Updated 09:30  Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nestlé, in an early Thursday morning brief press release with no details, announced the departure of Paul Polman, executive vice-president in charge of the company’s Zone America," with immediate effect in order to pursue other interests." Unilever, meanwhile, announced that Polman will move into its CEO slot effective January, when current CEO Patrick Cescau retires. Unilever is the world’s second largest consumer group, according to Bloomberg.

Polman moved from Procter & Gamble to Nestle in 2006 as the food multinational’s chief financial officer and he was widely tipped in 2007 to take on the job of executive president when Peter Brabeck-Letmathe retired and moved to the post of chairman of the board. The company in a surprise announcement in September 2007 named Paul Brucke, head of Zone Americas, to the top job and in January 2008 Polman moved from his finance job to head the Americas unit.

Polman, who is Dutch, will be heading a company based in The Netherlands.

Financial Times story on the Unilever appointment

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