Our Leadership Team

Peter McGuinness joined Bel North America as Chief Executive Officer in February 2026.

A seasoned leader in purpose-driven food brands, Peter oversees Bel’s operations across New York, Chicago, and Montreal, as well as five manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada. Prior to Bel, he served as CEO of Impossible Foods and as President/COO of Chobani.

At Bel, Peter is focused on accelerating growth, driving breakthrough innovation, and advancing Bel’s Purpose*Full Snacking strategy, with a commitment to building a sustainable, performance-driven food business and strengthening the company’s impact across North America.

Carolina Cespedes Virguez is General Manager of GoGo squeeZ U.S. at Bel Group and a member of the Supervisory Board of the Thom Group. She brings over 25 years of leadership experience in general management, marketing, and sales across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. 

She previously served as General Manager of Fresh Beauty at LVMH in North America, where she led a transformation of the business strategy, organization, and commercial approach. Prior to that, Carolina spent eight years at Danone, including as CMO of the Waters division in North America, where she repositioned Evian and launched its first innovation. During her time at Danone, she also brought Activia — its largest brand—back to growth in the U.S. Earlier in her career, she spent 14 years at Procter & Gamble in sales and marketing roles across Colombia, the U.S., and Belgium. 

Originally from Colombia, Carolina holds an MBA from Saint Louis University and a bachelor’s degree in Finance and International Relations from Universidad Externado. She is fluent in Spanish, French, and English, and has lived and worked in Colombia, Belgium, and the U.S. 

She lives in Westchester, NY with her family and is passionate about health, wellness, and mentoring young professional women. 

Jaime Lewis serves as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Bel Brands USA (BBUSA). In this role, she provides leadership, guidance and overall management of the Finance and Accounting departments.With over 20 years of experience, Jaime is an industry leader, with ongoing success delivering revenue, profit and market share objectives, while maintaining sound financial controls and business processes. She builds strong cross functional partnerships across organizations and works to advance a strategic financial agenda, while maintaining a flexible and collaborative approach. She has broad finance expertise across financial planning, revenue and cost management in large corporate and private equity environments.

Prior to joining BBUSA, she served as the senior vice president of finance at ATI Physical Therapy and served as a financial leader at PepsiCo. Jaime holds degrees in Accounting and Finance from DePaul University. In her spare time, Jaime enjoys being active outdoors, cooking, traveling and spending time with her husband and three kids.

Christy Naniot is a dynamic HR executive with over 20 years of leadership experience, recognized for building engaged teams and advancing positive, inclusive workplace cultures.

Before joining Bel, Christy held leadership roles at Integrys Energy Group, where she managed complex union negotiations, led successful change management and safety initiatives, and delivered process improvements across a large utility workforce.

As interim CHRO, Christy brings a collaborative and strategic approach to aligning HR with business goals, empowering leaders, and driving the company’s growth and success.

Paloma Lopez joined Bel in March 2024 as the Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer for Bel US, where she leads the Impact, Trust, and Ethics team, encompassing Sustainability, Communications, Legal, and Regulatory functions. She drives Bel’s US Mission of Purpose*Full Snacking, aiming to improve the diets of Americans lacking essential fruit, veggies, and dairy. With over 20 years of global experience in the food and CPG industry, Paloma has led initiatives and strategies that create economic, social, and environmental value at Fortune 500 companies and startups. She has successfully launched purpose-led brands and designed global sustainability programs. 

Recognized as a Global Sustainability Women Leader by Forbes, Paloma is a First Movers Fellow at Aspen Institute and serves on their External Advisory Board. She has been involved with various organizations promoting sustainable food systems, including Naturally Colorado, Unreasonable Group, University of Cambridge, and USC. Paloma holds M.S. degrees in Sustainability Leadership and International Business. 

Marc has a talent for growing things, from the 120 fruit and nut trees on family lands in northern France to brand adoption and loyalty through our landmark subsidiaries.

Since joining Bel Brands in 1990, this globetrotting food scientist, product innovator and operations manager has expanded our footprint into places like Poland, Vietnam, Egypt, Morocco, Algiers, Czech Republic, Ivory Coast and Ukraine, managing plants and building production facilities from the ground up. He joined Bel Brands USA in July 2022, accepting dual responsibility over dairy and fruit for Bel/Materne, managing six plants in the U.S. and Canada. 

Marc says he fell in love with cheese during a brief stint with Danone while attending the Université de Technologie de Compiègne. After earning a master’s degree in food engineering sciences and executive management, he spent the first seven years at Bel as a development manager in charge of process improvement and product development. Marc has led product innovations such as super thin slices of hard cheese and blending cheeses with fruit flavors. In operations, he has excelled at a range of capabilities, including LEAN manufacturing implementation, industrial P&L, production management and quality control, and successfully redesigned plant operations to meet international standards. He grew Bel’s subsidiary in Egypt into the biggest exporter of cheese by a single player. “I’m proud to bring dairy skills and new technologies to countries where they did not exist.” 

In 2014, Negar joined Bel as Marketing Director for Iran and Turkey. By July 2018, she was General Manager of Bel Iran, leading an organization of 500 members and achieving 60% business growth and profitability. In 2022, she became General Manager of The Laughing Cow globally, a $600M business in 136 countries.

By June 2023, she was appointed General Manager of Bel Brands USA, managing a $500M business focused on championing healthier and sustainable food. Decorated as an “Officer” in the French National Order of Merit, Negar has served as a Foreign Trade Advisor to the French Government and has been on the board of the Bel Foundation since 2022. She is passionate about purposeful business leadership, integrative thinking, change management, and innovation.