THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Customer Service

Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it. - PETER DRUCKER

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever

Paul earned a BBA/BA from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, in 1977 and an MA in economics and MBA in finance/international marketing from the University of Cincinnati in 1979.

Paul began his career at Procter & Gamble in 1979, with finance assignments in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, leading to associate finance director. He subsequently held a variety of senior positions within the company including category manager and marketing director France, vice-president and general manager Iberia, vice-president and managing director UK, and president Global Fabric Care. He was appointed group president Europe and officer of the Procter & Gamble Company in 2001.

Prior to joining Unilever, Paul was chief financial officer of Nestlé S.A. from January 2006 as well as executive vice president for the Americas from February 2008.

Paul serves as President of the Kilimanjaro Blind trust and Chairman of Perkins International Advisory Board. He is a member of the European Round Table, The International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. On the Board of the Consumer Goods Forum he co-chairs the Board Strategy and also the Sustainability Committees. He is a Trustee of both the Leverhulme Trust and Asia House, a former board member of Alcon and, since February 2010, a non-executive director of The Dow Chemical Company.

Recognised by Investor Magazine as chief financial officer of the year 2007, Paul received the Carl Lidner award from the University of Cincinnati in 2006 and was the WSJ/CNBC European Business Leader of the Year 2003. He has been awarded honorary degrees from the Universities of Northumbria, Newcastle, UK, in 2000 and the University of Cincinnati, USA, in 2009.

Married with three children, Paul’s interests include reading, marathon running, and mountaineering, but his main passion is for his role in running the Kilimanjaro Blind trust.

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