Unilever CEO Alan Jope has announced that he will resign effective at the end of 2023, bringing an end to a tenure marked by significant turmoil.
No successor has been named. Unilever will look at both internal and external candidates during a review process.
Under Jope’s tenure, Unilever unified its corporate headquarters in London, ending a split between the UK and Holland that had vexed some shareholders. It also sold most of its tea operations and announced at the beginning of this year an overhaul that will reorganize the corporation into five divisions instead of three – and eliminate 1,500 mostly white-collar jobs.
Jope, however, was criticized for what some shareholders perceived as Unilever's poor performance during the pandemic, and for an aborted bid to acquire the home-health division of GlaxoSmithKline. Activist investor Nelson Peltz gained a seat on Unilever’s board as his company became one of the corporation’s biggest single investors.
Jope has worked at Unilever for more than three decades, becoming CEO at the beginning of 2019.
