After almost 30 years looking after the Birds Eye brand, Steve Challouma, CMO at parent company Nomad Foods, is to depart.

Having been top marketer at Nomad Foods for almost three years, Challouma’s career working with Birds Eye began when he joined Unilever’s Birds Eye Wall’s business unit as a graduate trainee in 1996, before moving into his first marketing role in 2002.

Birds Eye was sold by Unilever to private equity firm Permira in 2006, at which point Iglo Group was formed. In 2015, that group was acquired by Nomad Foods, which has subsequently acquired other frozen food brands, including Aunt Bessie’s and Goodfella’s.

Having worked as a senior marketer across different category and brand roles, in 2020 Challouma took on a general management role, leading the Birds Eye brand in the UK and Ireland. In 2023, he returned to marketing as CMO of the Nomad Foods group, sitting on the executive board and reporting directly into the company’s CEO.

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Challouma will finish his time at Nomad Foods this week, before moving on to what he calls “new horizons” in 2026. Nomad Foods has expanded the remit of its chief research, development and quality officer, Carly Arnold, to include that of chief marketing officer, while it appoints a successor to Challouma. The company says that process is “underway”.

Arnold has been at Nomad Foods for 14 years, holding marketing and category roles across the group. Previously, she worked at Cadbury owner Kraft Foods across various marketing roles.

During his time at Nomad Foods, Challouma has been responsible for driving forward the business’s market-leading frozen brands. As marketing director for the Birds Eye, Aunt Bessie’s and Goodfella’s brands, he took decisive action, including an overhaul of Birds Eye’s marketing strategy to add greater focus on both creativity and effectiveness.

Challouma has talked to Marketing Week previously about the power of longevity in an organisation, drawing on the fact he has worked on Birds Eye across multiple different roles and functions at Unilever, Permira and Nomad Foods.

“My objective has always been to prioritise breadth over depth and to prioritise variety in my career over getting the next promotion. I always advise people developing their career to have a horizontal perspective, as well as a vertical perspective,” he said. “Take that role that gives you breadth in your capabilities and skills, versus taking that promotion to get to the next rung of the ladder.”