CIRCLE FOODS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR
- MANAGING DIRECTOR
Bob's passion for food and agriculture started from growing up on a large beef and sheep farm in Australia. After graduating from University, he has worked in various positions within the food sector in Australia, South Africa and the UK. With over 15 years' trading experience, Bob has acquired a strong global perspective of the international meat trade having travelled and traded into all the main markets worldwide. He is always looking for new products and new markets for the company to develop.
Brian has been a Technical Manager at Circle Foods since 2011. He brings a wealth of experience to our team with over 30 years working within the food industry, including primary production, retail, catering and wholesale operations, across red meat, white meat, and seafood sectors. Brian's qualifications also include a MSc in HACCP, BA Food Manufacturing Management, HND Food Production Development, ISO Lead Auditor, and he is a qualified AWO.
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- UK TRADING MANAGER
Bruno has over 14 years' experience within the Food Industry, principally working with Beef and Beef products, but also cooked meats, Chicken and Cocoa products. With a Master's Degree (International Business) from Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Bruno began his career in the meat trade in 2006 working for and with world-leading companies.
Living in the UK since 2015, Bruno continued his career more locally specialising in brand, product and market development. Bruno joins our team focused on South American source and UK market development.
Job Titles:
- Member of the LOGISTICS TEAM
- LOGISTICS SUPERVISOR
Originally from South Africa, Chantelle moved to the UK in 1993. Chantelle enjoyed 6 years working in the construction industry before moving across to the food sector. Working in logistics since 2011 with various International Food companies, Chantelle now manages our ever-growing Export Logistics team.
Job Titles:
- Member of the LOGISTICS TEAM
- LOGISTICS SUPERVISOR
Delany initially studied financial accounting and spent seven years in finance within the aluminium and civil engineering industry. During this time, she gained a glimpse into logistics, discovering a passion for supply chain management. This led her to make a substantial career shift, leaving her finance career to become an export admin assistant. Embracing the challenges of the logistics industry, she pursued a FIATA diploma and advanced to a senior Imports and Exports Controller role. Since 2018, she has been actively involved in managing imports and exports to Africa and handling cross-border logistics, navigating the complexities of international trade. Her career trajectory reflects adaptability, problem-solving skills, and a genuine commitment to the dynamic field of logistics.
Job Titles:
- MANAGER
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
Lazslo is a Belgian National who was eager to travel from a young age. After graduating from high school, he spent a year in Argentina, travelling around the country and learning Spanish. He then returned to Belgium for studying then spent 1.5 years in the UK to improve his English. After that, he moved to the Netherlands where he started working in the FMCG trading business with Africa. He has spent the past 8 years trading FMCG, mostly dry food, into West and Central Africa where he has traveled extensively. Currently, Lazslo lives in Burkina Faso where he works on developing dry food business for Circle Foods in this region.
Job Titles:
- Member of the LOGISTICS TEAM
- LOGISTICS SUPERVISOR
After graduating from University in Hong Kong, Edmond started his career in Logistics & Supply in Asia. He has spent time in the airlines, as a freight forwarder and has also worked in the Fashion Industry. Edmond's experience includes freight rate estimation, rate negotiation, forecasting, new product and operations. He also spent 6 years working in China.
Edmond moved to the UK with his family in 2022 and joined our Logistics team.
Languages: English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- TRADING MANAGER
Eugenia grew up in the food industry! From a very young age, she watched first-hand as her family's meat processing businesses grew and evolved in northern Italy. Naturally, this is where Eugenia began her career after graduating from University in Italy and Spain. Eugenia went on to work as a freelance food trader in London before joining our trading team, covering European and Asian markets.
Languages: Italian , English, Spanish, French and basic Russian
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- TRADING MANAGER, SOUTH AMERICA
Gabriela has a wealth of knowledge in poultry, beef and seafood having been involved in the industry for over 15 years. She also has extensive experience in brand and product line development. Based in Buenos Aires, from our new office in Argentina, Gabi is responsible for all our procurement from South America. We are very excited to have her as part of our growing global team!
Languages: Fluent English and Spanish, Basic Portuguese.
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- UK TRADING MANAGER
Gary has worked in the food industry for over 40 years starting in wholesale and progressing to a trading environment, importing from Europe and supplying businesses in the UK and Ireland. His early grounding at factory floor level, rising through every department to a senior managerial role has given Gary a full appreciation of business operations from the bottom to the top. Gary's wealth of experience in a variety of professional sales and marketing roles is welcomed at Circle Foods, where his is uniquely positioned to understand and empathise with our customers' daily demands and requirements.
Languages:
Likes: All sport especially football and golf, overseas travelling and time with family.
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- TRADING MANAGER
Ilya has over 10 years' experience in the Russian poultry and red meat industry. With a Master's Degree (International Management) from Moscow State Institute of International Affairs (MGIMO), he began his career as a marketing manager. However, it soon became clear that his real interest lay in trade and he added wholesale trade, key retail accounts and export sales to his personal portfolio. Ilya looks after our Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS markets.
Languages: English/French/Russian
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR
- MANAGING DIRECTOR
Having lived most of his life in Paris, Julien developed a strong interest in food. After graduating from University, he spent a number of years trading dry goods into West Africa before moving to frozen proteins. Julien is extremely well travelled throughout West Africa and has gained a deep understanding of this market as a result. His focus on building strong relationships with his customers is at the heart of his trading style. This customer-centric approach is echoed throughout our company ethos.
Languages: French, English
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- TRADING MANAGER
Job Titles:
- Member of the LOGISTICS TEAM
- LOGISTICS SUPERVISOR
Marcus has over 20 years of experience in trading, specializing in the import and export of FMCG, from sourcing supplies, contract negotiation, and providing logistics solutions to customers. He was working in Hong Kong, moved to the UK in 2022, and joined our logistics team.
Languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese
Job Titles:
- Member of the LOGISTICS TEAM
- UK LOGISTICS MANAGER
Matt has enjoyed a diverse career spanning over 25 years in the transportation of goods, from shipping paper to Porsche engines to food products, as well as the occasional satellite! Matt first delved into logistics working as an export clerk at an international transport company where he quickly worked his way up to managerial level, in charge of a team of import and export clerks. Matt later became a director of a freight forwarding company. His qualifications include shipping of Dangerous Goods and he specialises in food transportation, documentation and geographical knowledge.
Likes: Listening to live music, home improvements and paddle boarding. Sunshine and red wine.
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- UK TRADING MANAGER
Michael has spent 35 years in the meat industry. Having graduated from Smithfield College of Distributive Trades (a long time ago!), he followed his father into the food sector. Michael has worked across all areas of the industry from admin through to production before moving into trading, where he has spent the majority of his career. Michael trades in all products but specialises in pork and chicken.
Nicky joined the company in 2021 and brings 25 years' Finance experience most recently within the Food Industry.
Languages: English, French, Spanish
Job Titles:
- Member of the LOGISTICS TEAM
- LOGISTICS SUPERVISOR
Petra is originally from Budapest, Hungary. At University, she studied BA Hotel & Tourism Management. She has 15 years of experience in the Hotel & Tourism Industry, as well as different key roles in Customer Service / Operations / Sales / Revenue / Events and Destination & Event Management. She also has work experience in Ireland.
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- UK TRADING MANAGER
Robert has worked in the UK meat industry for over 40 years. He has successfully owned and operated a number of production and global trading businesses during this time. Bob has also played an active role in the Korean market for over 20 years and oversees all our operations in this region. As part of this role, he has developed and launched many of our French partners' products into the Korean market. Bob has been Chairman of Circle Foods for several years and continues to help drive our business forward.
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- TRADING MANAGER
Sam grew up on a sheep farm in New Zealand and spent his university holidays working in some of New Zealand's largest sheep processing plants. He spent a number of years in London trading meat into various markets before moving back to New Zealand to open "Circle Foods" office. Sam is our beef and lamb specialist. He focuses on the South East Asian markets as well as sourcing all our requirements from Australia and New Zealand
Likes: He loves his lamb as much as the New Zealand All Blacks!
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- UK TRADING MANAGER
Stephen has been in the food industry for over 40 years, with experience in butchery through to retail trade and wholesale distribution through meat-specialist depots. He moved into trading over 20 years ago and has adapted to the many changes in the meat sector over the years, as the rules and regulations along with the supple chain evolved. Stephen's expertise lies in trading beef and lamb into the manufacturing and service sectors.
Job Titles:
- Member of the LOGISTICS TEAM
- LOGISTICS SUPERVISOR
Vera brings 10 years' experience in recruitment and customer services to our team and has worked with a wide variety of international clients where she was responsible for developing client and supplier relationships. Having studied Social Policy and Social Work, Vera has also held key positions in various projects focused on supporting the unemployed and has helped many clients develop their careers. We welcomed Vera to our logistics team in 2020 as we continue to expand our operations.
Job Titles:
- Member of the TRADING TEAM
- TRADING MANAGER
Yanick has lived most of his life in Montreal, Canada, except for a 5 year adventure in the United States. He started his career in the restaurant industry which piqued his interest in the food industry. With 26 years of experience, Yanick has spent the last 10 years as a trader focusing on pork as well as trading chicken, beef and seafood.
Languages: French and English
Job Titles:
- LOGISTICS MANAGER
- Member of the LOGISTICS TEAM
Yolanda has gained a wealth of knowledge and experience in logistics and customer support over the past 13 years. In 2006, Yolanda completed her studies in Administrative Management, specializing in the food sector and logistics. Her career began in Spain with a logistics role for a German Food company, where she was responsible for National logistics and warehousing. A few years later, she was promoted to International Logistics Administrator coordinating all pan-European transport and negotiation. In 2018, Yolanda was looking for a new challenge and moved to the UK. She joined us in May 2019 and has become a valuable member of our Logistics Team.
Languages: Spanish, English and Catalan.