Kees Kruythoff

During his long career with Unilever, Kees has worked in different roles within the company traveling around the world, from Europe, Africa, Asia to Latin America, before being appointed president of Unilever North America cluster. Kees started his career at Van den Bergh in the Netherlands where he held several marketing and sales roles. In 1999 he became Vice President of marketing for the foods business in South Africa. During this period he was also part of the Brand South Africa team to support the SA Investment Council. In 2002 he joined the Board of Unilever Bestfoods Asia as Senior Vice President, Beverages NEA with the intent to build a foods and beverages business in Asia. In 2004 Kees returned to South Africa to take on the position as CEO of Unilever Foods. During this time he also took part in the ELIAS MIT program in an effort to bring together the three sectors, Business, Government and NGO’s, In March 2008 Kees became CEO for Unilever Brazil, the second largest Unilever business, and was nominated as one of the country’s top 10 sustainability leaders. In September 2011, he moved to the United States to lead the Unilever NA Cluster. From the first of November 2011 he became part of the Unilever Leadership Executive. Kees currently serves on the board of Grocery Manufacturers Association and is the Chairman of the Board for Enactus Worldwide. In his personal life Kees is surrounded by his lovely wife Sabine and his beautiful daughters, Maud, Puck, Dominique and Jasmine. Any free time he has is spent with them, playing sports or travelling around the world.