UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Monday, 3 September 2012 at 4.30 p.m.
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR MAURICE BOLAND, UCD College of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin on 3 September 2012, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa on OWEN KILLIAN
President, Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen
Owen Francis Killian was born in Drum, Co. Roscommon. He attended St Aloysius College in Athlone, before entering UCG for his first 2 years studying Agricultural Science. He then moved to UCD for years 3 and 4, and he graduated with a BAgrSc degree from UCD in 1976.
He is chief executive officer of Aryzta, which was formed from the merger of the IAWS Group in Ireland and Switzerland's Hiestand Holding AG in August 2008. Aryzta is coined from the Latin noun arista, meaning harvest, or the pinnacle of an ear of wheat. This merger occurred at a difficult economic time but the company has gone from strength to strength which is due in no small measure to the leadership provided by Owen Killian. The company was among Europe’s primary listing on the Stock Market. Aryzta has operations in Zurich and Dublin and is the global leader in speciality bakeries with a geographic reach from North America through Europe to south-east Asia and Australia. Some of its brands include Hiestand, Cuisine de France, Delice de France and Otis Spunkmeyer. In (opens in a new window)Ireland, it is best known as the parent of (opens in a new window)Cuisine de France. Aryzta doubled its bakery output in its 2010/11 year when it spent €1.4 billion on acquisitions, including taking full control of Canadian venture Maidstone Bakeries. It bought Honeytop, a British flatbread business, in September 2011 for an undisclosed sum.
Speaking in UCD earlier this year as part of the 70th Anniversary celebrations of the Agricultural Science Associations, Owen outlined that Aryzta uses 1 million tonnes of ingredients incorporating 3,500 different items from 32 countries in their business. This costs in the region of €1bn. They produce 1million tonnes of baked goods using 6,000 recipes in 100 production lines. Aryzta employs 12,000 people including 5,000 engineers and they have 350 people focussed on Food Safety and Quality. They distribute their produce through 100 distribution centres in 19 countries in Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Japan, to 290,000 points of sales. About 15% of their revenue comes from sales in Ireland and the UK.
Prior to the formation of Aryzta, Owen had served as chief executive of the IAWS group since 2003 — he started with the company in the seeds department in 1976; he is reported to have interviewed for only 1 job ever and worked his way up the company to his present post. He has been a Director of Hiestand Holding AG since 2006.He serves as the Chairman and Non-executive Director of Origin Enterprises plc since 2007 and as a Director of Maidstone Bakeries.
He is extremely focused and dynamic. He pushes himself and his team and they are aggressive in the way they have built up the Aryzta business. Owen Killian, along with the board, set the group ambitious targets — seeking to double its earning base in five years from June 2008. His achievements since joining IAWS have been outstanding by any measurement.
Under his leadership, Aryzta has not stopped for breath, with the group committing €100m to a number of bolt-on acquisitions in Asia and Britain that will add €78m in revenues in 2012. In a newspaper interview in 2004 Owen, when talking about acquisitions, said: "There is no book you can pull down off the shelf to tell you how to do it." However, such is the rate of acquisition at Aryzta over the past number of years that he could pen a book about the subject – if he had the time to do so.
Extremely low key and not proactive in giving public interviews, Owen Killian has given freely of his time to Agrifood in UCD and provided the keynote address to our own Agricultural Science Careers Day in 2011, highlighting his career since graduation, while also providing an assessment of challenges and opportunities for the sector in the future. Speaking to a packed audience, he commented that “Individuals choosing to enroll in Agricultural Science at UCD are very fortunate to be graduating into a sector which will top the agenda of world leaders in the future”. He also stated that “the challenges for the Class of 2011 include communication and leadership; to help society appreciate the value of the Food Industry, the real costs associated with food and most importantly to respect food”. He commented that “there is a societal problem when society values golf courses more than they value dairy farms and the challenge for the sector is to help shape society’s values”. He is passionate about the food business and the role that Ireland can play in this industry and has an appetite for risk. He sees no reason why Ireland should not be better known for the quality of its food and even overtake New Zealand in dairy exports – this is a challenge for your class of 2012 to help deliver on this in the future.
He earns and is paid a handsome salary and is one of the highest paid Irish executives – today’s graduates can achieve that one day – with the correct vision, determination, risk taking ability and willingness to work long and hard hours. His payment is reward for presiding over exponential growth at the Irish-Swiss global food giant. He is constantly navigating through a volatile world economy where environmental factors can influence the price of wheat and other raw materials very quickly; Owen Killian must steer Aryzta through those turbulent waters.
Married to Breege, they have 2 sons, Owen and Sam, who did the Leaving and Junior certificate examinations this year. Owen played football with Clanna Gael in Roscommon– when he had time; he is passionate about Roscommon football. He has a huge interest in farming and ran a very successful livestock and grain farm until his international business ensured that he had no time to devote to farming. He took great inspiration from his parents. His father Peter was vice president of the Connacht NFA – now IFA – so he has been steeped in the traditions of agriculture throughout his life.
Today we honour Owen Killian for his outstanding leadership, vision, innovation and risk taking and for his contribution to the agrifood sector and for his immense help to Agricultural Science students and graduates alike.
Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hunc meum filium, quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus Scientiae; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.