Unilever 2004 Annual Report Download - page 73

70 Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2004
Corporate governance
Board changes
The current Directors, with their biographies, are shown on pages
68 and 69. All the Executive Directors held office throughout the
year, with the exception of Kees van der Graaf, who was elected
as a Director at the 2004 Annual General Meetings (AGMs).
The changes to our Board structure described on pages 8 and 53
result in a smaller Board. Antony Burgmans, Patrick Cescau, Kees
van der Graaf and Rudy Markham will be offering themselves for
re-election at the 2005 AGMs. Clive Butler, Keki Dadiseth and
Andrévan Heemstra will retire from the Boards. Their colleagues
wish to thank them for their contributions to Unilever over the
past 34, 31 and 34 years respectively.
Ralph Kugler is nominated for election as an Executive Director of
NV and PLC at the 2005 AGMs. He is currently Business President
– Home and Personal Care – Europe and his biography is set out
in the Notices of the AGMs.
Antony Burgmans will take up the role of Non-Executive
Chairman of NV and PLC and Patrick Cescau will become Group
Chief Executive. Rudy Markham will be Chief Financial Officer and
Kees van der Graaf and Ralph Kugler will be President Europe and
Category President Home and Personal Care respectively.
Leon Brittan, Lynda Chalker, Bertrand Collomb, Wim Dik, Oscar
Fanjul, Hilmar Kopper, David Simon and Jeroen van der Veer are
nominated for re-election as Non-Executive Directors of NV and
PLC at the 2005 AGMs. All were elected as Non-Executive
Directors on 12 May 2004, having previously been Advisory
Directors, following the approval of the corporate governance
changes proposed at the 2004 AGMs. Their biographies are set
out on pages 68 and 69.
Claudio Gonzalez, due to the pressure of his other commitments,
retires as a Non-Executive Director at the 2005 AGMs and his
colleagues thank him for his advice over the past seven years.
We plan to make Bertrand Collomb, currently our Senior
Independent Director, Vice-Chairman of NV and PLC. Professor
Wim Dik will join the Audit Committee.
During 2004 Niall FitzGerald retired as Chairman of PLC and Vice-
Chairman of NV, Charles Strauss retired as a Director and Senator
George Mitchell retired as an Advisory Director. Patrick Cescau
became Chairman of PLC and Vice-Chairman of NV on 1 October
2004 and Kees van der Graaf succeeded Patrick Cescau as Foods
Director.
Other changes
As already mentioned, the changes to our business organisation
in 2005 described on pages 8 and 53 will lead to an Executive
team that supports Patrick Cescau as Group Chief Executive. The
roles of Kees van der Graaf, Ralph Kugler and Rudy Markham as
members of that team will be as stated above. The other
members of the Executive team, and their responsibilities, will be
Vindi Banga – President Foods, Harish Manwani – President
Asia/AMET, John Rice – President The Americas, and Sandy Ogg –
Human Resources. Vindi Banga, Harish Manwani and John Rice
are currently Business Presidents and their details are given on
page 69. Sandy Ogg is aged 51, joined Unilever in 2003 from
Motorola and is currently Senior Vice-President Human Resources
for the Foods Division.