The announcement of a new CEO for the subsidiary of a listed company often passes silently. But with the Dutchman Jochanan Senf, the new CEO of Ben & Jerry’s, it is different. The ice maker has been in conflict with parent company Unilever about his activist character for some time. Ben & Jerry’s would now also have passed the appointment of the new CEO.
First of all: who is Joochanan Senf?
Senf is a Unilever veteran. Not long after his study economics at the VU University in Amsterdam, he joined in 2003 as a commercial manager for a few smaller food brands. A few years later he became director of Europe for Ben & Jerry’s. In 2017, Senf was appointed director of Indonesia by Unilever. In recent years he was in charge of, among other things, the nutritional activities of the group in the so-called Dach region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).
Then why is the appointment sensitive?
The sensitivity is in the way Senf’s appointment would have gone, writes the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The previous CEO David Straver was put aside by Unilever in March. Among him, Ben & Jerry’s would have become too activist in the eyes of Unilever. Ben & Jerry’s has a more socially involved profile than many other companies. This is how it is strong for the Palestinians that are exposed to genocidal violence by Israel. A statement about American policy under Donald Trump would be through Unilever are stopped Not to take the US president against the hair. When selling in 2000, the food group stipulates that an independent committee within Ben & Jerry’s control retains on the social mission and marketing expressions of the company. In recent years the resistance within Unilever has grown against these liberties. The departure of Straver is the subject of a lawsuit that Ben & Jerry’s leads against the parent company.
What exactly is the sensitivity in?
This independent committee would not have been consulted when appointing a new chairman of the board. According to the Wsj, he would not have had the opportunity to speak candidates about their thoughts about geopolitical and social issues. The CEO of Unilevers Ice Division – which also includes OLA (Magnum, Cornetto) and who must go to the Amsterdam stock exchange later this year – would have written in an internal memo that the committee would have had the opportunity to question individual candidates. “However, the independent committee decided to ignore our offer, to delay the process and to threaten with a lawsuit.”
Then still: how activist is Senf?
That is difficult to say at first sight. The X-profile of Senf shows that he regularly shares groceries of users who take on refugees and expresses himself against and racism and extreme right (“Thierry Baudet and Theo Hiddema score very low on EQ”). If Unilever was looking for someone who can appeal to Trump, it is certainly not successful. In a tweet Senf earlier: “Let it be clear I am not a @hillaryclinton fan, but if @therealdonald wins in five days then we really have a problem.” He also retwart a message from the Londean mayor Sadiq Khan which states that Trump is not welcome in the British capital.