Laurent Freixe
Laurent Freixe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 21 April 1962 Paris, France |
| Education | EDHEC Business School |
| Title | CEO, Nestlé |
| Term | 2024 - |
| Predecessor | Ulf Mark Schneider |
Laurent Freixe (born 21 April 1962) is a French business executive and the CEO of Nestlé since 2024.
Early life
[edit]Freixe was born in April 1962 and grew up in Paris. His parents were electrical engineers.[1] He earned an MBA with an emphasis in marketing from EDHEC Business School in Lille in 1985.[1] Freixe was a competitive handball player, winning a French championship when he was sixteen years old.[1]
Career
[edit]Freixe started at Nestlé negotiating contracts with grocery stores.[1] He worked in market research, then as a brand manager for the Dairy and Nutrition division. He helped Nestlé beat competitor Captain Iglo in the fish sticks market with a new fish sticks brand he launched called Croustibat.[1] He also helped the struggling French snacks division rebound by making large cuts to the overstaffed division.[1]
At age 37, Freixe became the head of the Dairy and Nutrition Division for Nestlé France for three years, before moving to Hungary where he was the head of the Spanish and Portuguese markets for two years.[1] In 2008, Freixe was invited to take over as the head of Europe.[1] Freixe helped grow the Nestlé coffee brand Nescafé Dolce Gusto to billions in annual revenue.[1] As head of Europe, he developed his approach to management, which he refers to as a "virtuous circle." He focuses on cutting costs not to improve profit margins, but to invest in new products that grow revenue.[1] In 2014, he was put in charge of the Americas at Nestlé.[1]
On 1 September 2024, Freixe succeeded Ulf Mark Schneider as CEO of Nestlé.[2][3] He reversed the restructuring efforts of the prior CEO,[4] increased spending on advertising,[3] and cut costs by a few hundred million euro per year.[1] Freixe said he was going to reduce the company's pace of acquisitions.[5] He also restarted the company's 60/40 rule, whereby Nestlé only releases products where blind taste-testing experiments show at least 60 percent of consumers prefer it over competing products.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Ruschmann, Dirk (27 February 2025). "Kriegt Nestle unter Laurent Freixe die Kurve". Bilanz.
- ^ "Nestle replaces CEO Schneider with company veteran Freixe". CNBC. 23 August 2024. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
- ^ a b Basini, Bruna (9 May 2025). "Nestle, Who Else?". Les Echos.
- ^ Ruschmann, Dirk (1 November 2024). "Laurent Freixe legt los". BILANZ. p. 22.
- ^ "Nestlé boss says his predecessor 'weakened the fabric' of the company". Financial Times. 22 May 2025. Retrieved 9 July 2025.