Unilever today (May 30) announced that Conny Braams, its chief digital and commercial officer (CDCO), will leave the company in August 2023, per a press release emailed to Marketing Dive. A successor will be named "in due course."
"I am very grateful for Conny’s excellent leadership of our digital, marketing and commercial agenda over the last four years, and for her impressive contribution to Unilever over three decades. As CDCO she has helped to transform our company into a future-fit, fully digitised organisation," CEO Alan Jope said in a statement.
Braams became Unilever's top marketer in January 2020 as the company's first chief digital and marketing officer, a title that was changed to chief digital and commercial officer in April 2022 in an acknowledgment of the connection between digital transformation, marketing and sales.
Despite some investor pushback on Unilever's purpose-driven efforts, the company's brand marketing under Braams has continued to focus on issues like sustainability and diversity. Unilever in 2021 banned the use of the word "normal" in the advertising and packaging of its beauty and personal care brands, while the Dove Self-Esteem Project this year expanded its efforts to push for legislative action around social media.
Since joining Unilever in 1990, Braams has served in a variety of roles across different global territories for the company, including as executive vice president for Middle Europe, executive vice president for Benelux and the home care division in Europe, and senior vice president running Unilever's Foodsolutions and Out of Home Business in 25 countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, per her Linkedin page. Braams has also served as a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE) since January 2020.
The 2019 creation of the chief digital and marketing officer role, and Braams' promotion to it, spoke to how Unilever sought to prioritize digital marketing moving forward, especially following the departure of Keith Weed after a decade as CMO — a role that the company retired.
Unilever last month saw quarterly sales growth that beat estimates as price rises only caused a small decrease in sales volumes. Last year, the company underwent a category-focused reorganization and restructuring that came amid investor criticism on a variety of fronts.
