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Search In addition, two vice co-chairs have also been elected: Dick Boer, CEO of international retailing group Ahold and Bob McDonald, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Procter & Gamble.
Procter & Gamble and Royal Ahold CEO’s elected vice chairs
PARIS, France, 22nd June 2012 – The Consumer Goods Forum has elected Gareth Ackerman, chairman of one of Africa’s largest retail chains, Pick n Pay as its new co-chair.
Ackerman replaces Lars Olofsson, formerly CEO of Carrefour. He will work jointly with the existing co-chair Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, to drive cross industry collaborative action on sustainability, consumer health and wellness and food safety.
Commenting on his election, Gareth Ackerman said: “We are operating in an increasingly challenging market. An open and collaborative approach by the industry on social, economic and environmental concerns is core to the future of the sector and best serving the consumer. On both a professional and personal level, I am passionate about the issue of global food security and sustainable development, in particular supporting those who visit, work or live near out stores. Indeed, Pick n Pay is already co-sponsor of the Knowledge Sharing & People Development pillar at the CGF. I am honoured to be working alongside Muhtar Kent to help drive The Forum’s agenda over the next year.”
Jean Marc Saubade, managing director of The Consumer Goods Forum, said: “We are delighted that Gareth Ackerman has been elected as our new co-chair. With an impressive background in retail and a focus on sustainable growth, he will play a vital role in bringing our member companies’ together to collaborate and implement programmes that address the issues we face. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Lars Olofsson for his contribution to the Forum during the last two years”
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Gareth Ackerman
Chairman: Pick n Pay Stores Limited
Gareth Ackerman is non-executive chairman of retail chain Pick n Pay Stores Ltd, a position he has held since March 2010. In February 2012, he became executive chairman for the period leading up to the appointment of a new Chief Executive, a position responsible for the strategic direction of the company. The Pick n Pay Group is one of Africa’s largest and most successful retailers with operations in South Africa and southern Africa as far as Zambia in the north and Mauritius in the east.
Prior to this position, he was chairman of Pick n Pay Holdings Ltd (Pikwik) and remains a member of the Pikwik Board.
Gareth was nominated in the top 50 family-led companies compiled by Campden FB/Ernst & Young, based on how crucial they had been to the successful running of the business in the past five years.
Gareth Ackerman has many years of experience in the retail industry. In his early career with Pick n Pay, he held various roles, including setting up its Australian operations and serving as managing director of Blue Ribbon Butcheries before his appointment in 1992 as joint managing director of the Pick n Pay Group. He is a member of the board of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and co-chairman of its knowledge pillar.
He is also chairman and co-founder of Pleiad Capital Management, which engages in private equity investment and corporate finance and strategic consulting advisory activities.
He is a trustee of the Ackerman and Pick n Pay Foundations, which engage in philanthropic and charitable activities.
A passionate contributor to the issue of global food security and sustainable development, Gareth Ackerman has a social sciences degree from the University of Cape Town and a post-graduate business diploma from the University of Oxford. He is a tutor at Oxford University’s Saϊd Business School, of which he is an associate fellow and is on their executive education advisory board. He has lectured at universities in the Netherlands, South Africa and the US and has given a number of presentations at other international conferences.
Bob McDonald
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, P&G
Bob McDonald is Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Procter & Gamble. When Bob became CEO in July 2009, he reaffirmed the Company’s commitment to its Purpose—to touch and improve the lives of the world’s consumers through branded products of superior quality and value. The Company’s growth strategy is inspired by this and is focused on winning with consumers with products that improve their lives in sometimes small, but always meaningful, ways everyday.
P&G is executing this strategy by focusing on its 40 largest and most profitable businesses, its 20 largest and most promising innovations, and its 10 most important developing markets, where the growth potential is highest.
This strategy focuses on winning where it matters most and leverages the Company’s core strengths: consumer understanding, brand building, go-to-market capability, global scale and, most importantly, innovation. In the 17 years the IRI New Product Pacesetters™ has been published, P&G has had 140 products make the top 25 Pacesetters list — more than our six largest competitors combined.
Under Bob’s leadership, P&G has grown sales by an average of nearly four percent per year over the past three years; earnings per share an average of about five percent; and adjusted free cash flow 90%. The Company has delivered these results despite significant economic headwinds, including slow to no growth in developed markets and rising commodity costs.
During this time, P&G has paid about $5.5 billion in dividends, returned over $6 billion to shareholders through the repurchase of P&G stock, and marked the 122st consecutive year that P&G has paid a dividend.
Bob is a champion of global trade and economic growth. Among his numerous activities, he serves on the Board of Directors of Xerox Corporation and is a member of McKinsey’s Advisory Council.
Bob is Chair of The US-China Business Council and is a member of the Steering Committee of the China-United States Exchange Foundation’s research project on US-China Economic Cooperation. He is also Vice Chair of the Business Roundtable and Chair of the Business Roundtable Fiscal Policy Initiative. He is a member of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership and a member of the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations—originally appointed by President Bush, then reappointed by President Obama.
He is a member of the United States Council for International Business Board of Trustees. He serves on the Foreign Investment Advisory Council in Russia, Singapore’s International Advisory Council of the Economic Development Board and the International Business Leaders Advisory Council of Beijing. Bob is a member of JobsOhio Board of Directors and is Co-Chair of the Cincinnati Business Committee Innovation Task Force.
Bob believes good leaders must be passionate about learning and he is focused on helping the leaders of the future strengthen their leadership skills. Bob is Chair of the Board of Visitors for the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, where he also serves on the Fuqua Global Partnerships Committee and the Executive Committee. He also serves on advisory boards at West Point, Northwestern University and The University of Utah.
In 2007, Bob received the inaugural Leadership Excellence Award from the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard Business Review. In 2010, he was awarded a Doctor of Laws, Honorary Degree, from Hampden-Sydney College, and a Doctor of Commercial Science, Honorary Degree, from the University of Cincinnati.
Bob was born in Gary, Indiana, and was raised in the Chicago area. In 1975, he graduated from West Point in the top 2% of his class with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Army as Captain, Infantry, Airborne Ranger, 82nd Airborne Division. He joined Procter & Gamble in 1980.
Bob resides in Cincinnati, Ohio with Diane, his wife of 34 years. They are the parents of two grown children, Jennifer and Robert.
Dick Boer
Chief Executive Officer of Royal Ahold
Dick Boer became Chief Executive Officer of Ahold in March 2011, Ahold is an international retaling group based in the Netherlands, with strong local consumer brands in Europe and the United States. Ahold’s foundation is selling great food, and supermarkets are its core business.
Together with his leadership team, Dick launched a new strategy to reshape retail at Ahold. The strategy is designed to take advantage of rapidly changing customer behavior and retail trends, and stay competitive and succesful. In 2011, Ahold had net sales of € 30.3 billion, over 3,000 stores and 218,000 employees.
Dick joined Ahold in 1998 as CEO of Ahold Czech Republic, after which he became CEO of Ahold’s Dutch operating companies. He became Chief Operating Officer for Ahold Europe in 2006, and was appointed in the Corporate Executive Board in 2007.
Prior to joining Ahold, Dick spent more than 17 years in various retail positions for SHV Holdings in the Netherlands and abroad, and for Unigro N.V. Dick is president of the European Retail Round Table, and a member of the executive board of The Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW).
