Unilever Global CEO Visits Nigeria

O’Lekan Babatunde

The Nigerian business environment and the rating of the country by the global business community may be nodding its way up if indications that the Global CEO of Unilever will visit the country within the next few weeks are anything to go by.
M2 recent findings reveal that Paul Polman, Unilever’s no. 1 officer in the company’s London Head office is finalizing plans to visit the multinational’s operations in Nigeria before the end of July.
Analysts believe this might be an indication of the growing importance of the Nigeria operations in Unilever’s global business agenda and in recognition of the consistently improving Nigerian market’s contribution to the conglomerate’s global bottom line.The planned visit tallies with the position of Thomas Boedinger, former managing director of Unilever Nigeria, who in an interview with M2 last year disclosed that Unilever was not considering relocating its business from Nigeria. He recalled the history of Unilever’s business sojourn in Nigeria, saying: “We have been in Nigeria for 86 years. Now, the country is the most important market outside of South Africa in Africa. Actually, it has the highest potential.”
Boedinger had revealed that in the last 24 months prior, his company built a new detergent factory in Agbara, and installed 50 new manufacturing equipment among other investments in the economy. He told M2 that Unilever is fully committed to Nigeria’s manufacturing base because it “believes in manufacturing in the market where you will like to grow your business.”
Polman was appointed an executive director of Unilever in October 2008 and assumed the role of chief executive officer on 1st January 2009. He earned a BBA/BA from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in 1977; MA in Economics and MBA in Finance/International Marketing from the University of Cincinnati in 1979.
He began his career at Procter & Gamble in 1979, with finance assignments in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, leading to his promotion to become the associate finance director. He subsequently held several senior positions within the company including category manager and marketing director, France; vice-president and general manager, Iberia; vice-president and managing director UK; and president Global Fabric Care. He was appointed group president Europe and officer of the Procter & Gamble Company in 2001.
Prior to joining Unilever, Polman was chief financial officer of Nestlé S.A. and later executive vice president for the Americas.
He was recognised by Investor Magazine as chief financial officer of the year 2007. He received the Carl Lidner award from the University of Cincinnati in 2006 and was the WSJ/CNBC European Business Leader of the Year 2003.