Antoine de Saint-Affrique to become new CEO of Danone

(Update) In search of a new CEO, dairy giant Danone has turned to Antoine de Saint-Affrique, currently still top executive at Barry Callebaut.

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It is now official: on Monday evening, the Danone board of directors, chaired by Gilles Schnepp, appointed the Frenchman Antoine de Saint-Affrique as the new CEO of the dairy and water giant. Barry Callebaut’s top executive announced on 22 April that he would be stepping down from the Swiss chocolate maker at the end of August, sparking speculation that he would be the number one candidate to take the helm at Danone.

De Saint-Affrique is to replace Emmanuel Faber, who was made redundant in March. The latter got dismissed under the pressure of activist shareholders, who strongly criticised the ex-CEO’s policy. He was blamed, in particular, for the fact that the company’s financial performance lagged far behind that of rivals such as Nestlé and Unilever.

The 57-year-old de Saint-Affrique, CEO of Barry Callebaut since October 2015, has extensive previous experience in the food industry. He worked at Unilever in various managerial positions for more than twenty years. Incidentally, at Danone, he is back on familiar territory. In the 1990s, he already worked for the French group for several years.