Unilever picks insider as new CEO
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
By Saabira Chaudhuri
Unilever PLC, the maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Dove soap, named Alan Jope to replace longtime Chief Executive Paul Polman as it, like the rest of the industry, grapples with a sharp shift in consumer tastes.
The appointment of Mr. Jope, a Unilever lifer who currently heads its beauty and personal-care division, comes amid the company’s push under Mr. Polman to bolster that higher-margin business and pivot away from slower-growing food.
The job, which Mr. Jope will start Jan. 1, is one of the highest-profile posts in corporate Europe. The leadership change also is the latest in a series of high-profile departures of consumer-goods bosses — an unprecedented changing of the guard as the industry faces down a raft of challenges.
Photo courtesy of UN Women.
