Faced for several months with a sling within his board of directors, Emmanuel Faber, CEO of Danone has managed to save his post as chairman, but he will soon have to give up general management.
Read also: Emmanuel Faber's fight to save his head at Danone
Monday evening, after three hours of intense debate, the board of the French food giant has certainly "renewed its support" to Emmanuel Faber.
But the intransigent leader had to accept the dissociation of the functions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, without obtaining that this only take place at the end of the general meeting of April 2022. The board of directors launches from now the process of recruiting the new boss operational.
With Danone since 1997
Joining Danone in 1997, this HEC graduate was appointed Group CEO in October 2014. He had held both positions since December 1, 2017: on that day, his predecessor Franck Riboud became Honorary Chairman of the group. built by his father Antoine.
This separation of functions was essential to put an end to the sling within the board of directors that arose in mid-October following the announcement of the surprise departure of Cécile Cabanis, the financial director of Danone.
It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to calm the pressure of the two activist shareholders, the Bluebell Capital funds and especially Artisan Partners, which owns more than 3% of Danone.
The latter are calling for the outright departure of Emmanuel Faber and the abandonment of his Local First reorganization project, to which the board renewed its unanimous support on Monday.
Read also: "We just want Danone to be managed properly"
Wishing to arrange a top exit for Emmanuel Faber, the board appointed Jean-Michel Severino, one of his relatives, as lead director.
He will also chair the Governance Committee.
Gilles Schnepp, who was co-opted to the board in mid-December with a view to becoming lead director, will simply be vice-chairman, just like Cécile Cabanis.
