Ex-KPMG member Jon Akehurst becomes Kellogg's Finance Director
A former KPMG Audit Trainee has landed a senior role with cereals giant Kellogg’s. 12 years after cutting his teeth at the Big Four firm, Jon Akehurst has assumed the position of Finance Director for Kellogg’s UK & Ireland.
The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company. The firm produces cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, and toaster pastries, and markets their products through several household brands, including Corn Flakes, Pringles, Coco Pops, and Frosties.
Kellogg’s has maintained its UK base in Manchester since 1938, when it first opened its Trafford Park factory. Today, it is the largest cereal factory in Europe, creating more than a million packets of cereal a day. The company recently relocated its UK & Ireland head office from Old Trafford to Salford’s famous MediaCity, in January 2018.
As the firm looks to grow in the UK, Kellogg’s has appointed a new senior leader, thanks in part to internal moves resulting from this move. Robert O’Sullivan, has been promoted to the role of vice-president of finance, Kellogg’s Europe, in Dublin. His replacement Jon Akehurst takes up the reins as Finance Director for the firm in the UK and Ireland, having spent more than 14 years working in financial roles in multiple sectors, including the consulting industry.
Most recently, Akehurst worked for Mars Petcare’s Crown Pet Foods - famous for its Royal Canin brand of dog and cat food – where he was Chief Finance Officer. Previous to Mars Petcare, Jon held a series of senior finance roles across a number of blue chip food companies such as Mars Wrigley Confectionary, General Mills and Associated British Foods.
Akehurst commenced his career as an Audit Trainee with KPMG. He spent a year as an Assistant Auditor covering middle market clients across a range of sectors at the firm, working on IFRS, UK GAAP, SAR and SOx, while gaining exposure to Canadian and US GAAS clients across the UK. He arrived at KPMG after graduating in engineering, economics and management from the University of Oxford in 2005.
Commenting on the appointment, Kellogg’s UK and Ireland Managing Director, Oli Morton, remarked, “We are incredibly fortunate to be able to welcome Jon to our team. He is a strong business leader, whose talents will help us continue our growth plan... A plan which has seen us help people make healthier choices in the morning by slashing sugar and putting traffic light labels on our cereals, introducing new-look granolas and launching Pringles made of rice.”