Nov 15 2024 35 mins
How this Arla Foods managing director went from selling cigarettes to selling milk
A globe-trotting career that began selling cigarettes at British American Tobacco and has led to heading up the UK arm of dairy giant Arla Foods is maybe not what Bas Padberg could have predicted when he started out in the early 1990s.
The managing director of the group behind Lurpak, Cravendale, Skyr and B.O.B milk now leads 2,000 farmers in the UK and close to 4,000 employees – a long way away from those early days in a "different world".
Padberg, who took on his current role at the start of 2024, has opened up about his career journey in the latest episode of Boardroom Uncovered, where he reveals to City AM's UK editor Jon Robinson what he considers to be the key ingredients to having a successful career as well as his leadership style and the importance of UK farms to the business.
Boardroom Uncovered is also available in video format as well.