Nespresso North America’s CEO ‘actually knocked on Nestlé’s door’ to get his first job—an internship that would lead him to the corner office 32 years later
Alfonso Gonzalez Loeschen, CEO of Nespresso North America, is a Nestlé lifer. ·Fortune·Fortune
Alfonso Gonzalez Loeschen, the CEO of Nespresso North America, has spent over 30 years—his entire career—at Nestlé, Nespresso’s parent company. He got his first job at the food and beverage conglomerate by literally knocking on the door of its office in his native Mexico City.
Alfonso Gonzalez Loeschen has held the CEO title since January 2020; but his career at Nestlé, the owner of Nespresso—a pioneer of single-serve coffee—has spanned over three decades.
In his time at Nestlé, Gonzalez Loeschen has handled analytics, leading customer loyalty, and even worked in sales and marketing. But perhaps his most meaningful role was his first: He started as an intern.
Gonzalez Loeschen’s history with the company started at roughly the same time Nespresso launched in the U.S. Gonzalez Loeschen was born in Mexico City to a Mexican father and Chicago-native mother. He first joined Nestlé Mexico’s consumer marketing team as a trainee in 1992.
“I actually knocked on Nestlé’s door for a job,” Gonzalez Loeschen told Fortune. “I was looking for a multinational company, because I couldn’t imagine myself living and growing up in the same place. I really enjoy learning about different cultures and different ways of living. And I was lucky enough to get into Nestlé.”
He hasn’t left. In his 32 years, he’s moved seven times to five countries, and his most recent nine years have been at Nespresso, which he said many at Nestlé consider to be “the crown jewel of our brands.”
Climbing the corporate ladder
In that first role at Nestlé, Gonzalez Loeschen said the first six months were spent shadowing people across the company, in areas like finance, operations, sales, or even warehouse work.
After that, his first official intern task was to work in regional sales in Mexico, which he did for a year and a half. His first full role was as an assistant marketing manager.
“I started out in Mexico, but I put my hand up and said, ‘I want an international career. I want to get out there,’” he recalled. “There were not a lot of Mexican expats at that time, so I was one of the first, and I got an opportunity to go to Argentina.” He worked on a project there for about a year, and then relocated to Switzerland, home to Nestlé’s head offices, for three years.
Gonzalez Loeschen returned to Mexico, holding various positions for seven more years. Then, in 2007, he moved to the United States for five years before moving again to Puerto Rico, where he led Nestlé’s business operations—his first general management job. It was when he was in Puerto Rico that he was given the opportunity to join Nespresso.
“I joined Nespresso in Switzerland, at headquarters, as global CMO,” Gonzalez Loeschen said. “Four years ago, I came to North America to lead Nespresso’s North American business, which is in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.”
Leadership by experience
Now CEO of Nespresso North America, Gonzalez Loeschen lives in New York, where the U.S. headquarters are based. He oversees the U.S. market himself, with direct reports for the Canadian and Mexican markets.
Clearly, it’s been a winding road. And while it’s become significantly less common to see long careers at a single company like Gonzalez Loeschen’s, as tenures drastically shorten across industries, he said he recalled meeting plenty of people who had been with Nestlé for decades when he was just starting out. “Now, I’m one of them,” he said, laughing.
Two things have kept him around for the long haul, he noted. The first: his lifelong desire to live internationally and experience new cultures, which Nestlé has given him in spades.
The second: There is always a new area to focus on and a new set of rules to learn. “We’re a very big food company, and I’ve had these opportunities to manage different brands—mostly in beverages and coffee,” he said. “I’ve been in coffee for a long time, but there’s always been a new opportunity and a new challenge.”
Even at times when he might have considered leaving, or was actively seeking other opportunities, something new would open up at Nestlé and keep him around. “It’s been 30 years, and I couldn’t have landed in a better place than in a Nestlé business.”
People come first
Ascending the corporate ladder to the corner office was never Gonzalez Loeschen’s specific goal. “When you’re a young marketer, usually you start as an assistant manager, then you can become a brand manager, then you manage a full business,” he explained. “I’ve learned that the traditional path that you expect is never the one that you get. There’s lateral movements. Sometimes there’s a step back to take two steps forward.”
Gonzalez Loeschen, who refers to himself as a “marketer at heart,” said his early days guide his strategy and priorities as CEO. “I do believe that what makes a business successful is the people,” he said. “Rolling your sleeves up in the first of 100 days, getting to know the business deep down, and getting to know the people is what brings you credibility, in order to then be able to lead and to establish a vision and to inspire your teams and to get those teams.”
Strong leadership also requires a strong team, he added. “You need to surround yourself with the best people. And once you do, it’s all about giving clear guidance. It’s all about empowering and trusting them, and then success comes.”
