The Board of Directors of Nestlé S.A. has declared their intention to appoint Paul Bulcke as Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé and to have him take on his new responsibilities in April 2008. Current CEO, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, will continue to serve as active, non-executive, Chairman of the Board. The succesor for Bulcke's position, Head of Zone Americas, will be announced in October 2007.

Brabeck-Letmathe and the Board felt the time was appropriate to separate these two key functions, as well as bring about a generational change at the CEO level. The timing is dictated by the determination to ensure management continuity by entrusting the office of CEO to a younger person who will thus be able to assume the CEO mandate for a number of years.

Brabeck-Letmathe, stated: "The Board chose a strong and pragmatic business leader, ideally suited to lead the Group... As a member of Nestlé's Executive Board, in charge of Zone Americas, he played a decisive role in transforming this region not only into the Group's largest, but also into its most profitable one." He added, "I am personally looking forward to working with him in my future role as an active, non-executive, Chairman of the Board."