Nia Owen-Cortez

Nia is one of the most seasoned Quality Leaders at Mondelēz International, with more than 25 years of experience in quality, manufacturing, external manufacturing, commercial and supplier quality, quality auditing and R&D.

She is Welsh and graduated as a microbiologist from Bristol University in the UK, as also achieving an MBA from the University of Wales and a Diploma in advanced food hygiene.

Nia joined Kraft Jacobs Suchard in the UK as Quality Auditor, where she travelled the world auditing internal and external manufacturers as well as suppliers. Having spent time in Munich and Banbury R&D centres, she then took the bold move to travel to Brazil after the Nabisco aquisition to onboard the new factories and launch and embed a supplier quality network. While in Latin America she held several regional roles and also relocated from Brazil to Argentina. With the political and socio economic volatility in the region, she became very skilled in dealing with ambiguity and risk. Nia spent almost 10 years in Latin America before relocating to Switzerland where she currently lives.

Since being in Switzerland, Nia has led Quality for the gum and candy, bakery and confectionery categories, before assuming the regional cross category Lead Role in 2023. She also managed global crisis management programmes for Mondelez and all global trademark licensing quality topics, so she maintains a good balance of global and regional topics. She has managed regional transformations, acquisitions, divestitures and strategic initiatives and has learnt how to position quality as a business value driver.