The Pakka Team – the people behind the products
Tom von Euw
CEO
As a recent newcomer Tom strives to make the delicious Pakkaproducts yet known, even beyond its borders. Tom holds a degree in production and operations engineering from the Zurich ETH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and for many years he worked in management consulting. Even more important were the ten years he spent before coming to Pakka founding, building up, and managing his own catering business. Tom’s favorites are Pakka’s Cashews Curry Madras with a glass of bold-flavored red wine. His wife craves anything with black pepper. “Daddy, why aren’t there any cashew nuts with paprika, the way there is on potato chips?” his twin daughters recently asked him. Who knows, that might just be Pakka AG’s next product in development!
Email: voneuw@pakka.ch
Tel: +41 44 454 22 86
Daniela Widmer
Administration & Order Processing
It’s important to Daniela to understand global issues so she can continually challenge her own behaviour as a consumer in her private life. That’s why working for a Fairtrade business makes sense to her. Daniela is responsible for client relations and sales at Pakka. However, when she feels like doing something more practical, Daniela indulges in a spot of gardening and observes Mother Nature’s laws at work. She finds our Choco Cashews particularly delicious.
Email: widmer@pakka.ch
Tel: +41 44 454 22 88
Daniel Werren
Export Manager
Daniel is a certified Export Manager and has many years of professional experience in establishing and developing export markets in Europe and Asia for small and medium-sized companies
A cross-cultural life with a mix of languages is the result of having lived abroad in Paris, Cologne and Malaysia and above-all of being married to a French woman with African family roots.
But also music has always played an important role in his life. When he was young, he used to play the guitar in a hardrock band and today he can share his passion with his 22 year-old son, regularly exchanging insider information about upcoming young bands via whatsapp.
Daniel can’t resist the Pakka chocolate nuts – they are simply too tempting!
Email: werren@pakka.ch
Tel: +41 44 454 22 87
Carmelo Martinez
Administration, logistics, purchase
Whenever Carmelo tells us of a homemade paella from his home town Valencia, it makes all our mouths water. Since 2013 he lives in Switzerland and every time the entire team is delighted when Carmelo brings a Spanish specialty into the office after a holiday at his parents place in Spain. At Pakka Carmelo is in charge of logistics and purchasing. He takes care of the entire organization and the transports of our products, both for imports as well as exports. In addition to traveling and hiking, he also likes to play football. But no matter what sports he does or which holiday trip he makes, he always takes along a bag of his favorite “Hunza-Mix”!
Email: martinez@pakka.ch
Tel: +41 44 454 22 85
Kathrin Engel
Office Manager
Kathrin joined Pakka in 2018 as an office manager. She supports the whole team in the office, getting a quick and deep insight into the Pakka World. She would love to visit the Hunza Valley in Pakistan on the spot. After her University degree in geography she worked for Schweizer Berghilfe in fundraising . Her great passion is sports: she used to be a member of the first team at Volero Zurich and today she plays tennis regularly – always with her a pack of salted almonds from the Hunza Valley. She usually spends her summer weekends sailing with her family on Lake Greifensee and in winter she enjoys the Lower Engadine – where she can easily get by with her knowledge of the Romance language.
Email: engel@pakka.ch
Tel: +41 44 454 22 88
Christian Neeser
Head of Marketing & Communication
Christian joined Pakka in May 2018, holds a Master in Business Communications from Zurich University of Applied Sciences and has worked for various communications agencies in the past years. During this time he was involved in the most diverse disciplines in digital marketing and communications and was responsible for various customer projects. This enabled him to gain a fund of valuable experience, which he now contributes to Pakka.
Besides the professional challenges, Christian loves to travel to distant countries, to get in touch with foreign cultures and people and to taste the finest exotic dishes. His favourite nuts are roasted curry cashews.
In his free time, he enjoys mountain biking through the beautiful Swiss countryside or kite-surfing – always with him the Pakka Nuts as a healthy source of energy.
Email: neeser@pakka.ch
Telefon: +41 44 454 22 81
Simone Sidler
Finances & Wholesaler Relations
Simone is a member of the management team, supervises all of Pakka’s finances and has recently taken over contacts with our key trade accounts. Like most people at Pakka, Simone wears several hats – and that’s what she loves about her job, as well as our approach to sustainability, Fairtrade and entrepreneurship. She takes the latter very seriously with her friends too; they know they’ll get along better if they keep those Pakka orders flowing. Simone travels a lot, on horseback, on sailing boats (she has plans for a future round-the-world trip) and to wherever her friends are, for they are scattered all over the globe.
Email: sidler@diractsourcing.com
Tel: +41 44 454 22 82
Erol Bay
Wholesale
Erol has been working in the commodity trade for more than two decades and is responsible for selling the raw materials at diract sourcing. He is passionate about travelling to distant countries and particularly appreciates getting in touch with foreign cultures and tasting their exotic foods. In his spare time, he enjoys spends a lot of time with his family with outdoor activities, such as hiking through beautiful Toggenburg. Of course, on these hikes the exquisite Pakka snacks are always part of his backpack: the chocolate-covered peanuts for his kids and the delicious cashews with Peppadew for his wife and himself. Erol simply loves them for their perfect spiciness and flavor!
Email: bay@diractsourcing.com
Tel: +41 44 454 22 80
Ueli Baruffol
Trade & Chairman of the board
Ueli is one of Pakka’s founders and a member of the management team. He looks after our brand products, which in recent times has meant in particular producing ‘white label’ products and developing new items for retailers. As a forestry graduate, tending new shoots comes naturally to him. Many seeds of product ideas have blossomed thanks to his persistence. When Ueli sets off to play his favourite sport with those yellow felt balls, he always takes a pack of Pakka cashews with him to keep his energy levels up. Our plain chocolate cashews are Ueli’s favourite product, whereas his kids go for our salted cashew nuts.
Email: baruffol@pakka.ch
Telefon: +41 44 454 22 80
Anna Beerli
Trade & Wholesaler relations
Anna is facinated by the multitude of projects and developments which can be initiated besides the core business of trading nuts. Thus, diract is a great opportunity to gain experience in both the though trading business as well as in the involved projects with our partners. Enjoying the Pakka nuts goes well with gardening, hiking as well as biking are wonderful occasions to– especially macadamias!
Email: beerli@diractsourcing.com
Tel: +41 44 454 22 81
Ruedi Schoch
Senior Advisor
Ruedi holds a Ph.D. in Geography and a diploma in organisational and personnel development. He has a long-standing experience as management consultant in development in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe and as a Country and Regional Director of Swiss Cooperation Offices (SDC/SECO) in various destinations. During his career, Ruedi specialised on developing sustainable value chains for agricultural production. He is fascinated by promoting ethically just development interventions. During his leisure time he travels all over the world or explores mountains by foot during winter and summer time. Pakka products are always part of his in-between snacks.
Email: schoch@pakka.ch
Tel: +41 76 441 91 82
Dorothée Perlwitz
Representative for the markets North and South America
Dorothée lives in Bogotá, Colombia and is our new Pakka representative for the markets North and South America. Her other big project has been building up a new, Colombian brand: EQUIORI. It represents the first organic, fair chocolate that is produced 100% in Colombia with exclusively Colombian ingredients. On her free-time, which she mostly spends with her family and travelling, she also likes to step back for a moment and just enjoy a sweet bite of Equiori’s chocolate or some Pakka Choco-Cashews.
Email: perlwitz@equiori.co
Tel: +57 (321) 599 8804