Kees van der Graaf will retire from the Board of Unilever and from his role as President Europe, after a Unilever career spanning 32 years. Kees joined Unilever in 1976 as a market research officer. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1983, as general marketing manager for Wall’s Meat, and in 1986 became marketing and grocery sales director of Frigo in Spain.

In 1990, he returned to Unilever headquarters in Rotterdam and took on a number of other senior ranking positions. In 2001 he was appointed business president of Ice Cream and Frozen Foods Europe. In 2004 he became global foods director, and was appointed to the boards of Unilever N.V. and PLC. In April 2005 he was appointed Unilever president for Europe.

Van der Graaf is also an ECR board member, and at this year’s ECR Europe conference, Nestlé CEO, Peter Brabeck-Lemathe, presented him with a box of chocolates as a farewell gift amid good-humoured competitor banter.