Executive Team

Andrew Gibson

Group SVP & President, North America

Gibson was appointed President of Gate Gourmet's North American region in December 2006. He has been with the company since September 2004, when he joined as Vice President Continuous Improvement -- Europe. Prior to that, he worked as an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company. He has extensive operations and strategic consulting experience in multiple companies across a range of industries.

Gibson holds a Doctorate degree and Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the California Institute of Technology as well as a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is originally from New Zealand.

Edwin Garcia

Group VP & President, Latin America

Garcia joined Gate Gourmet in 1979. During the past 27 years, he has held various managerial positions, including U.S. Area Vice President and more recently, Vice President for Latin America. He was named President of the Latin America region in December 2006.

During his vice presidency, Garcia won numerous merits and accolades from customer airlines and within the company, many of which include recognition of major improvements, both financial and operational. Garcia has been a key driver in customer service initiatives that have translated into operational excellence for his region. Edwin has also been actively involved in client and service relations, new business development including acquisitions, strategic planning, productivity system improvement, labor control and measurement systems and Lean Manufacturing.

Garcia attended Hillsborough College in Tampa, Florida, where he studied Business Administration. He is an active supporter of the United Way and Boy Scouts of America, as an advocate and continuous contributor of this charity and organization, respectively.

Mark Wall

Group SVP & President, Asia Pacific

Wall joined Gate Gourmet after 22 years with General Electric Corp.'s plastics division in various executive capacities and locations around the world. As president of the Asia-Pacific region, which includes development in India, Wall oversees the operations of nine flight kitchens in six countries. Wall is based in Singapore and reports to Group President & CEO Designate Guy Dubois.

Wall most recently served as president of GE Plastics Japan, where he introduced Lean Manufacturing, implemented Six Sigma processes and spurred a 30 percent revenue increase over two years. Before his appointment to the Tokyo position, he also served as president of GE Plastics in Shanghai, China, and South America, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Prior positions included various management capacities in the U.S. and Holland. Wall holds a bachelor's of science degree in plastics engineering from Lowell Technological Institute (now the University of Massachusetts at Lowell).

Eric Born

Group SVP & President, Europe West/South

Born was appointed to his current position in December 2006. He joined Gate Gourmet in April 2004 as Vice President Business Development in the Europe region, and most recently served as Area Vice President and Managing Director for the U.K. and Ireland.

Prior to joining Gate Gourmet, Born served the Bon Appétit Group as Managing Director & Director Business Development for its retail subsidiary Frimago (food & gourmet stores). Born studied at the University of Applied Science in Zurich and holds an MBA from the University of Rochester. He speaks German, English and French.

Philippe Op de Beeck

Group SVP & President, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA)

Op de Beeck was appointed to his current position in December 2006, taking on responsibility for the Middle East and Africa in January 2008. In this role, Op de Beeck leads Gate Gourmet's Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia and Belgium operations, including a center of excellence for on-going product development across Europe. In addition, he oversees business development in the growing Middle East and Africa regions.

Op de Beeck joined Gate Gourmet in September 2005 as Area Vice President for Switzerland and France. Prior to that, he had various senior operating and business development roles for Swisslog, Renault, Ford, Hertz and Unilever. Philippe studied at the University of Leuven and has a Doctorandus degree in Economies. He speaks Flemish, English, French and German.

Peter van Niekerk

Group SVP & Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific

Peter joined Gate Gourmet in March 2006 as Group SVP & Chief of Staff and was appointed to his current role in January 2008, taking on responsibility for operations and business development within the Asia Pacific region; the Group’s airport lounge business; and the integration of acquisitions Performa and Elan.

He joined Gate Gourmet from AlixPartners LLC, a leading U.S. turnaround and restructuring advisory, where he was a Director. Before that, he led a $3 billion mutual fund company as Managing Director where he doubled profits in two years, and served as Head of Group Strategy for Old Mutual PLC, the UK-based financial services group. He started his career in the strategy practice of Booz Allen & Hamilton in New York.

Peter holds an LLM Degree from the London School of Economics (in Corporate and Commercial Law) and a master's degree in Economics from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, where he completed his undergraduate studies. He attended the Stanford University Executive Program and holds the CTP (Turnaround Practitioner) and CIRA (Insolvency & Restructuring Adviser) certifications.

Hooman Yazhari

Group SVP & General Counsel

Hooman is a highly accomplished lawyer with a wealth of experience in advising major corporations and investors from the Far East, US and Europe in multi-jurisdictional as well as emerging market transactions. Hooman's practice has covered corporate, finance, project finance, and corporate finance transactions as well as a wide variety of more general commercial transactions and in-house legal issues.

After reading law at Jesus College, Oxford University and completing an LLM at the London School of Economics (in Corporate and Commercial Law), Hooman spent four years at the London and Tokyo offices of Linklaters and later spent two years as a corporate and finance attorney in the London office of Chadbourne & Parke, a leading Wall Street law firm. In between his time at Linklaters and Chadbourne, Hooman helped establish, grow and lead a venture capital-backed company to a successful trade sale in the London market. Hooman joined Gate Gourmet International as Vice President & General Counsel Europe in September 2004.

A native English and Farsi speaker, Hooman has lived and/or worked in the UK, Japan, Belgium, Greece and Iran, and is also proficient in Japanese and French.

Edward Mitzel

Group SVP & Chief Information Officer

Mitzel is a highly experienced IT executive. Before joining the company in April 2005 as Vice President and CIO for Division Americas, he served as CIO of Hanger Orthopedic Group of Bethesda, Md., a national medical services and product company. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Economics, both from the University of Baltimore, and earned a Master of Administrative Science in Information Technology from The Johns Hopkins University.

Richard Wells

Group SVP, Human Resources

Wells was appointed to this position in November 2006. He joined Gate Gourmet in November 2004 and was named VP HR Division Europe in March 2005. He has over 20 years of senior-level HR experience in a number of major international businesses. Prior to joining Gate Gourmet, Wells served as the Group Human Resources Director for Amey plc, a leading provider of support services in the U.K.

Wells earned a BSc (Hons) Geology from City of London Polytechnic and received his post-graduate degree in Business & Administration from Bradford University Management Centre.

Mike Hargett

Group VP, Finance & Deputy CFO

Hargett joined Gate Gourmet September 2004 as Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis and was quickly named to his current role. Hargett oversees budgeting, capital planning, financial analysis, financial planning, forecasting, labor analysis and tender analysis.

Hargett held a number of financial management positions prior to joining Gate Gourmet, most recently at US Airways and Northwest Airlines and its subsidiaries. He also served in the United States Navy from 1984-1993 as a Weapon System Operational Test Director and F-14 Radar Intercept Officer.

Hargett received his MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business with Honors in 1997, and his Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign, Ill., in 1984.

Urs Maag

Group VP, Finance & Deputy CFO

Maag heads up Gate Gourmet's corporate finance team, responsible for Group Finance (Financial Reporting and Consolidation), Treasury, Group Taxation, Mergers & Acquisition (M&A), and Group Insurance. Before being named to this position in early 2006, Maag led the Group's M&A team.

As a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Maag has many years of experience, mainly in finance. After graduating from the University of Geneva in Business & Administration, he began his career with Arthur Andersen as part of the start-up team spearheading the company's Transaction Services practice in Switzerland. Maag left Andersen in 1998 to pursue his career with Zurich Financial Services and in 2000 joined Gate Gourmet, where he has led a number of financing and M&A projects.

Maag is a native English and German speaker and has lived most of his life in Zurich and Geneva. He also is fluent in French and speaks some Italian.