Name: Richard Rivers
Was: Head of corporate strategy at Unilever
Now: Various non-executive directorships
Years in grocery: 41

Career background: Rivers started his career in marketing and sales, working for five years at an advertising agency. He joined Unilever in 1969 and in his 41 years there held a number of roles including senior vice president for the fmcg giant’s global skincare category, general manager for European laundry detergents, and senior vice president for strategy in the home and personal care division. His last role there was chief of staff and head of strategy, before he left in 2010.

What is he doing now? Since leaving Unilever, Rivers has built up an impressive portfolio of non-executive directorships. He became a non-executive director for Mothercare in July 2008 and in October last year was named senior independent director there. He has been a non-exec for Channel 4 since 2010, is a non-exec at skincare company Lumene Oy, and is also a member of the advisory board of WPP and consultancy The Foundation.

At Unilever: Rivers had a long career at Unilever but is perhaps better known for his later work as head of corporate strategy. He headed the strategy for Unilever’s new business model in 2005 that combined a more active, aggressive, top-down approach to managing and building the company’s portfolio. He found unexploited growth for its food business in Europe, discovered Unilever was particularly strong at combining global leadership with a strong country position, and that the company needed to focus on businesses that were growing faster than average.

What next? A return to a full-time role in grocery seems unlikely, but you wouldn’t rule out Rivers taking on a non-exec role at a grocery company in the future.

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