On May 10 an annual general shareholders’ meeting of Dutch-headquartered Milkiland N.V. approved longtime American-Ukrainian expatriate George Logush as a non-executive member to its board of directors.
The large dairy
producer’s investor relations manager Sergey Trifonov told the Kyiv Post that
an April 26 board of directors’ meeting had formally recommended Logush’s
candidacy.
Milkiland produces more than 1 million tons of dairy products a year. It
has 10 plants in Ukraine that produce cheeses, butter and other dairy products,
and has operations in Russia and Poland. In 2012, the company had 287 million
euros in revenues and a net profit of 13.5 million euros. Ukrainian husband and
wife Anatoliy and Olga Yurkevich own 73 percent of Milkiland N.V. shares.
Logush, 68,
told the Kyiv Post he still remains the vice rector of the Ukrainian Catholic
University in Lviv in charge of strategy and program development, a position he
has held since October 2012.
Prior to that, the
New Yorker was vice president for one year at Ukrainian poultry giant MHP in
charge of improving marketing, brand recognition and sales.
He took the
helm of Kraft Foods Ukraine in 1995 and eventually became director from 2005 to
2011 for Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia. He served on the board at
Kraft management for Central and Eastern Europe from 2002 through 2011.
Logush was
credited for building Kraft’s business in Ukraine from $4 million in net
revenue to more than $500 million.
His first job
in Ukraine was in 1989 when he helped set up the International Management Institute and the country’s first masters in business administration program.
He then became an executive by launching R.J. Reynolds Tobacco (now Japan
Tobacco International) in Ukraine, where he increased market share to 60
percent in 18 months. Logush then became general manager of KPMG and Barents
Group, bringing multinational Interbrew to Ukraine.
He was ranked
as one of the most influential expatriates living in Ukraine by the Kyiv Post in October 2010. He is
also a well-known philanthropist who supports the promotion of Ukrainian
literature and films.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
