Trading places

● PepsiCo South Africa has appointed Riaan Heyl as CEO. He replaces Tertius Carstens, who is retiring after 29 years with the company.

Heyl is a chartered accountant and has held senior leadership roles within finance and general management.

He led the essential foods portfolio at Pioneer Foods from 2017 and, after PepsiCo’s acquisition of Pioneer Foods in 2020, was appointed vicepresident for market and commercial integration across the South African portfolio.

He has been PepsiCo COO since January 2023.

Danone Southern Africa has appointed Tsholofelo Ngobeni as the head of manufacturing. She is the first woman to hold this position at the company.

She has experience in operations, safety, quality and food safety, supply chain and engineering in the fast-moving consumer goods sector locally and internationally. Before joining Danone, she worked at Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa and was previously employed by Bimbo QSR Kellogg Company, L’Oréal, Henkel and BMW SA.

She has a chemical engineering qualification and an MBA, and has completed the certified supply chain professional programme and certification in planning and inventory management with the Association for Supply Chain Management.

Juliette Verhoog has been promoted to account director at Tribeca Public Relations.

Verhoog, who joined the agency in September 2019, has provided strategic consultancy services to some of Tribeca’s largest accounts, including Lego South Africa and Logitech.

Tribeca managing partner Davina Malan said: “Juliette’s promotion is well deserved. She has demonstrated excellent leadership qualities through her dedication to client service and experience, her patience and empathy towards her team and colleagues, and the positive energy she brings to the agency.

“We look forward to watching Juliette excel in her new role.”