Mark Tweddle
CEO & Group Director
From an education in agriculture and a host of work experience in fresh produce, Mark was the driver behind Jupiter’s inception and is very much still at the helm of business. Since its birth in 2003, Mark, along with his teams, has brought the company from a one desk operation to a global award winning corporation, recently being ranked 17th in The Sunday Times FastTrack 200 for International Growth and awarded ‘Fresh Produce Company of the Year’ by Lux Life Food and Drink Awards. Mark’s real joy at Jupiter is the development around new varieties and expanding the businesses farm portfolio.
Yvonne Tweddle
Director of Group Services & Legal Secretary
Yvonne has evolved and steered the business right from its birth alongside her husband Mark. With an agricultural upbringing and a pre Jupiter career in commercial sales and marketing, Yvonne is well versed in how to ensure we are driving the Jupiter bus in the right direction. By maintaining a close partnership with the heads of each department aligned to the business guidelines; The Jupiter Way, Yvonne applies her astute commercial approach to all the decisions made so they are best for the end customer, the grower and the group itself. What’s more Yvonne and Mark have naturally become the face of our brand and as a result keep a family ethos at the centre of the culture.
Damian Sutherland
Procurement Director
Damian oversees the sourcing and buying all produce globally. He has 18 years’ experience in fresh produce procurement and has been working here at Jupiter since 2011. He leads our UK head office procurement team and the teams on the ground in South Africa, Chile, Argentina, India, Greece and Turkey.
Damian’s role involves working with existing suppliers and growers as well as sourcing new collaborations to develop bigger supply bases so we can offer a consistently improved and a wider variety of produce to customers. The procurement team’s role is to buy the right quality at the fairest price and have a supply base that is broad enough to spread the risk in the event weather damages production.
Cristian Metzger
Technical Director
Cristian heads up Jupiter’s technical strategy, ensuring that the company complies with food safety, legal and customer requirements as well as testing the most up to date technology available to help us achieve our global vision.
He and his team work closely alongside our growers, suppliers and customers around the world to ensure our exclusive varieties remain consistent in terms of quality, condition and certification across all the countries we grow them in. Cristian’s teams have a clear vision on how to support our growers and pack houses globally to ensure we achieve the highest standards in every market we operate in.
Liam McLoughlin
Legal Director
Liam studied Law and Business at the University of Liverpool, graduating with a prize winning first class honours degree. Having trained and practised at a leading international law firm, Liam advised on a range of corporate law matters. During his time in private practice, Liam became the primary client contact for Jupiter and had been involved in our developments for four years before joining us as Legal Director. Fitness and football fan Liam, is responsible for strategic legal advice and legal support within our group.
Sebastian Soneyra
Finance Director
With an extensive knowledge base in the fresh produce industry and almost 20 years of experience in corporate finance, strategic business planning, operations management and organisation turnarounds; Sebastian joined the Jupiter board of directors as our financial Director looking after the teams internationally. Sebastian completed a Msc. in Finance in 2007, followed by a Msc. in Law and Economics three years later. He is currently completing an MBA degree at Oxford University to complement his wide technical background. Sebastian leads the Finance hub from the UK HQ, overseeing group finances as well as the group Treasury function looking after bank accounts in various currencies globally.
Steve Barker
Commercial Director
Steve graduated in 1999 from The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne with a BSc in Agriculture with Honours in Agronomy. During his 20 year career in fresh produce, he has undertaken various roles progressing from Agronomist, to Technical Manager, to GM to Operations Director. Prior to Jupiter he lead the development of a significant produce business based in the US. At Jupiter Steve is responsible for group wide sales and works closely with other members of the board to ensure group strategy in all areas enables business growth successfully.
Out of work he’s an avid football fan and loves spending time with his wife and three children.
Hugo Vermeulen
European Director
With almost a lifetime in fresh produce and a keenness for simplifying complexity, Hugo joined the Jupiter board of directors from our acquisition of Cool Fresh International, his experience and knowledge is key to the future success of our extended categories and integration of people and processes as the businesses start a new journey as one. His primary responsibility is to lead the European sector of the group in our pineapple, melon and lime categories, securing new opportunity and maintaining existing relationships for a stable demand and a sustainable fresh produce supply chain