Speciality ingredient distributor Barentz has appointed Phia Shuan Heng as head of personal & home care for southeast Asia, effective immediately, marking the third senior regional move the Dutch-headquartered group has signalled around its Asia-Pacific personal care business this quarter.

Heng will be based in Singapore and reports into the global Personal & Home Care leadership of Valerie Lepoultel. Her remit covers the distributor's southeast Asia markets, with a mandate to tighten coordination between local commercial teams and the group's principal portfolio across the region.

What does Heng bring from her prior roles?

Heng spent nine years as senior regional sales manager, Asia, at EP Minerals, a diatomaceous earth and perlite supplier that has positioned itself in cosmetic-grade functional fillers. Before EP Minerals, she ran the personal & home care business for DKSH Malaysia and earlier worked as a sales development manager for Dow Corning Silicones Malaysia, a tenure that places her inside the silicone elastomer and emollience supply chain that formulators across skincare, sun care and colour cosmetics rely on.

That CV matters for procurement teams watching Barentz's southeast Asia bench: it suggests a heavier emphasis on functional filler and silicone adjacencies, categories where EP Minerals and Dow Corning overlap with Barentz's existing principals including Evonik, BASF Care Chemicals and various specialty silicone houses.

Who is Barentz moving out — and into a wider role?

The appointment triggers a leadership change at the top of the regional P&HC function. Jacqueline Hoe, the outgoing vice president of Personal & Home Care APAC, exits the role after leading the business across the region. Barentz thanked her publicly but did not disclose her next move or replacement.

In a parallel change, Rushina Dudhwala — already leading Personal & Home Care in India — picks up broader principal management responsibilities across APAC. The expanded remit places her alongside Heng as a counterpart covering two of the distributor's largest growth markets by both population of formulators and volume of personal care manufacturing.

What are Barentz's executives saying?

Marc Duchene, CEO APAC at Barentz, framed the moves as a response to the region's fragmentation.

"APAC is a diverse and fast-moving region, and our ability to stay close to local markets is essential to how we create value for our customers and principals," Duchene said. "With Phia joining Barentz and Rushina taking on broader responsibilities, we are strengthening the way our Personal & Home Care teams connect, collaborate and serve the market across the region."

Valerie Lepoultel, global vice president Personal & Home Care, added a second layer: "These changes reflect our ambition to build a more connected and agile Personal & Home Care organization in APAC. By combining regional expertise with strong local leadership, we can better support our teams, deepen principal relationships and continue developing solutions that respond to evolving customer needs."

What changes for formulators and brand customers?

For brand R&D teams sourcing through Barentz in southeast Asia, the immediate signal is continuity of account coverage rather than portfolio disruption. The distributor's specialty ingredients book — including surfactants, conditioning polymers, UV filters, silicones and preservation systems — is not changing hands.

For procurement managers, the reshuffle is a reminder that Barentz is concentrating principal relationship management at the regional level. Dudhwala's wider scope could mean more coordinated stocking, MOQ alignment and forecast sharing across the India and southeast Asia hubs, particularly for principals with manufacturing footprints that span both sub-regions.

For compliance and regulatory leads, the Singapore base gives the new SEA head direct proximity to ASEAN Cosmetic Directive harmonisation work, which is moving on a slower timetable than the EU but continues to absorb ingredient listing, claims substantiation and notification workloads that distributors increasingly help brands navigate.

What to watch next

The next data point for the trade is whether Barentz publishes a 2025 APAC revenue split or principal count by mid-year, the typical cadence of its half-year communications. Watch also for the group's first Indian Ocean sub-distribution announcements, and for any replacement named to Jacqueline Hoe's outgoing APAC vice president seat. A new senior commercial hire in either Indonesia or Vietnam, the two largest personal care manufacturing markets in southeast Asia by output, would be the clearest signal that the Heng appointment is part of a deeper bench build rather than a single replacement.