Unilever has appointed Srinivas Phatak as its new chief financial officer after a thorough internal and external search process. He has been acting in the role since former CEO and board director, Hein Schumacher, stepped down in March, and then-CFO Fernando Fernandez took up the leadership position.
Following the search process, the Unilever board reported it is in unanimous agreement that Phatak is the best candidate for the role, due to the strength of his industry and functional experience and having performed strongly as acting CFO.
Phatak’s appointment as CFO, and to the board and Unilever leadership executive is effective immediately.
“Srinivas has been a great partner over the last six months as acting CFO and over many years as part of the Unilever leadership team,” said Fernandez.
“He brings financial rigour, strategic clarity, and a sharp eye for value creation. His leadership and constructive challenge will be very valuable in driving consistent volume growth, margin expansion, and advancing our growth story. I’m confident that, together with the team, we can build a scalable marketing and sales engine that delivers executional excellence across all channels.”
The past few years have involved some big decisions from Unilever. In March 2024, the board announced it would cut 7500 jobs from the company globally, and separate the ice cream business because of its poor performance and significantly different manufacturing processes to the rest of the company.
Under pressure from shareholders to cut costs, Unilever released a revised sustainability strategy in April 2024, which Schumacher describes as “unashamedly realistic”, and came under fire for its drastically reduced commitments.
The company has also come under fire in the past week for clashing with one of its iconic brands, Ben & Jerry’s, which has been under Unilever since 2000. Cofounder Jerry Greenfield announced his retirement after almost 50 years running the ice-cream business, stating he could “no longer, in good conscience... remain an employee of Ben & Jerry’s”, because of Unilever’s silencing and sidelining of the brand’s social justice values.
