Sr. Director, Sustainable Ingredients & Cocoa Life, Mondelēz International
Cathy Pieters leads Mondelēz International’s sustainable ingredients strategy and heads up Cocoa Life, its global cocoa sustainability program. Cocoa Life reflects Mondelēz International’s purpose to empower people to snack right. As one of the world’s largest chocolate makers, the company has been using its scale to drive change in the cocoa supply chain by investing directly in cocoa communities, implementing its own holistic program Cocoa Life.
Cocoa Life co-creates solutions with partners and farmers, to make cocoa farming a sustainable business and to build communities that take on their own development while conserving the natural resources. With its $400 million investment over 10 years in Cocoa Life, Mondelēz International is committed to empowering 200,000 cocoa farmers and improving the lives of more than 1 million people in cocoa communities in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, India and Brazil. By 2025, all Mondelēz International’s chocolate brands will source their cocoa through Cocoa Life. Gender research commissioned by Mondelēz has foundationally informed the program’s design and Women’s Empowerment has always been a cross-cutting theme to enable impact across the program.
Cathy joined the company in 2007, then known as Kraft Foods, to lead media strategy and buying for the Benelux business before taking the helm of the Côte d’Or and Toblerone brand strategy for growth. Cathy’s leadership of the chocolate brands’ foundations, innovation and communication strategy resulted in the transformation of Côte d’Or into a sustainably sourced chocolate brand – a first for a mainstream chocolate brand. Before joining Mondelēz International, Cathy gained over 15 years of experience in brand planning and media strategy across several Advertising Agencies.