Paul Bulcke (born 8 September 1954) is a Belgian businessman who is the chairman and former CEO of

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

Early life

He graduated as a commercial engineer at the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

and is an

alumnus Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

of the

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Vlerick Business School ("Vlerick") is a Belgian business school with campuses in Ghent, Leuven and Brussels. It is a result of a merger of the MBA programmes of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and of the ''Instituut Professor Vlerick voor Ma ...

. He also attended the program for executive development at the Swiss leading business school

International Institute for Management Development International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a private business school in Lausanne, Switzerland specializes in executive education offering open enrollment programs for senior executives, as well as longer-term educational engage ...

(IMD) in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

Career

In 1979, aged 25, he started working for the Nestlé group and worked in different countries, including Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Portugal, Czech Republic and Germany. Before his appointment as CEO of Nestlé, he was the executive vice president of its Americas divisions. Bulcke has described Nestlé under his tenure as 'une force tranquille' (English: 'calm strength'). He is known for having a reserved, quiet personal manner. He was succeeded as CEO by

Ulf Mark Schneider Ulf Mark Schneider (born 9 September 1965) is a German-American businessman, and the CEO of Nestlé. He is the former CEO of the healthcare group Fresenius SE. Early life Schneider was born and raised in Neuwied, Germany. He became a U.S. ci ...

in January 2017.

Water sustainability

On 30 August 2012, Bulcke was quoted as saying: "If something isn't given a value, people tend to waste it. Water is our most useful resource, but those using it often don’t even cover the costs of its infrastructure. Fresh water is being massively overused at nature's expense, but it seems only a global crisis will make us realise the importance of the issue. What is environmentally unsustainable today will become socially unsustainable in the future."

Awards and honours

On 25 May 2012, he received the VMA Award from the

for his "lifelong career, which has been distinguished by sustained integrity, exceptional management capacity and inspiring leadership".

Personal life

He is married, has three children, and speaks six languages: Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and English. He likes to go sailing as a hobby.

References

Sources

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Belg Paul Bulcke wordt topman Nestlé
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Paul Bulcke

Paul Bulcke

External links

Paul Bulcke

1954 births Living people People from Roeselare Belgian businesspeople Belgian chairpersons of corporations Belgian chief executives KU Leuven alumni Directors of Nestlé Ghent University alumni Chairmen of Nestlé Vlerick Business School alumni International Institute for Management Development alumni {{Belgium-business-bio-stub