Caldic appoints Rahul Vas-Bhat as Chief Financial Officer

Rotterdam, The Netherlands, October 10, 2022 - Caldic B.V. today announces the appointment of Rahul Vas-Bhat as Chief Financial Officer, effective December 1st. Rahul will succeed Bernard Witte, who has served the role since 2008.  

Rahul Vas-Bhat brings more than two decades of experience across financial services in the FMCG sector. At present he is the Chief Financial Officer of Unilever’s global Ice Cream Business Group.  

“Rahul is a Senior Finance executive who combines financial, strategic and operational expertise with hands-on experience transforming and growing innovative businesses. His impressive set of leadership skills will be invaluable as we seek to continue accelerating Caldic’s growth and capabilities,” said Alexander Wessels, Chief Executive Officer Caldic Group. “We are thrilled for Rahul to join our organization and are confident that his commitment and guidance will help us create sustainable value for our regional teams and business partners at large.”  

Rahul has held various key Finance positions across Unilever’s main markets and categories, such as Cluster Controller Europe, Group Chief Accountant, Head of Global Performance Management, Chief Financial Officer for Unilever DACH and Deputy Group Controller.  

“We are very excited to welcome Rahul Vas-Bhat aboard Caldic. Throughout his career Rahul has moved between market facing roles and key corporate finance positions, giving him a broad experience in both the operational excellence, as well as the strategic aspects of finance”, commented Ronald Ayles, Managing Partner at Advent International, the financial sponsor of Caldic. “With his extensive commercial partnering background, strong record on M&A, corporate finance, treasury and performance management, and expertise in developing large high-performance, diverse and inclusive teams, Rahul will bring a wealth of experience to help Caldic further build its capabilities and accelerate its growth journey.”   

Rahul Vas-Bhat serves as the Chair of the Audit Committee for the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Twente.  

“As we welcome Rahul, we also to want to recognize the instrumental role Bernard Witte has played over the last 14 years. His contributions have been integral to the success, growth and evolution of Caldic from a family owned business to the global player we are today in specialty ingredients and chemicals solutions and distribution,” added Alexander Wessels. “We are very grateful for Bernard’s outstanding leadership throughout his tenure at Caldic and we wish him the very best in his new endeavors.”