Paul Polman

Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman, (born 11 July 1956) is a Dutch businessman and author.

He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British/Dutch consumer goods company Unilever.

Polman is also the author of Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.

Instead, he studied at the University of Groningen, graduating with a BBA/BA in 1977.

He completed his MA in Economics and MBA in Finance and International Marketing in 1979 at University of Cincinnati.

Polman worked for Procter & Gamble for 27 years, starting in 1979 as a cost analyst, becoming managing director of P&G U.K. from 1995 to 1998, president of global fabric care from 1998 to 2001, and group president for Europe in 2001.

Polman then joined Nestlé in 2006 as chief financial officer and in February 2008 became vice president and head of the Americas.

Paul Polman has said that he has ambitions to increase the company's sales in emerging markets from the current 57% (47% in 2008) to 70% of turnover.

Procter & Gamble, by contrast, make only 37% of sales in emerging markets and Nestlé 43%.

Whilst CEO of Unilever from 2009 to 2019, he set an ambitious vision to fully decouple business growth from its overall environmental footprint and increase the company’s positive social impact through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

During Polman’s tenure, he provided a return vastly superior to rivals and more than double that of the FTSE index.

On 1 January 2009, Polman succeeded Patrick Cescau as chief executive officer of Unilever.

Under Polman's leadership, Unilever has set a target to decouple its growth from its overall environmental footprint and improve its social impact through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Polman has argued that, in a volatile world of finite resources, running a business sustainably is vital for its long-term growth and also mitigates risk and reduces costs.

Unilever has now seen eight years of top line growth, averaging twice the rate of overall market growth, whilst improving the bottom line and delivering a total shareholder return of 290%.

In 2009, Polman decided to make many significant management changes in order to improve Unilever's revenue in each of its business pillars.

Some shareholders, however, have worried that Polman's focus on sustainability has become more important to him than the financial performance of Unilever after the company missed sales targets for six out of eight quarters in 2013 and 2014.

Polman, who scrapped short-term targets at the company, has argued that the failure to meet targets is a result of erratic currency fluctuations and the slow-down in emerging markets since 2013.

In June 2014 Polman received his honorary doctorate during the 400th anniversary of the University of Groningen.

At the invitation of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Polman served as one of the 27 members of the UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

At the invitation of former Mexican President, Felipe Calderón, Polman served on the International Council of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.

In 2016, Polman's total compensation was €8.3 million including a basic salary of €1.2million and other benefits (2015, €10.2 million).

Bernstein's 2017 Blackbook entitled 'European Food and HPC: 10-Year Global Market Share Analysis' rated Unilever top-of-class for absolute market share gains (ex-M&A) and a proportion of its categories with gains.

It also compared medium-term operating expectations to current valuations, leading to an Outperform rating on Unilever.

In 2018, the Financial Times called Polman “a standout CEO of the past decade.”

On May 18, 2018, Polman received his Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from George Mason University.

As the day's Commencement speaker, Dr. Polman declared, "Any system where too many feel they are not participating or are left behind will ultimately rebel against itself."

Capturing the spirit of his own sense of purpose, he continued, "The world we want will only be achieved when we choose action over indifference, courage over comfort, and solidarity over division."

In 2018, Unilever supported the abolition of Dutch dividend-tax, even though over 80% of Dutch citizens were against the tax-cut as it meant a loss of about 2 billion euros of tax-revenue a year for the Dutch state.

In October 2018, it was announced Unilever has cancelled plans to move headquarters from London to Rotterdam.

In November 2018, Polman announced he was stepping down as chief executive officer of Unilever at the end of 2018 with Alan Jope succeeding him.

In 2019, he co-founded a new organization called IMAGINE with Jeff Seabright (formerly the Chief Sustainability Officer of Unilever) and Kees Kruythoff, to help businesses "eradicate poverty and inequality, and stem runaway climate change."

Polman is also an active Venture Capital investor having participated in several high profile fundraises for climate and mission focused companies.

As a result of his work championing causes around climate change, inequality, and sustainability, Polman has become a prominent global figure in the push for more responsible business.

Polman was born and grew up in the Dutch city of Enschede, in a Catholic family with three brothers and two sisters, the son of a tyre company executive father and a former schoolteacher mother.

Polman had hoped to become a doctor, but medical school places were allocated by lottery and he was not chosen.

In July 2019, Polman announced the formation of a new group - Imagine - to help combat poverty and climate change.

The foundation and corporation aims to help companies meet UN global goals for sustainable development.

Polman is a former chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and sat on the board of directors of the Consumer Goods Forum, leading its sustainability efforts.

He is also a member of board of the UN Global Compact.