Emmanuel Faber (born 22 January 1964) is a French businessman. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of
Danone
Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of t ...
, and the Chairman of the Board of directors. He was subsequently appointed Chair of the
International Sustainability Standards Board
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is a standard-setting body established in 2021-2022 under the IFRS Foundation, whose mandate is the creation and development of sustainability-related financial reporting standards to me ...
.
Biography
Education and early career
Emmanuel Faber passed his
baccalaureat in
Gap in the early 1980s. Upon graduation from
HEC Paris
HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International Fi ...
in 1986, Faber began his career at
Bain & Company
Bain & Company is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and non-profit organizations. One of the Big Three management consultancies, Bain & Company was fou ...
. He then worked for
Barings Bank
Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London, and one of England's List of oldest banks in continuous operation, oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 ...
, before joining Legris Industries in 1993 as Administrative and Financial Director. He became general manager in 1996.
Career at Danone
Faber joined
Danone
Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of t ...
in 1997 as head of Finance, Strategies and Information Systems. In 2000, he became Chief Financial Officer of Danone and a member of the Executive Committee, appointed as member of the Board of Directors in 2002. In 2005, he was appointed as Vice President, Asia-Pacific region, in charge of operational activities.
Following the encounter of
Franck Riboud
Franck Riboud (born 7 November 1955) is a French businessman. He served as the chairman of Danone.
Biography
Franck Riboud was born on 7 November 1955 in Lyon. He is the son of Antoine Riboud, the previous CEO, who transformed the former Europe ...
and
Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance ...
, he initiated the social business joint venture Grameen-Danone Foods, Ltd in
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. At the end of 2006, he oversaw the creation of danone.communities, the first French mutual
investment fund
An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages inc ...
carrying social business, and served as Director of the danone.communities mutual investment fund (SICAV) since 2008.
From January 2008 to September 2014, he served as Deputy CEO of Danone, responsible for major corporate functions (Finance, Human Resources...), and was named Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors in April 2011.
Invited by
Chico Whitaker
Francisco Whitaker Ferreira (born 1931), known as Chico Ferreira, is a Brazilian architect, politician, and social activist. A devout Roman Catholic, Whitaker inspires his work in the liberation theology, while maintaining close ties with the Catho ...
, he attended the
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum (WSF, pt, Fórum Social Mundial ) is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemoni ...
in
Belem in 2009.
Faber co-chaired with
Martin Hirsch
Martin Hirsch (born 6 December 1963 in Suresnes) is a French civil servant who was the former head of Emmaüs France, the former High Commissioner for Active Solidarity against Poverty, and the High Commissioner for Youth in the government o ...
the Action Tank “Business and Poverty”, social experimentation lab, initiated in 2010 by the
HEC Paris
HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International Fi ...
Chair “Social Business – Enterprise and Poverty”, which gathers companies, civil society organizations and academic spheres together with one common objective: contribute to reducing poverty and exclusion in France.
Between 2011 and 2018, he chaired the Strategic Guidance Committee of IEDES (Institute for Economic and Social Development) of Paris I
Panthéon-Sorbonne University, which amongst others, published the “Tiers-Monde” journal.
In 2013, at the request of the French Minister of Development,
Pascal Canfin
Pascal Canfin (born in Arras, 22 August 1974) is a French politician of La République en marche (LREM) who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (EUP) since 2019. In the 2019 elections for the UE Parliament, he was elected in ...
, he writes a report with
Jay Naidoo
Jayaseelan "Jay" Naidoo (born in 1954) is a South African politician and businessman who served as the founding general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) from 1985 to 1993. He then served as Minister responsible for t ...
on reforming Official Development Assistance : “Mobilizing actors : a new approach to development aid”.
Together with
Michael Lonsdale
Michael Edward Lonsdale-Crouch (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020), commonly known as Michael Lonsdale and sometimes named as Michel Lonsdale, was a French actor and author who appeared in over 180 films and television shows. He is best know ...
and
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, he was chosen to be one of the three French sponsors of the
World Youth Day 2011
World Youth Day 2011 ( es, Jornada Mundial de la Juventud 2011) was the 2011 occurrence of World Youth Day, a Catholic event held from 16–21 August 2011 in Madrid, Spain focused on youth. Media estimated the event's attendance as over a millio ...
.
CEO of Danone
In October 2014, he became the CEO of
Danone
Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of t ...
, succeeding
Franck Riboud
Franck Riboud (born 7 November 1955) is a French businessman. He served as the chairman of Danone.
Biography
Franck Riboud was born on 7 November 1955 in Lyon. He is the son of Antoine Riboud, the previous CEO, who transformed the former Europe ...
. According to
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...
, Faber's appointment was favoured by Riboud, as likely to preserve the dual model of pursuing both social and economic values, which had been developed in the 1970s by Riboud's father, Antoine, as head of Danone.
In June 2016 Faber gave the commencement address to graduates of HEC where he spoke of the need for people to come together and bring down walls.
Chairman and CEO of Danone
In 2017, Emmanuel Faber became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Danone in addition to his function of Chief Executive Officer.
That same year, Danone acquired WhiteWave, making the company the world leader in plant-based products, alternatives to animal proteins.
In April 2019, Emmanuel Faber's term of office as Chairman and CEO was renewed. In the following months he took leading positions in several global and industry-wide initiatives. On June 17, 2019, he was appointed Co-Chairman of the
Consumer Goods Forum The Consumer Goods Forum is a global organization of 400 consumer goods companies with the likes of Amazon and Kellogg being involved. It represents combined sales of 2.5 trillion Euros across 70 countries and 10 million employees.
Overview
The C ...
, which seeks to pursue purpose and positive change in the consumer goods industry. In August 2019, on the sidelines of the G7, in Biarritz, Emmanuel Faber was mandated by French president
Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...
to create a coalition of large global companies committed to the inequalities of opportunity, territory and gender. The initiative was sponsored by the OECD. In September 2019, at the
UN Climate Action Summit, he announced the creation of the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) business coalition, which aims to protect biodiversity, in particular in the agricultural world.
Faber extended Danone's "multi-stakeholder" model of business, emphasising environmental and social priorities. He championed the idea of includinging a Carbon Adjusted EPS (Earnings Per Share) metric in company reports.
In 2020 he won 99% shareholder approval for changing Danone's legal status to an “
Entreprise à Mission” to consolidate its social mission. On this he declared they had “toppled one statue of
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
” (i.e. decisively rejected a profit-only approach).
On March, 14th 2021 he was ousted as chair and CEO by the board of directors.
Following his controversial departure from Danone, ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
'' wrote that "Emmanuel Faber will enter history as one of the leading executives promoting stakeholder capitalism and centering core business units around ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) objectives". ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' said his work as Danone's chairman and CEO "had made him a star among environmentalists and climate activists".
Compensation at Danone
In 2012, his annual
compensation was €3.9million.
In 2016, his compensation amounted to 4.82 million euros.
On April 25, 2019, during the general meeting of shareholders of Danone, the resolution concerning the approval of his compensation in 2018 of 2.8 million euros was approved at 98%. He also announced that he would give up his Danone retirement package, which amounts to 1.2 million euros per year, in order to only receive the traditional pension of employees.
In May 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, Danone's board of directors accepted Emmanuel Faber's proposal to reduce his fixed compensation by 30% for the rest of 2020 as of July 1, 2019.
Career after Danone
In October 2021, Faber became a partner at Astanor Ventures, an agritech investment company.
In late 2021, he was appointed Chair of the new
International Sustainability Standards Board
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is a standard-setting body established in 2021-2022 under the IFRS Foundation, whose mandate is the creation and development of sustainability-related financial reporting standards to me ...
.
Bibliography
*''Main basse sur la cité ; éthique et entreprise'',
Hachette Hachette may refer to:
* Hachette (surname)
* Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing
** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary
** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm
See also
* Hachett ...
1992
*''Chemins de traverse ; vivre l’économie autrement'',
Éditions Albin Michel
Éditions Albin Michel is a French publisher. In January 2022, the new director is Anna Pavlowitch, the daughter of Paul Pavlowitch, Romain Gary and Jean Seberg's nephew.
History
It was founded in 1900 by Albin Michel. They published, first, Ro ...
2011, Prix de l'Humanisme Chrétien
*''Quand la fragilité change tout (Ouvrage collectif)'', Albin Michel 2013
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faber, Emmanuel
1964 births
Living people
HEC Paris alumni
Businesspeople from Grenoble
French chief executives
Groupe Danone people
Bain & Company employees