Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman KBE (born 11 July 1956) is a Dutch businessman. After a long-term tenure with Procter & Gamble, he joined the board of Nestlé in 2006. Since 2009, he has been the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever. Polman has received several awards for business leadership related to sustainable development.
Video Paul Polman
Early life and education
Polman was born and grew up in the Dutch city of Enschede, in a Catholic family with three brothers and two sisters, the son of a tyre company executive father and a former schoolteacher mother.
Polman had hoped to become a doctor, but medical school places were allocated by lottery and he was not chosen. Instead, he studied at the University of Groningen, graduating with a BBA/BA in 1977. From the University of Cincinnati, he gained an MA in Economics and an MBA in Finance and International Marketing in 1979.
Maps Paul Polman
Career
Procter & Gamble
Polman worked for Procter & Gamble for 27 years (from 1979), initially as a cost analyst, becoming managing director of P&G U.K. from 1995 to 1998, president of global fabric care from 1998 to 2001, and group president Europe in 2001.
Nestlé
Polman then joined Nestlé in 2006 as chief financial officer and head of the Americas.
Unilever
On 1 January 2009, Polman succeeded Patrick Cescau as chief executive officer of Unilever. Under Polman's leadership, Unilever has set a target to decouple its growth from its overall environmental footprint and improving its social impact through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Polman has argued that, in a volatile world of finite resources, running a business sustainably is vital for its long-term growth and also mitigates risk and reduces costs. Unilever has now seen eight years of top line growth, averaging twice the rate of overall market growth, whilst improving the bottom line and delivering a total shareholder return of 290%. Bernstein's 2017 Blackbook entitled 'European Food and HPC: 10-Year Global Market Share Analysis' rated Unilever top-of-class for absolute market share gains (ex-M&A) and a proportion of its categories with gains. It also compared medium-term operating expectations to current valuations, leading to an Outperform rating on Unilever. Some shareholders, however, have worried that Polman's focus on sustainability has become more important to him than the financial performance of Unilever after the company missed sales targets for six out of eight quarters in 2013 and 2014. Polman, who scrapped short-term targets at the company, has argued that the failure to meet targets is a result of erratic currency fluctuations and the slow-down in emerging markets since 2013. Paul Polman has said that he has ambitions to increase the company's sales in emerging markets from the current 57% (47% in 2008) to 70% of turnover. Procter & Gamble, by contrast, make only 37% of sales in emerging markets and Nestlé 43%. In 2009, Polman decided to make many significant management changes in order to improve Unilever's revenue in each of its business pillars.
In 2016, Polman's total compensation was EUR8.3 million including a basic salary of EUR1.2million and other benefits (2015, EUR10.2 million).
In its H1 2017 results, Unilever met analyst expectations when it reported underlying sales growth of 3.0% in the first half of 2017, ahead of markets. Underlying operating margin was up 180bps.
Other responsibilities
Polman is a former chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and sits on the board of directors of the Consumer Goods Forum, leading its sustainability efforts. He is also on the board of the UN Global Compact. At the invitation of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Polman served as one of the 27 members of the UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. At the invitation of former Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, Polman served on the International Council of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.
He has co-authored a report published be the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) that criticizes the efforts of the SDGs as not ambitious enough. Instead of aiming for an end to poverty by 2030, the report "An Ambitious Development Goal: Ending Hunger and Undernutrition by 2025" calls for a greater emphasis on eliminating hunger and undernutrition and achieving that in 5 years less, by 2025.
Polman co-founded the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition, led by former Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende. He is a member of the World Economic Forum International Business Council, the Global Taskforce for Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) and was part of the European Resource Efficiency Platform Working Group, chaired by European Commissioner Janez Poto?nik. He was co-chairman of the World Economic Forum 2012. He is a counsellor of One Young World and trustee of the Leverhulme Trust. Polman was co-chair of the B-20 Food Security Taskforce.
Polman serves on the board of Unilever since January 2009 and was elected to the Dow board of directors in February 2010 where he serves on the Environment, Health, Safety and Technology Committee. He formerly served on the Board of Alcon. Polman is also part of the Leadership Vanguard, an initiative that seeks to identify, support and mobilise the next generation of leaders, focuses on redefining value.
He is president of the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust, a foundation he created to benefit blind children in Africa, and chairman of the Perkins International Advisory Board.
In 2016 Polman was selected by former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to be an SDG Advocate, tasked with helping build widespread support for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
Polman is co-chair of the Global Commission for the Economy and Climate, with Nicholas Stern and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Personal life
Polman is married to Kim; the couple have three sons.
Polman once considered joining the priesthood.
Sample of awards
Polman has received awards for his leadership and efforts in sustainable development that include:
- European Business Leader of the year by Wall Street Journal/CNBC (2003)
- Investor Magazine CEO of the year (2010,2011,2012)
- Award for Responsible Capitalism (2012)
- INSEAD Business Leader for the World Award (2012)
- WWF's Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal (2013)]
- Rainforest Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award (2014)
- David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership award - Synergos (2014)
- Doctor Honoris Causa of Business School Lausanne (2014)
- Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (2016)
- Singapore Government Public Service Star - Distinguished Friends of Singapore (2016)
- Enactus Entrepreneurial Spirit Award (2017)
- Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2018)
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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