Rakesh Kapoor (born 4 August 1958) is an Indian businessman. He was, until September 2019, chief executive (CEO) 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 mer ...

plc, a UK FTSE-listed multinational consumer goods company, a major producer of health, hygiene and home products.

Early life

Kapoor was educated at Modern School,

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

, India. Kapoor has a BE (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from the

Birla Institute of Technology and Science Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a Deemed university in Pilani, Jhunjhunu, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. After expansion to a campus in Dubai, it has b ...

(BITS),

Pilani Pilani is a small city situated in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, India. Administratively, it forms a part of Jhunjhunu district. The place became popular since the establishment of BITS Pilani.The city is also the home to some of the olde ...

, and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from XLRI- Xavier School of Management,

Jamshedpur Jamshedpur (, ) or Tatanagar is the largest and most populous city in Jharkhand and the first planned industrial city in India. It is a Notified Area Council and Municipal Corporation and also the headquarter of the East Singhbhum district. It ...

, India.

Career

Kapoor joined Reckitt & Colman in 1987, before the merger with Benckiser, serving in various roles including: Regional Sales Manager, North India; General Manager, Indian Southern Region; and Regional Marketing Director, South Asia. In 1999, he was appointed Global Category Director, Pest Control. Following the merger, he assumed the role of Senior Vice President, Home Care. He was appointed SVP, Regional Director, Northern Europe in 2001 and in July 2006, he was promoted to EVP, Category Development, with responsibility for global category management, research and development, media, market research and strategic alliances. Following discussions with the

Financial Services Authority The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was a quasi-judicial body accountable for the financial regulation, regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2013. It was founded as the Securities and Investmen ...

, Reckitt Benckiser belatedly admitted in October 2012, that in 2010 Kapoor had secured a loan against £7.4m worth of shares in the company. Such undisclosed loans are considered more likely to distort an executive's behaviour than borrowings that are open and known to all. This issue of executive disclosures rose to prominence in 2008 when

Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent Ca ...

co-founder David Ross had to resign after undisclosed use of £201 million in shares as collateral came to light. According to The Daily Telegraph, "A spokesman for the company said the failure to disclose the loans to the market was not the fault of Mr Kapoor who had told the company of the situation." In January 2019, Reckitt Benckiser announced that Kapoor is set to retire by the end of 2019.

Laxman Narasimhan Laxman Narasimhan (born 15 April 1967) is an Indian-American business executive who was chief commercial officer (CCO) of PepsiCo, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Reckitt. He joined Starbucks under the title "interim CEO" in October 2022, and ...

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

's chief commercial officer, will succeed Kapoor as CEO in September 2019.

Compensation

His salary for 2015 was £23.2 million. High Pay Centre spokesman Stefan Stern singled out an £18m share-based long term incentive payment (LTIP) to Kapoor for performance over three years to end of 2015. “We think these LTIPs are hopelessly flawed instruments. They're for three years, which isn't really long term, so they're badly named. They are clearly skewed if they can generate results like this, with a near 100% increase in package."

Investor backlash

In March 2014, in the wake of similar investor backlash protests over compensation for executives at

Pearson Pearson may refer to: Organizations Education *Lester B. Pearson College, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada *Pearson College (UK), London, owned by Pearson PLC *Lester B. Pearson High School (disambiguation) Companies *Pearson PLC, a UK-based int ...

Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

, WPP, which are also listed on The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index — a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization — over 40 per cent of Reckitt Benckiser shareholders refused to support the company's remuneration report.

Personal life

Kapoor is an accomplished bridge player and a keen football and cricket fan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapoor, Rakesh 1958 births Living people Businesspeople from Delhi Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani alumni XLRI – Xavier School of Management alumni Reckitt people Indian chief executives Modern School (New Delhi) alumni