Showalter succeeds Steve Leadbeater who will remain with the business to "affect an orderly and thorough handover". Leadbeater announced his intention to step down in November last year.
Showalter was most recently with Starwood Hotels and Resorts where he spent over seven years as senior vice president of finance for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Before this he was chief financial officer at Heinz for four years.
Number of roles
Prior to this he held a number of directorial roles at Heinz during a 13 year career with the firm. He started his career as senior auditor of Deloitte in 1985.
Findus chief executive James Hill said: "Bill was the outstanding candidate in our wide-ranging search for a successor to Steve Leadbeater. We welcome him to the company and look forward to him joining the high quality management team already in place."