Our Leaders

Dan Magliocco was named President, North America in May 2024, after serving as President, Danone Canada since 2019. As leader of the Danone North American business, Dan is focused on the company’s continued growth and competitiveness as a top-tier Consumer Packaged Goods business and a partner of choice for our customers, while being guided by the company’s mission of bringing health through food to as many people as possible.  

Dan has over 30 years of FMCG experience. Before Danone, Dan served as President of Mondelēz Canada from 2012-2016. Prior to that, he held various senior level executive leadership roles with Kraft Foods Canada between 2001-2011, leading strategy, innovation and category businesses.

Dan was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. He earned a Bachelor of Business Degree from York University and his MBA from York University Schulich School of Business. He was inducted into the Grocery Magazine Hall of Fame in 2023.

As Chief HR Officer for North America, Silvio Amorosino leads a dedicated team of HR professionals with a focused mission: to foster and cultivate a dynamic, inclusive, and high-energy work environment for Danone's operations in the United States and Canada.

Silvio embarked on his journey with Danone in 2011, when he joined as HR Director in Brazil. His career took an international turn in 2016 when he relocated to White Plains, N.Y., to spearhead HR business services for North America. During this time, he played a pivotal role in managing HR operations and orchestrating the HR integration of WhiteWave Foods with Danone in 2017. Subsequently, he assumed global HR responsibilities for Danone’s Early Life Nutrition business, based in the Netherlands, where he showcased his strategic HR expertise on a global scale and led the Global integration of ELN and AMN businesses into Specialized Nutrition Division. In 2019, Silvio returned to the United States to assume the role of Chief HR Officer for North America. 

Prior to joining Danone, Silvio held prominent HR roles at renowned organizations including Kraft, LVMH Wines & Spirits, International Flavors and Fragrances, and Mondelēz International.

Silvio’s roots trace back to Brazil, where he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in business administration and human resources from Escola Superior de Administração e Negocios and Fundação Getulio Vargas respectively, solidifying his commitment to the HR field.

Catherine Pinchon-Baratier is a seasoned global executive with more than 35 years of experience leading Quality, Food Safety, R&D, and Operations across Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. A longtime Danoner, she brings deep technical expertise and a proven track record of shaping high performing Quality and Food Safety (QFS) systems across complex, multicultural environments.

Most recently, Catherine was appointed Head of Quality & Food Safety for Danone U.S. and Canada and joined the U.S. Leadership Team in 2025, reflecting the strategic importance of Quality across the business. In this role, she leads the transformation of the U.S. QFS function, working in close partnership with Manufacturing Quality and defining clear responsibilities and ways of working across all plant QFS teams.

Previously Catherine served as Vice President of Quality & Food Safety for the AMEA region, where she led QFS strategy across 44 manufacturing sites and supported more than 900 team members. Over her career, she has held multiple senior Quality and R&D leadership roles across LATAM, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and global R&D centers, consistently strengthening capabilities, driving product superiority, and building high performing teams.

Catherine earned a Food Science Engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie de Toulouse.

As Chief Sales, Commercial & Customer Officer, Kristina Cole is responsible for driving sales and revenue for Danone North America across all classes of trade including foodservice and e-commerce. Kristina leads a commercial/sales team of passionate Danoners focused on revenue growth and category and commercial strategy – all aligned with Danone’s mission of bringing health through food to as many people as possible. 

With more than 30 years experience in the consumer packaged goods industry, Kristina joined Danone (then WhiteWave Foods) in 2008, where she held several sales leadership roles including President of Vega and President/General Manager of Danone’s away-from-home business. Prior to joining Danone, Kristina held various topline sales leadership positions at Conagra Brands. 

Kristina also serves as the Executive Sponsor of Danone’s LIFT (Leading and Inspiring Female Talent) Employee Resource Group (ERG), where she helps foster diversity and inclusion by creating an environment where women at Danone can flourish through inspiration and empowerment. She has also been recognized as a Dress for Success Honoree, which honors women who embody the organization’s mission of providing job access, career advancement and financial wellness for women. 

Kristina earned a bachelor's degree in finance from California State University in Fresno, California, and currently lives in Colorado.

Nancy Dowling was named General Secretary for North America in 2024, overseeing the legal, regulatory, compliance, communications, public affairs and security functions. Nancy joined Danone in 2006 and has served in various global roles including General Counsel, Specialized Nutrition based in Amsterdam, and Global General Counsel for the Essential Dairy and Plant-Based business unit, with teams based in Paris and New York.

Before starting at Danone, Nancy worked for Sears Roebuck and Company and World Kitchen in Chicago. She started her career at The Procter & Gamble Company, where she worked as Senior Counsel supporting the business in a variety of roles and prior to that as a litigator at Keck, Mahin and Cate in Chicago.

Nancy currently sits on Danone’s Global Legal and Compliance Board and is on the boards of the Westchester County chapter of the American Heart Association and the Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution.

Nancy earned a bachelor’s degree in art from the University of Chicago and her law degree from the University of Florida.

Stéphane Gayet is Danone North America’s Chief Financial Officer, leading business finance for all categories of the company in the U.S. and Canada, together with his team of highly committed and skilled finance professionals. He is a key strategic business partner to the CEO and leadership team, driving the value creation agenda and involved in the co-creation of the multi-year strategic plan and annual operating plan as well as in-year delivery of business performance on all key metrics. 

With a Danone career of more than 20 years, Stéphane has served in a number of finance leadership roles of increasing scale and responsibility across multiple businesses and geographies. These include RBS (Regional Business Services) VP Finance Asia-Pacific Middle-East and Greater China (based in Singapore), Business Control Director for the Dairy Worldwide Division (based in Paris, France), and Finance Director for evian-Volvic Asia-Pacific (based in Tokyo, Japan). Earlier in his Danone career, Stéphane also held several finance positions in the Water Worldwide Division and Danone Waters France (based in Paris). 

Stéphane is originally from Paris, and earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris (CentraleSupélec) in Paris. He also earned a master’s degree in management science & engineering (MS&E) from Stanford University in California. Stéphane currently resides in New York. 

Heiko Gerling was named Chief Operations Officer in June 2025, leading efforts across manufacturing, logistics, customer service, procurement, sales and operations planning, quality and food safety.

With more than 10 years of experience at Danone, Heiko first joined the company in 2005 and held a variety of roles in operations for the German business unit through 2013. He returned to Danone in 2021 as Head of Operations for the DACH business unit, later stepping into a global role as Senior Vice President of Global Operations Excellence.

Heiko has spent the last 20 + years leading FMCG companies, driving operational excellence and transformation across various industries. In addition to his roles at Danone, Heiko has held various positions in food and beverages including Managing Director of Central & Northeast Europe at Kraft Heinz and Managing Director of Germany, Austria and Poland at Aryzta.

Originally from Germany, Heiko earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Cooperative Education, Mannheim. He currently resides in New York.

Beatriz Copelli is named Chief Information and Data Officer in the U.S. and is responsible for leading the company’s technology, data, and digital capabilities. In this role, she focuses on advancing strategic priorities, accelerating digitization, and building enterprise capabilities while partnering closely across functions to drive performance and unlock growth.

Since joining Danone in early 2023, Beatriz has led the modernization of enterprise platforms and expanded data and analytics capabilities across the Americas, strengthening business resilience and enabling smarter, faster decision‑making across the organization.

Beatriz brings more than 25 years of experience in global technology leadership across the consumer goods industry. Prior to Danone, she spent more than two decades in senior CIO roles, including CIO for Canada and Mexico, Regional CIO for the Americas and Sub‑Saharan Africa, and CIO for Global Supporting Functions. Her experience spans sales, finance, marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, direct‑to‑consumer, go‑to‑market, retail, and M&A, with leadership assignments across the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and Mexico.

A long‑time advocate for inclusive leadership and talent development, Beatriz has sponsored and supported programs focused on expanding opportunity and capability building within the technology function for more than 15 years.

Ariel Dalton was named Head of Strategic Insights, Planning & Connected Commerce for Danone U.S in January 2026. In this role, Ariel is responsible for driving competitive advantage by delivering actionable insights, anticipating market shifts, shaping consumer‑centric strategies, accelerating connected commerce, and enabling omni‑channel excellence across the evolving shopper journey.

Ariel brings more than 17 years of experience in the consumer goods industry and has a strong track record of building high‑performing teams to drive growth and enterprise value. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President of Commercial for Danone in the US, leading a 160‑person organization and an extended broker network of more than 4,500. Her responsibilities spanned category leadership, channel development & strategy, commercial, customer planning, ecommerce, sales execution and shopper marketing. She also plays an active role on global and regional executive steering committees, including shaping the globally adopted Danone Way of Selling and representing Danone North America for Sales AI.

Prior to her career at Danone, Ariel spent time at a globally renowned direct marketing agency, Valassis Communications, now unified under Vericast.

Ariel graduated with honors from Azusa Pacific University and is an alumna of USC’s Food Industry Executive Program. She resides in Colorado.

Susan Zaripheh joined Danone as Chief Research and Innovation Officer for North America in August 2024. In this role, she leads the development of a consumer centric and competitively advantaged portfolio of plant-based and dairy products with a central focus on bringing health through food to as many people as possible.  

Susan has 25 years of experience at leading CPG companies and a strong track record of translating consumer insights into market-winning products to drive growth. Prior to joining Danone, Susan held various key positions with increasing accountability at Coca-Cola, including VP of Global R&D for the Global Juice Category and North America Nutrition Business.

Susan’s roles at Coca-Cola also included Strategic Planning and Performance, Chief of Staff to the Chief Technical Officer for Coca-Cola North America, and R&D and Technical lead for Emerging Brands and Transformational Innovation. Before joining Coca-Cola she held positions at Sara Lee, Hillshire Brands, Dairy Management Inc. and Nestle. Susan is originally from Ohio. She earned a Ph.D. in nutrition from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in food science from The Ohio State University.

As General Manager, Yogurt, Rafael Acevedo leads Danone North America’s market-leading brands in dairy yogurt.  

Prior to joining Danone in 2023, Rafael served as Chief Marketing Officer at Dunkin’, leading full integrated marketing capabilities including brand marketing, R&D, innovation, commercialization, experiential, field marketing, customer experience, digital and loyalty. Rafael spent more than 19 years with The Coca-Cola Company in a wide range of brand management and GM roles. Rafael also led the brand turnaround for Diet Coke, as well as the company’s tea and energy drink portfolio, Sprite and Coke Zero. He also worked for Diageo and KPMG. 

Rafael received his undergraduate degree in banking, finance and general management from Universidad Metropolitana in Venezuela, and his MBA from Emory University.