General Mills picks European marketer

General Mills

General Mills has promoted Elizabeth Nordlie to European vice-president of marketing for the Häagen Dazs, Green Giant and Old El Paso brands. She will handle the brands across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Nordlie, who takes over the role this week, replaces Jerry Lynch, who has returned to the company’s US head office. She is the former marketing chief for grocery brand Progresso Foods. She will report to Giuseppe D’Angelo, president of EMEA and Latin America and will be based in Switzerland.

It is not thought that the changes will affect the UK team, which is led by long-term marketing director Linda Hipkiss. She has been with General Mills since 2001 following its acquisition of Pillsbury UK, where Hipkiss was commercial director.

The company considers its key brands to be Häagen Dazs, Old El Paso, Green Giant, Pillsbury and Betty Crocker but it also has a number of joint ventures including Cereal Partners, with Nestlª, which is prominent in the UK. The company’s international arm accounts for £1.8bn in sales.

Earlier this month, it announced that it was strengthening its guidelines on marketing to children by including a new sugar “guideline” that will further limit its advertising to children under 12 years old.

It no longer promotes products with 12 grammes of sugar per serving. It will introduce the rules by the end of next year.