Organisation

Pietro Cassani serves as the President and CEO of Sidel Group, a position he assumed in July 2024. With over 30 years of experience in engineering, business leadership and global markets, Pietro began his career at SACMI, where he advanced through various leadership roles, ultimately becoming the Group General Manager in 2006. He also held the positions of Managing Director at Atlas Concorde and  CEO & General Manager at System Group, both in Modena, Italy. Prior to joining Sidel Group, Pietro spent eight years as the CEO of Marchesini Group. He holds an Engineering degree from the University of Bologna and a Master of Business Administration from SDA Bocconi School of Management. An Italian national, Pietro is based in Parma, Italy.

Igor Glaser is Executive Vice President of Finance & Business Transformation. He joined Sidel in 2022 from Schneider Electric, where he held several leadership positions across South America and Europe. These include Finance Director for the Andean Cluster (Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador); VP Business Development for Central & Eastern Europe; Country President Austria; and ultimately CFO for South America from 2019 to 2022. Before Schneider, Igor worked at Bayer and Sachs Automotive in Brazil. Igor is a Brazilian and German national, holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from USP (Universidade de São Paulo) and has taken part in management programs at IESE and INSEAD.

Deepak Kumar is Executive Vice President Human Resources. He joined Sidel in 2017 from Tetra Pak, where he worked for 17 years in a variety of senior human-resources roles in India, Singapore and Sweden, most recently as Vice President Human Resources for Supply Chain Operations at Tetra Pak in Switzerland.  Prior to joining Tetra Pak, Deepak held various management roles at Tata Motors in Pune, India.

Clive Smith is Executive Vice President of Customer Management for the Asia, Oceania & Africa (AOA) Region. He joined Sidel in 1993, and for the majority of his tenure, has held senior leadership positions around the world. These have included UK Managing Director, Zone Commercial Director and Zone Vice President of the Greater Middle East & Africa Region. Clive brings extensive experience related to understanding the needs of both global and local beverage producers of all sizes in all regions. A British national, he holds a bachelor's degree in Mineral Engineering from Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, where he also completed a strategy programme at Ashridge Business School.

Simone Mondini is Executive Vice President of Customer Management for the Americas. With over 30 years of international experience, he has held leadership roles in General Management, Strategy, Business Development, Services, Sales, Project Management & Engineering, and Operations. Simone joined Sidel in 2001 and held positions including Vice President (VP) Services for the AOA region (Africa, Oceania, and Asia), VP Strategy & Business Development AOA, VP Equipment Sales Food & HPC AOA, VP Projects & Field Execution in Supply Chain globally, and Zone VP Middle East & Africa. Prior to his tenure at Sidel, he served in the Italian Navy for nearly 12 years as a Staff Officer. Simone holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Science from Pisa University in Italy. Additionally, he has completed an executive Post-Graduate Master's degree at Oxford University.

Marina de Barros is Executive Vice President of Customer Management for the Europe & Central Asia. She joined Sidel in 2009, and since then, has held a number of senior-management positions within Sidel, including Zone Vice President Eastern & Central Europe & Middle East and Vice President Strategic Planning. Marina began her career in 1997 in management consulting for the Chemical, Pharma and FMCG sectors. Marina holds a master’s degree in business administration from University Audencia in France, from which she hails, and also studied at American University in Washington DC.

François Lejard is Executive Vice President Services Portfolio & Solutions. He joined Sidel in 1991 as part of the Services organisation, subsequently fulfilling roles in Project Management, Sales, Regional Management, Marketing and Business Development, before spearheading Sales Management in the Middle East, where he developed and led Sidel’s regional subsidiary. François subsequently assumed senior-management roles in Europe, including most recently Sales Vice President ECA, where he has been instrumental in consolidating our Northern Europe Region and developing our presence and business in the ECA Region. François holds a degree in European business from LTP J. D’Arc in France.

Paulo Picca is Executive Vice President Supply Chain. He joined Sidel in 2023, after working for over 20 years in Tetra Pak, which followed over 10 years at Procter & Gamble. Paulo’s vast international experience includes roles in Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Germany, and Italy, with a range of increasing responsibilities - from Factory Manager, World Class Manufacturing Director, Leader of Supply Chain operations for South Europe, Leader of Supply Chain operations for Europe and Central Asia, to VP Manufacturing and Supply Chain Integration of Processing Solutions and Equipment. His obsession for delivering breakthrough results and passion for people development has led to multiple awards for operational excellence, leveraging his expertise in TPM (Total Productive Maintenance), Lean, and World Class Manufacturing. A native of Brazil, Paulo holds a Mechanical-Aeronautical Engineering degree and is based in Italy.

Christer Carling is Executive Vice President Legal Affairs, with overall responsibility for Legal Affairs and Intellectual Property. He joined Sidel as Senior Legal Counsel in 2010, following  three years with the Tetra Laval Group as Legal Counsel for Tetra Pak in Stockholm, where he worked with all three Tetra Laval Industry Groups. Christer began his career in 2001 at leading Scandinavian law firm Mannheimer Swartling, where he advised on corporate and mergers and acquisitions matters. He also worked on secondment at the headquarters of Swedish Match. A Swedish national, Christer earned a law degree following his studies at Lund University in Sweden, and McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Ko Hoepman is Executive Vice President - Equipment Portfolio & Innovation. Prior to joining Sidel in 2020, Ko was VP Commercial, Portfolio & Technology Development for Processing equipment and solutions at Tetra Pak. During his 29 years with Tetra Pak, Ko worked across marketing, portfolio and commercial roles in different areas of the world, including as Commercial Director in The Netherlands, Processing Director in South East Europe, Market Area Leader in Greater China, and Commercial Development Director in Sweden. These experiences, among others, gave Ko in-depth insight into product innovations, production solutions and services for the food processing industry. Ko holds a degree from Hanze University of Applied Science, Groningen.

Riccardo Codega is Executive Vice President of Go to Market, focusing on delivering the best recognised value and experience to customers across our global markets. Among the different mandates, this includes sustainability, marketing, commercial operations, strategy, communications, and strategic account management. Riccardo has been a member of Sidel since 2016, with earlier responsibilities including marketing, business development, and leading the development and deployment of Sidel’s business strategy. Prior to Sidel, Riccardo held related roles at other leading multinationals including Eaton, Honeywell, Schneider and Accenture, and his prior experience also includes a site management role in India. A native of Italy, Riccardo holds a Master’s Degree in Electronics Engineering from Polytechnic University of Milan.