Top 10: Chief Operating Officers in Manufacturing

While the CEO sets the vision, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) makes it happen.

Today’s manufacturing COOs are the engine of the enterprise, tasked with turning boardroom strategy into factory-floor reality.

From integrating smart technologies to navigating fractured supply chains, they must drive innovation without missing a beat in production.

Manufacturing Digital has ranked the top Chief Operating Officers in manufacturing.

10. Luca Zaramella

Job Title: Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
Company: Mondelēz International
Headquarters: Illinois, US

Luca Zaramella joined Mondelēz in 1996, beginning his career in the company’s Italian branch.

He took on a range of roles with increasing responsibility across its European, Latin and North American sectors, before holding the position of Chief Financial Officer in 2018.

In February 2026, he took on the role of Chief Operating Officer, overseeing more than 150 manufacturing sites around the world.

In a post on LinkedIn, Luca said: “I am confident that together we will deliver great things as we strive to be the world’s best snacking company.”

9. Frank St. John

Job Title: Chief Operating Officer
Company: Lockheed Martin
Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland

Frank St. John is the Chief Operating Officer at Lockheed Martin, a position he took on in June 2020.

Lockheed Martin says he is responsible for the strategic, operational and financial performance of its four major business areas “which generate more than US$71bn in annual sales”.

Before his new role, St. John led the company’s Fire Control business in 2018 and its Rotary and Mission Systems sector in 2019.

8. Frédéric Schneider-Maunoury

Job Title: Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer
Company: ASML
Headquarters: Veldhoven, Netherlands

Frédéric Schneider-Maunoury took on the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer for ASML in 2009 and became a Board of Management member in 2010.

ASML says it supplies 80% of lithography machines for the global semiconductor industry, and Frédéric is responsible for the supply chain, procurement and global manufacturing operations of these technologies.

Before joining the company, Frédéric was Vice President of Thermal Products Manufacturing at Alstom and oversaw production of its power generation technology.

His term with ASML is set to expire in 2028.

7. Antoine Vanlaeys

Job Title: Chief Operations Officer
Company: L'Oréal Groupe
Headquarters: Clichy, France

Antoine Vanlaeys joined L'Oréal Groupe in September 2002 as a Supply Chain Director for the Western and Eastern Europe Consumer Goods Division.

He held a variety of roles before being appointed as Chief Operations Officer in February 2021.

In this role, he manages the company's end-to-end value chain around the world and his team is responsible for creating successful supply strategies and accelerating the company's e-commerce sector.

6. Willem Uijen

Job Title: Chief Supply Chain and Operations Officer
Company: Unilever
Headquarters: London, England

Willen Uijen began his career with Unilever in 1999, starting as a management trainee at the company’s R&D Centre in Vlaardingen, Netherlands.

He has held a variety of senior positions at the company, including Vice President for Unilever Mexico and the Caribbean Supply Chain, Vice President for Home Care Supply Chain Latin America and Vice President for Unilever Home Care Supply Chain.

In January 2025, Willem was appointed as Chief Supply Chain and Operations Officer, responsible for the end-to-end global supply chain and operations, including manufacturing, logistics, planning, customer fulfilment and procurement.

5. Azita Saleki-Gerhardt, Ph.D.

Job Title: Executive Vice President, Chief Operations Officer
Company: AbbVie
Headquarters: Illinois, US

In 1993, Dr. Azita Saleki-Gerhardt joined Abbot as a research scientist and has held a variety of roles including President of its Global Pharmaceutical Operations.

She took on the Executive Vice President, Chief Operations Officer position at AbbVie after it split from Abbot in 2013. 

In this role, Dr. Saleki-Gerhardt oversees the supply and distribution of all AbbVie products across more than 30 major brand name treatments.

Alongside this, she also acts as the chair of AbbVie’s executive crisis management team.

4. Gregg Roden

Job Title: Executive Vice President, Chief Operations Officer
Company: PepsiCo
Headquarters: New York, US

Gregg Roden graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Distribution before joining PepsiCo in 1990.

Since then, he has held a range of supply chain leadership positions within the company, from Region VP of Supply Chain for the Southeast to SVP of Supply Chain for the West division.

Gregg took on the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer in 2025, responsible for PepsiCo’s global supply chain and operations, procurement and employee health and safety.

PepsiCo has more than 250 factories around the world and its supply chain includes thousands of companies.

3. Arno Antlitz

Job Title: Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer
Company: Volkswagen Group
Headquarters: Wolfsburg, Germany

Dr. Arno Aniltz studied industrial engineering at the Technical University Darmstadt and earned his doctorate in political science in the Otto Beishein School of Management before joining Volkswagen Group in 2004.

He took on responsibility for global product control in 2005 and became a member of the Volkswagen Board of Management for Controlling and Accounting in 2010.

In 2020, he became Chief Financial Officer of Audi in Ingolstadt, before taking on the Group’s Chief Financial Officer role in 2021. 

Dr. Antlitz added the role of Chief Operating Officer to his responsibilities in 2022, overseeing the company’s supply chain and global operations.

2. Stephanie Pullings Hart

Job Title: Executive Vice President, Chief Operations Officer
Company: Nestlé
Headquarters: Vevey, Switzerland

Nestlé’s Chief Operations Officer Stephanie Pullings Hart joined the company in 1995, working in Production Management for Friskies Pet Care at Nestlé USA in St Joseph, Missouri.

In 2007, she moved to Nestle’s headquarters in Switzerland as Program Director for the company’s International Training and Learning Centre.

Stephanie then remained in Switzerland, but left Nestlé to become VP of Operations at Jenny Craig in 2010.

She moved to Sydney, Australia in 2010 and became Nestlé’s Executive Director of Technical and Production.

In 2016, Stephanie returned to the US as Nestlé’s Vice President of Manufacturing for Confectionery, Global Foods and Ice Cream.

Stephanie left the company between 2018 and 2023, leading global operations at Beyond Meat for three years, before spending two years as SVP of Operations for Warby Parker in New York.

She then returned to Nestlé as Deputy Head of Operations and was made Executive Vice President, Chief Operations Officer in 2024.

Stephanie is responsible for manufacturing, supply chain and more across the company’s global operations.

1. Y.P. Chyn and Dr. Y.J. Mii

Job Title: Executive Vice Presidents and Co-Chief Operations Officers
Company: TSMC
Headquarters: Hsinchu, Taiwan

TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, has two Chief Operations Officers to cover its global operations.

Y.P. Chyn joined TSMC when it was founded in 1987 and has been part of some major milestones.

He was Director of Fab 1 between 1997 and 1998, leading the 28nm, 16nm and 7nm manufacturing processes.

Dr. Mii joined TSMC in 1994 as a manager at Fab 3, before joining the company’s R&D department in 2001.

His expertise helped TSMC develop 90nm, 40nm and 28nm technologies, while also leading research and development for its 16nm, 7nm, 5nm and 3nm programmes.

Both Y.P. Chyn and Dr. Y.J. Mii were made SVPs in 2016, before TSMC announced its decision to appoint the pair as Co-Chief Operations Officers in March 2024.

They are responsible for all operations and management across each TSMC fab around the world.

The products produced are used by hundreds of customers around the world, including Apple, NVIDIA, AMD and Qualcomm.