Danone and Migros CEOs Elected New Co-Chairs of The Consumer Goods Forum Board

PARIS, June 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), the global body pursuing purpose and positive change across the consumer goods industry, announced today that it has elected two new Co-Chairs for its Board of Directors: Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and CEO of Danone will chair the Manufacturer College of the Board, while Özgür Tort, CEO of Migros Ticaret will chair the Retailer College.

The pair will lead the CGF Board for two years and replace outgoing Co-Chairs Ian Cook of Colgate-Palmolive and Olaf Koch of METRO AG. In addition, James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company and Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group have been appointed Vice Co-Chairs of the CGF Board.

Today's announcement was made after the bi-annual Board of Directors meeting, which took place at the 63rd Global Summit in Vancouver from the 12^th-14^th June.

Delivering Purpose & Positive Change at Scale

Mr Faber and Mr Tort take over as co-chairs at a time when continuing disruption in the industry is making the mission of the CGF ever more important.  Increasingly consumers, employees and investors expect companies to embrace a purpose beyond profit, while new technologies are creating opportunities fundamentally to reshape traditional business models. The scale and pace of change makes collaboration across the value chain essential – a unique hallmark of the CGF's way of working. The new co-chairs will bring their manufacturing and retail experience to unite members in addressing issues like plastic waste, food waste, deforestation, forced labour, data accuracy, food safety, consumer health and employee wellbeing.

Commenting on his election, Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and CEO of Danone, said:

"The health of the people and of the planet is the major challenge of the 21st century. We need to act now to build a sustainable future and all stakeholders must join forces to best impact at scale. I am convinced that our industry has a decisive role to play. The CGF embodies a unique platform to drive positive change through collaboration at local and global level, in order to reinvent the industry model. I'm greatly honoured to become new Co-Chair of the Board alongside Özgür and feel inspired to advance the ambitious collective roadmap of the CGF with all its members."

Commenting on his election, Özgür Tort, CEO of Migros Ticaret, said:

"It is an honour to lead the effort, together with Emmanuel, at this exciting moment in our industry. We are all aware that we have to grow sustainably and responsibly to match this increasing consumer demand and to fulfil our responsibility to future generations. Obviously, this requires important changes in the way we do our business. Every change involves several risks that we have to tackle together with our member companies. In the new age of the global consumer goods industry, collaboration between all parties including retailers, manufacturers, legal authorities, universities, NGOs and digital platforms will be the key to empower our sector. This will bring a direct benefit to lives of consumers in the future."

Both Mr Faber and Mr Tort emphasised their gratitude to Mr Cook and Mr Koch for their outstanding contribution to the CGF over the previous two years and thanked them on behalf of the Board for their exceptional leadership and their commitment to accelerate the implementation of positive change. Elected as Vice Co-Chairs at the 2015 Board of Directors meeting in New York, Mr Cook and Mr Koch took over as Co-Chairs following their appointment at the 2017 Board meeting in Berlin. 

About Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Danone

Emmanuel FABER began his career as a consultant at Bain & Company before working as an investment banker at Baring Brothers. He moved to Legris Industries, where he was named Chief Executive Officer in 1996.

Emmanuel joined Danone in 1997 to become in 2000 Chief Financial Officer and a member of the company's Executive Committee. In 2005 he took up the position of Vice-President for the Asia-Pacific region, based in Shanghai. In 2008, Emmanuel was appointed Deputy General Manager. In 2011, he became Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors and in October 2014, he was named Chief Executive Officer. Since December 2017, Emmanuel is Danone's Chairman & Chief Executive Officer. Emmanuel is strongly committed to promoting innovative inclusive business models. In 2005, he supervised the first social business experiments conducted in Bangladesh with Grameen Bank and the creation of Danone Communities, in close collaboration with 2006 Nobel Peace Prize-Winner Muhammad Yunus. With Martin Hirsch, Emmanuel is also a founder and co-chair of the Business and Poverty Action Tank, a social-business incubator based at HEC in Paris.

In 2013, upon the request of the French Government, Emmanuel co-wrote with Jay Naidoo the report "Innovating by mobilising stakeholders: 10 proposals for a new approach to Official Development Assistance."

About Özgür Tort, CEO of Migros Ticaret:

Özgür Tort is the Chief Executive Officer of Migros Group, the leading supermarket chain of Turkey, which has a pioneer position for 65 years in the sector through its innovative implementations, fresh food focus and ultimate service for unique shopping experience. Migros has more than 2,000 stores all around Turkey and has strong operations in Kazakhstan and Macedonia. Tort has a career mastering all the dimensions of retail management. He joined Migros Group in 1996 firstly at Business Development. He leaded the services of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and International Expansion. He worked in Migros' subsidiary in Russia as Chief Operating Officer between 2002 and 2006. In 2006, he moved back to Turkey as Chief Human Resource Officer at the headquarters until he was appointed as CEO of Migros Group in 2008 at the age of 35.

Özgür Tort is also Co-Chair of Food Retailers Association (GPD) and board member of Turkish Federation of Shopping Centers and Retailers (TAMPF) in Turkey. Tort is an Industrial Engineer graduated from Istanbul Technical University and he holds an MS degree specialising in Engineering Management in Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is married and has a child.

About The Consumer Goods Forum

The Consumer Goods Forum ("CGF") is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises more than 50 manufacturer and retailer CEOs. For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.

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SOURCE The Consumer Goods Forum