Dive Brief:
- Unilever North America CIO and VP of analytics and business solutions Alessandro Ventura was elevated to global VP of technology transformation, according to his Monday LinkedIn post. He will be relocating from the global consumer goods giant’s U.S. hub to its corporate headquarters in London, he said. Unilever confirmed Ventura’s appointment via email Wednesday.
- Eric Chen, the company’s head of data and analytics, IT and workplace and business solutions in Southeast Asia, will succeed Ventura as VP of tech operations for Unilever North America, according to a separate post by Chen.
- The move comes on the heels of the company’s “cloud-only” digital transformation, completed in April and facilitated by the Microsoft/Accenture joint venture Avanade.
Dive Insight:
The nearly century-old multinational company migrated its IT operations to Azure infrastructure in just 18 months.
A massive project, it allowed the company to shutter on-prem data centers, paving the way for accelerated product launches, customer service enhancements and operational efficiency gains aimed at curbing carbon emissions.
In May, shortly after the digital migration was complete, the company announced two key leadership changes: Conny Braams, chief digital and commercial officer, will depart in August and CFO Graeme Pitkethly’s plans to step down in May 2024.
The latest leadership reshuffle promotes two Unilever veterans.
Ventura’s tenure dates back 20 years.
He joined the company’s European management trainee program in 2003, according to his LinkedIn bio, and ascended through the ranks of its tech operations, rising to CIO of Unilever North America in 2017 and adding VP to his title three years later.
His successor in North America comes from the company’s Southeast Asia hub in Singapore, where Chen worked in IT and data and analytics leadership for eight years.
Prior to joining Unilever, Chen spent eight years at Procter & Gamble in several positions, including senior director of business intelligence and senior director of customer analytics for the consumer goods company’s Singapore division.
