Unilever CEO Will Retire at the End of Next Year
- Chaileedo Press
- Sep 27, 2022
- 2 min read
Alan Jope expressed that growth will remain Unilever's top priority in the coming quarters and he will continue to rigorously execute its current strategy.
On September 26, Unilever announced on its website that its CEO Alan Jope informed the board that he will retire from the company at the end of 2023. Unilever's board is currently looking for a successor, with both internal and external candidates under consideration.
Unilever chairman, Nils Andersen, said that under Alan Jope's leadership, Unilever had made significant changes to its strategy, structure, and organization and that these changes had also laid a solid foundation for Unilever's success. Alan Jope's reforms are continuing and the board will also be working on an orderly succession process to support Alan Jope and the management team to further drive Unilever's performance.
Alan Jope said that this is the right time for the Board to find a successor and that growth remains Unilever's top priority in the coming quarters and he will continue to rigorously execute the current strategy.
Publicly available information shows that Alan Jope joined Unilever in 1985 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2019. During this time, his primary focus was on addressing the impact of the pandemic, including the disruptions to the global supply chain and consumer habits.
Prior to his appointment as CEO, he served as President of the Beauty & Health and Personal Care Departments. He also spent 14 years in leadership roles in North America and 13 years in Asia, including Chairman of Unilever Greater China Region. During his tenure as Chairman of Unilever Greater China Region. Alan Jope doubled the size of Unilever's business in China and laid a significant foundation for Unilever's future success.
Since becoming the CEO of Unilever, Alan Jope has also led a number of reforms and acquisitions, including the sale of Lipton, a major tea company. He also implemented a new organizational structure, reorganizing the company into five business units: Beauty & Health, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition, and Ice Cream. Meanwhile, staff optimization was carried out, and 1,500 positions were eliminated. Among them, 15% of the executive positions were layoffs.
Furthermore, in January this year, Unilever offered to buy GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health business for 50 billion pounds. After being rejected, Unilever said it would not raise its bid and chose to abandon the acquisition. Reuters reported that the acquisition plan also sparked opposition from some investors, while it also quoted investors as saying that a fresh start of the new Chief Executive Officer could give investors confidence in Unilever's upward momentum again.
According to Unilever's previously announced interim report for 2022, its overall turnover in the first half of the year was 29.6 billion euros, up 14.9 percent year on year, with the beauty and personal care segment posting a turnover of 12.2 billion euros, up 7.5 percent year on year. Its major growth forces came from deodorants and high-end beauty businesses, both of which achieved double-digit gains.
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