Lambertus Johannes Hermanus "Bart" Becht (born 29 July 1956) is a Dutch businessman. An executive with more than 35 years of business experience working with consumer brands, Becht is the former Chief Executive Officer of

Reckitt Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, trading as Reckitt, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, England. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition products. The company was formed in March 1999 by the merge ...

, which he led from 1995 to 2011 and former Partner at

JAB Holding Company JAB Holding Company ("JAB" or Joh. A. Benckiser) is a German conglomerate, headquartered in Luxembourg, that includes investments in companies operating in the areas of consumer goods, forestry, coffee, luxury fashion, animal health, and fast foo ...

, which he joined in 2012. Becht announced his retirement from JAB in 2019. Through his role at JAB, Becht serves on the board of directors of several public companies, including

Keurig Dr Pepper Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1981–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts. Formed in ...

and Coty.

Early life

Becht received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

, The Netherlands, and received an MBA from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Booth School of Business The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth or Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 N ...

Career

Reckitt Benckiser

He joined the Benckiser side of the business in 1988, following a career at

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

, and was named CEO of Benckiser's Household Products Division in 1995. While Becht was CEO, Benckiser went public via an IPO in 1997 and merged with Reckitt & Coleman in 1999. While Becht led Reckitt Benckiser, he helped orchestrate the company's acquisitions of Boots Health Care International, Adams Therapeutics and

SSL International SSL International plc was a British manufacturer of healthcare products. Its best known brands were Durex and Scholl; other significant brands were Sauber and Mister Baby. The company's name was an abbreviation of ''Seton Scholl London Internati ...

. During his tenure at Reckitt, Becht oversaw a fivefold increase in the company's market value and over the 10 years to 2010, the company was the fourth best performing stock in the FTSE 100. He retired as CEO of Reckitt Benckiser on 31 August 2011, and was succeeded by

Rakesh Kapoor Rakesh Kapoor (born 4 August 1958) is an Indian businessman. He was, until September 2019, chief executive (CEO) of Reckitt plc, a UK FTSE-listed multinational consumer goods company, a major producer of health, hygiene and home products. Ear ...

JAB

Following his retirement from Reckitt, Becht joined as a Partner the Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings Co., which invests in companies with premium brands in the consumer goods category. As of June 2018, JAB had over $80 billion in assets under management. During Becht's time at JAB, the firm has acquired stakes in several food and beverage brands, such as

Peet's Coffee Peet's Coffee is a San Francisco Bay Area-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer owned by JAB Holding Company via JDE Peet's. Founded in 1966 by Alfred Peet in Berkeley, California, Peet's introduced the United States to its darker roasted ...

Jacobs Douwe Egberts JDE Peet's is a Dutch company that owns beverage brands, mostly of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. It was formed in 2015 following the merger of the coffee division of Mondelez International with Douwe Egberts as Jacobs Douwe Egberts. The stock of ...

Keurig Green Mountain Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1981–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts. Formed in ...

Dr. Pepper Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Europe ...

Panera Bread Panera Bread is an American chain store of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri. The company operates as Saint Louis ...

Pret A Manger Pret A Manger (''prêt à manger'' is French for ''ready to eat'') is an international sandwich shop franchise chain based in the United Kingdom, popularly referred to as Pret, founded in 1983. As of December 2022, Pret had 434 shops in the UK, ...

and

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans ch ...

, among others.

Other Boards and Councils

Other private company directorships have included:

, Caribou Coffee/Einstein, Pret A Manger, Krispy Kreme and Panera Bread.

Personal life

Becht, who is married and has three children, in 2006 founded the Becht Family Charitable Trust, which supports

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

organizations such as

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

as well as educational and environmental causes. He was ranked second on the Sunday Times ‘Giving List’ in 2011 and served on the Board of Directors of nonprofit

UK from 2013 to 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becht, Bart 1956 births Living people Dutch businesspeople Reckitt people University of Groningen alumni Erasmus University Rotterdam alumni People from Bergen op Zoom