PETERBOROUGH, UK.  —  ABF Ingredients has named Jeremy Xu as its new chief executive officer. Xu succeeds Fabienne Saadane-Oaks, who is retiring from the company. Saadane-Oaks has been CEO since 2015.

Xu joins the company from Ingredion, Inc., where he was most recently senior vice president, chief innovation officer and president of global healthful solutions. Xu also has held leadership positions at DSM and DuPont.

Xu received his bachelor's degree in biology and biomedical engineering from Zhejiang University. He received a master’s degree in plant physiology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a doctorate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and a masters of business administration degree from Purdue University.

“I am delighted that Jeremy has agreed to join ABFI,” said George Weston, chief executive of Associated British Foods PLC. “He is a first-rate global leader; I know we are going to benefit greatly from his deep specialty ingredient knowledge and multimarket experience, together with his customer and business focused approach to R&D and innovation. I’d also like to pay tribute to Fabienne Saadane-Oaks at the close of nine hugely successful years at ABFI. Fabienne has brought experience, intelligence, energy, warmth and scale to our business. She has very high standards and has been a great developer of talent and mentor for colleagues. We wish her well for the future.”

Before her tenure with ABF, Saadane-Oaks was most recently health and protection vice president for DuPont, Nutrition and Health. Previously, she was president for Rhodia Food and a hydrocolloids director for Sanofi Bio Industries.