Hein Schumacher

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Hein Schumacher
Hein Schumacher at World Economic Forum Davos 2024.png
Schumacher in 2024
Born1 July 1971 (1971-07) (age 54)
Breda, North Brabant, Netherlands
OccupationBusiness executive
TitleCEO, Unilever
TermJuly 2023 – February 2025

Hein Schumacher (born 1 July 1971) is a Dutch businessman, and was the CEO of Unilever from 1 July 2023 to 1 March 2025. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life

Schumacher was born on 1 July 1971 in Breda, Netherlands, and was raised in Rucphen. [3] [4] He studied political science and international relations at the University of Amsterdam, and later business administration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. [3] [4]

Career

Schumacher began his career at Unilever. [2]

He was previously the CEO of the Dutch dairy co-operative FrieslandCampina from 2018 until 2023. [2] [5] [6]

Before that, he worked at Heinz and was based in China for four years and had a stint at Ahold. [5] [7]

Schumacher has been a non-executive director of Unilever from October 2022 until his appointment as its CEO in July 2023. [2] In February 2025, the Unilever board ousted Schumacher in favour of former finance chief, Fernando Fernandez. [8]

In January 2026, Schumacher was appointed CEO of Barry Callebaut AG. [9]

Personal life

Schumacher is married with three children. He is an avid equestrian. [10]

References

  1. ↑ "Unilever Board update".
  2. 1 2 3 4 Pratley, Nils (30 January 2023). "Unilever's new Dutch milkman needs to deliver quickly". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  3. 1 2 Hein Schumacher (in German). Munzinger-Archiv . Retrieved 19 September 2025.
  4. 1 2 van den Broek, Wim (2 February 2023). "Roots van nieuwe Unilever-topman liggen in Rucphen; van krantenbezorger tot CEO" [Roots of new Unilever CEO are in Rucphen; from newspaper deliverer to CEO]. BN DeStem (in Dutch).
  5. 1 2 Gray, Alistair (30 January 2023). "Unilever appoints Dutch dairy co-operative head as chief executive". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  6. ↑ "Hein Schumacher to step down as CEO of FrieslandCampina" . Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  7. ↑ Rijlaarsdam, Barbara; Sondermeijer, Vincent (5 March 2021). "'Er zit altijd vet in een bedrijf, soms is een reset nodig'" [‘There is always fat in a company, sometimes a reset is necessary’]. NRC (in Dutch).
  8. ↑ Kollewe, Julia (25 February 2025). "Unilever ousts CEO Hein Schumacher to speed turnaround". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  9. ↑ "Hein Schumacher appointed new CEO of Barry Callebaut". Company ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR. 21 January 2026. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
  10. ↑ Gray, Alistair; Dunkley, Emma; Massoudi, Arash (1 February 2023). "Hein Schumacher: from Dove soap factory floor to Unilever chief". Financial Times .
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