Unilever's Leadership Change Hands
Business and industry partners of Unilever Philippines gathered during the official handover of chairmanship from Sanjiv Mehta to Fernando Fernandez, former Senior Vice President Global for the Hair Category and a Unilever veteran of 20 years. Mehta was tasked to head Unilever’s around $1.5 billion operations in North America and Middle East Region, composed of over 20 countries.
Mehta led Unilever Philippines to a historical performance in 2007 as it outperformed around forty countries and winning the “Best Performance” award, the highest coveted plum in the regional Asia- AMET (Africa, Middle East and Turkey) Vitality Awards. The award gives honour to Unilever companies that showed outstanding performance in serving, growing and delivering to its shareholders and its 4.7 billion consumers across the Asia-AMET region.
“Unhesitatingly the most important factor was ‘Team Unilever Philippines’. We have a team which is committed, dedicated, has tremendous passion, the will to win and has great capabilities. It is therefore not surprising that Filipinos are highly respected in the Unilever world,” Mehta said when asked about the most important reason behind the success.
Mehta was able to bring vision, determination and mastery of business essentials, along with a strong sense of ethics and code of governance. In just over a year, Mehta was able to head the company to double digit sales growth by 11% percent, increase reach in outlets by 22,000, exhibited a flawless safety record and garnered numerous awards from customers.
Fernandez takes over as chairman and CEO of Unilever Philippines. He joined Unilever in 1988 as part of the Finance department and later moved to the Marketing Department where he was appointed as Laundry Marketing Director. By 1999, Fernandez assumed the Hair Care Latin America Sr. Vice President post and played a key role in the huge turnaround of the business, doubling it in three years. He then headed the Hair Care Innovation Center, his last position before assuming the role of SVP Global for the Hair Category.
An economist from Buenos Aires, Fernandez ably held positions in Finance, Supply Chain, Sales and Marketing, both in regional and global capacities. His previous experiences in different markets around the globe have been instrumental in developing successful initiatives for the business. He is also one of the youngest top 100 leaders of Unilever and the first Latin American with the responsibility of leading a global business category business (Hair Care).
“I am personally delighted to have been chosen to take up the challenge of growing the business further and bringing the vitality mission to our employees, partners, customers and communities,” Fernandez said during the internal handover in the company. “
To Unilever’s key stakeholders, he said ”We will put trust at the center of our relationship with you and ensure we provide you with brands, products and store programs that not only accelerate your growth and profits, but also your standing in the community.”
