Unilever in hunt to find new leader
Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant, has recruited a global headhunting firm to search for a successor to chief executive Patrick Cescau.
Headhunters Egon Zehnder – which Unilever has used before – have been engaged to seek a replacement from both inside and outside the company. Unilever declined to comment.
Cescau, who turns 60 next year, is likely to step down at the company’s next annual meeting in May 2009. He has been at the company for 35 years and is its first chief executive, appointed four years ago to replace Unilever’s controversial dual co-chairman governance structure.
Since his appointment in 2004, Cescau has set about restructuring the company and overhauling the group’s product portfolio.
Cescau, who is now based in London, began working for Unilever France in 1973 and has held senior positions in Germany, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Portugal and the US. Unilever sources stressed that Cescau’s departure date is being set by himself, rather than the company’s chairman Michael Treschow or other board members.
Internal candidates tipped to be in the running to succeed him include chief financial officer Jim Lawrence, recruited less than a year ago from US food group General Mills; Vindi Banga, president of Unilever’s foods, home and personal care division; and Harish Manwani, who runs the group’s business in Asia, Africa and central and eastern Europe.
Unilever last week finalised the sale of its Bertolli olive oil business to Grupo SOS for £500m.
