Danone's Board of Directors confirms unanimous support for Emmanuel Faber, who proposes the separation of Chairman and CEO ro...
March 01 2021 - 3:34PM
Danone's Board of Directors confirms unanimous support for Emmanuel
Faber, who proposes the separation of Chairman and CEO roles
Press Release – Paris, March 1st, 2021
Danone's Board of Directors confirms
unanimous support for Emmanuel Faber, who proposes
the separation of Chairman and CEO roles
Following a meeting on March 1st, Danone's Board
of Directors reviewed the company’s corporate governance and
decided, on a proposal from Emmanuel Faber, to separate the
functions of Chairman and CEO in the near future. The separation
will be effective upon the appointment of a new CEO. The process to
recruit a new CEO has been launched and once complete, Emmanuel
Faber will focus on his role as non-executive Chairman.
In the meantime, Emmanuel Faber will continue as
Chairman and CEO, with the full confidence and unanimous support of
the Board to exercise full operational responsibility for the
company, and to lead the implementation of the adaptation plan
Local First (1).
In the context of this plan and upon reflecting
on the governance best suited to this new milestone for the
company, Danone's management and Board of Directors have conducted
an open dialogue in recent months with shareholders, social
partners as well as many other internal and external
stakeholders.
At the same time, and in addition to the
announcement of December 14th, the Board of Directors has made
other changes to continue strengthening Danone’s governance. It has
decided to appoint Gilles Schnepp as Vice-Chairman, together with
Cécile Cabanis, and to entrust with immediate effect the
responsibilities of Lead Independent Director and Chairman of the
Governance Committee to Jean-Michel Severino.
Commenting on the appointment, Jean-Michel
Severino, said: “It is an honour to become the next Lead
Independent Director of Danone. I have served the company and its
mission as Board director for the last ten years as member of the
CSR Committee and then Chair of the Audit Committee. I thank the
Board for entrusting me with this role, which will be of critical
importance in the transition phase we are entering. I also look
forward to being in charge of continuing a fruitful dialogue with
our shareholders.”
Commenting on the annoucement, Emmanuel Faber,
said: “I am pleased we took the governance arrangements that will
allow us to anticipate the next phase of development of the truly
unique company Danone is, as we open, with our Local First plan, a
new step towards the company’s reinvention. I want to thank all our
shareholders, my colleagues of the Board, our employees and social
partners who contributed to making these decisions emerge. I am
convinced they will make the execution of our plan and our mission
much stronger.”
In the coming weeks, the Board of Directors and
its Chairman will continue to engage constructively with
shareholders. They believe in the relevance of Danone's strategy,
corporate vision and unique model of a purpose-driven company, as
well as the strength of its brands and the reliability of its
teams. They are fully committed to ensuring the success of this new
phase.
o o O o o
(1) The "Local First" adaptation plan, announced
last November by Danone, aims in particular to unify the management
entities in each country, to empower them with greater autonomy, to
simplify the decision-making process, to generate substantial
savings and to invest to deliver profitable growth. In order to
ensure close monitoring, the Danone Board decided in December 2020
to strengthen the company's governance to accompany this
transformation phase and the strategic review of the portfolio.
About Danone
(www.danone.com)
Danone is a leading multi-local food and
beverage company building on health-focused and fast-growing
categories in 3 businesses: Essential Dairy & Plant-Based
products, Waters and Specialized Nutrition. With its ‘One Planet.
One Health’ frame of action, which considers the health of people
and the planet as intimately interconnected, Danone aims to inspire
healthier and more sustainable eating and drinking practices. To
accelerate this food revolution and create superior, sustainable,
profitable value for all its stakeholders, Danone has defined nine
2030 Goals, and paved the way as the first listed company to adopt
the “Entreprise à Mission” status in France. With a purpose to
bring health through food to as many people as possible, and
corresponding social, societal and environmental objectives set out
in its articles of association, Danone commits to operating in an
efficient, responsible and inclusive manner, in line with the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. By
2025, Danone aims to become one of the first multinational
companies to obtain B Corp™ certification. With more than 100,000
employees, and products sold in over 120 markets, Danone generated
€23.6 billion in sales in 2020. Danone’s portfolio includes leading
international brands (Actimel, Activia, Alpro, Aptamil, Danette,
Danio, Danonino, evian, Nutricia, Nutrilon, Volvic, among others)
as well as strong local and regional brands (including AQUA,
Blédina, Bonafont, Cow & Gate, Horizon Organic, Mizone, Oikos,
Prostokvashino, Silk, Vega). Listed on Euronext Paris and present
on the OTCQX market via an ADR (American Depositary Receipt)
program, Danone is a component stock of leading sustainability
indexes including the ones managed by Vigeo Eiris and
Sustainalytics, as well as the Ethibel Sustainability Index, the
MSCI ESG Indexes, the FTSE4Good Index Series, Bloomberg Gender
Equality Index, and the Access to Nutrition Index.
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