy and Business Development.

In 2018 she joined our sister division, AB Sugar, to take on a new role as Managing Director of Germains Seed Technology, a global R&D-led business which develops innovative, sustainable seed technology solutions for growers across the world. She continues in the same role now that Germains has transferred into AB Agri.

She holds a degree in Literae Humaniores from Oxford University, and an MBA from INSEAD, which she completed in Singapore.

 

Liverpudlian Mark attained a BSc in Applied Biology from the city’s University before gaining a post-graduate degree in Agronomy and Crop Husbandry from Harper Adams Agricultural College. Starting out as a trainee agronomist with Schering Agriculture, over the next eight years he progressed to the position of Group Accounts Manager.

In 1992, Mark joined Cargill’s agricultural division, subsequently occupying several roles including Regional Sales Manager, Commercial Director and ultimately, General Manager. Following Cargill’s merger with Banks Agriculture, he was appointed MD of the newly formed business, playing a leading role in a further merger with Allied Grain and becoming Managing Director of Frontier Agriculture Ltd in 2005. Rutland resident Mark is a trustee of the county’s agricultural society and in 2014 was awarded an honorary doctorate from his former university, Harper Adams, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to UK agriculture.

After graduating from Edinburgh University with a BSc in animal nutrition, Angela worked as a nutritionist for a UK national feed compounder for four years before joining a regional animal feed business in the North of England which became part of AB Agri in 2001.

Angela has been our Feed Safety Director since 2016 and now holds the position of Director of Responsibility, leading our team towards our goal of Net Zero in our operations by 2030.

With a wealth of experience in marketing, commodity purchasing, supply chain management, commercial account management, nutrition and quality assurance, Angela is also Chair of the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) and the FEFAC Feed Safety Management Committee, as well as a member of the Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF).

Malcolm joined AB Agri in 2008 as Finance Director for ABN and Premier Nutrition, before leading the Central Eastern Europe business where his passion and skill for M&A started with the acquisition of BODIT.  Since then, Malcolm has achieved a phenomenal amount both sourcing and securing a number of new businesses for the AB Agri family.
Prior to joining AB Agri, Malcolm has held a number of senior finance and commercial roles.
Malcolm holds a degree in Philosophy gained at the University of Edinburgh and is a Chartered Accountant.

Passionate about agriculture and technology, Pascal joined AB Agri in 2018. As our Enterprise Performance Director, he is predominantly responsible for ensuring the IT team uses technology to digitise the business’s operations and industry. He also oversees our project management office (PMO) activities to define and maintain standards. 

His achievements include a master’s in management from Toulouse Business School, experience in financial planning across manufacturing and services industries in China, France, Ireland and the UK, and establishing the performance and analytics function for the integration of crop protection companies internationally.