Gavin Neath, chairman of Unilever Bestfoods, is moving to Unilever UK as chairman on July 1, replacing Richard Greenhalgh.
Greenhalgh is retiring after more than 36 years’ service at Unilever UK.
Kevin Havelock, who is chairman of Unilever Arabia, will succeed Neath who joined Unilever Bestfoods in 1977.
Neath held various sales and brand management positions in Lever UK until 1985 when he moved to France to become European brand manager for fabric conditioners.
He became marketing director for Lever France in 1987 before being made category director for detergents at Lever Europe in 1990.
From 1994 to1998 he was managing director of Lever Ponds, South Africa. He then returned to the UK in 2001 to become chairman of Unipath, its women’s health diagnostics subsidiary.
Then, in 1999 he became chairman of Van den Bergh Foods, which merged with Bestfoods UK in 2001, creating Unilever Bestfoods UK.
Neath is deputy president of the Food and Drink Federation and a former chairman of Caravan, the grocery industry’s benevolent organisation.

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