Nestle: Changes on Board of Directors and Executive Board

Vevey / CH. (nsa) At the 150th Annual General Meeting of Swiss Nestle S.A. in April 2017, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman of the Board of Directors, will not stand for re-election in line with the company’s Articles of Association.

Brabeck-Letmathe, having served Nestle for 50 years, of which 14 years on the Executive Board, eleven years as CEO and twelve years as Chairman, will have reached the mandatory age of retirement and will relinquish all his Board functions.

The Board of Directors has decided to propose Paul Bulcke, Nestle’s current CEO, for election as Chairman at the next Annual General Meeting on 06 April 2017.

In order to prepare for this future role as active, non-executive Chairman and respect a minimum cooling-off period, Bulcke will resign from his present position as CEO on 31 December 2016.

Paul Bulcke was appointed CEO and member of the Board of Directors on 10 April 2008 and, under his successful leadership at the helm of the company for over eight years, Nestle has experienced industry-outperforming development and made further progress in its journey to become the leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness company.

In extraordinary Nomination Committee and full Board of Directors meetings, the Board reconfirmed the long-term orientation for Nestle as a Nutrition, Health and Wellness company and expressed the intention of fully integrating both Nestle Health Science S.A. and Nestle Skin Health S.A. into the Nestle organization reporting directly to the CEO of Nestle S.A. from 01 January 2017.

With this reconfirmation of the long-term strategy and the organizational integration in mind, the Board unanimously decided to appoint Ulf Mark Schneider as the new CEO of Nestle S.A., starting on 01 January 2017, and propose him for election to the Board of Directors at the 2017 Annual General Meeting.

Ulf Mark Schneider, 50 years old and a German and U.S. citizen, has been CEO of Fresenius Group since 2003. He is a graduate of the University of St. Gallen with both a graduate and a doctoral degree, and also holds a Harvard Business School MBA.

Fresenius, which offers high-quality products and services for dialysis, hospitals and outpatient treatments, has prospered strongly under the leadership of Mr Schneider over the past 13 years. Today, with over 220’000 employees in more than 100 countries and annual sales 28 billion EUR, Fresenius is one of the world’s leading diversified healthcare companies.

In order to ensure a smooth hand-over phase, Schneider will join Nestle on 01 September 2016 for an introductory period.

Together with Paul Bulcke, who is highly experienced in the area of fast moving consumer goods, the new team is ideally suited to accelerate Nestle’s journey to become the world’s pre-eminent Nutrition, Health and Wellness company whilst fostering Nestle’s values and principles.

Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe: «With the proposed appointment of Paul Bulcke as Chairman of the Board and Ulf Mark Schneider as CEO, the Board has increased the company’s capabilities to accelerate Nestle’s journey to become the world’s pre-eminent player in the Nutrition, Health and Wellness sector. Together with our excellent executive team, Nestle is well prepared to face the increasingly difficult external environment and deliver on both its long-term and short-term performance goals».

Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke: «I thank the Board for their confidence in proposing me as Chairman and I’m looking forward to working with Ulf Mark Schneider for Nestle’s continued success. Ulf Mark Schneider brings to Nestle a wealth of proven and seasoned professional and personal skills which will blend very well with Nestle’s experienced management and company culture».

Ulf Mark Schneider: «I am honoured and excited to have the opportunity to join Nestle. This is a truly iconic global company with a proud heritage and tremendous future prospects. With consumers around the world taking a deeper interest in their personal health and wellbeing, Nestle’s industry-leading global food and beverage business positions it well for advancing the vision of Nutrition, Health and Wellness. I very much look forward to working with the Nestle team and all Nestle stakeholders as we continue to pursue this vision».