Kraft Names Boards, Execs in Preparation for Spin-off

On Thursday Kraft Foods announced the boards that will oversee the two independent companies that will be created when the company separates its global snacks and North American grocery divisions into Mondelez International Inc. and Kraft Foods Group Inc., respectively.

Kraft Foods Chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld will become chairman and CEO of Mondelez when the spin-off occurs, planned for Oct. 1, and will serve on the Mondelez board of directors.

John Cahill will become executive chairman of the North American grocery company, Kraft Foods Group, and serve on its board, and Tony Vernon, EVP and president of Kraft Foods North America, will be CEO of Kraft Foods Group and serve on the board.

Joining Rosenfeld on the Mondelez board are:

• Stephen Bollenbach, 70, who was named president and CEO of Hilton Hotels in February 1996 and then served as co-chairman and CEO of Hilton Hotels from May 2004 until his retirement in October 2007.

• Lewis Booth, CBE, 63, who was employed continuously by the Ford Motor Co. in positions of increasing responsibility since 1978.

• Lois Juliber, 63, a Kraft Foods Inc. director since 2007, spent her career at Colgate-Palmolive (including serving as COO from March 2000 to July 2004) and General Foods.

• Mark Ketchum, 62, a Kraft Foods director since 2007 and lead director since 2009, served as president and CEO of Newell Rubbermaid from October 2005 to June 2011 and was a member of its board of directors from November 2004 to May 2012. He started his career at Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1971.

• Jorge Mesquita, 50, a Kraft director since May 2012, has been employed continuously by P&G in various marketing and leadership capacities since 1984.

• Fredric Reynolds, 61, a Kraft director since 2007, served as EVP and CFO of CBS Corp. from January 2006 until his retirement in August 2009. From 2001 until 2006, he served as president and CEO of Viacom Television Stations Group. Earlier in his career he worked for PepsiCo, including servings as CFO at Pizza Hut, Pepsi Cola International, Kentucky Fried Chicken Worldwide and Frito-Lay.

• Ruth Simmons, 67, is president emerita of Brown University and professor of comparative literature and Africana studies since 2001. She began her higher education career in 1977.

• Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, 50, Kraft director since 2010, has been chairman of the executive board and CEO of Heineken N.V. since 2005. He has been with Heineken in various capacities since 1984.

Named to the Kraft Foods Group board, serving with Cahill and Vernon, are:

• Abelardo Bru, 63, who served as vice chairman of PepsiCo Inc. from 2004 until his retirement in February 2005. Before that he held executive positions with Frito-Lay and PepsiCo.

• Kevin Cox, 48, has served as EVP-human resources of the American Express Co. since April 2005. Before that he spent 16 years at PepsiCo and Pepsi Bottling Group.

• Myra Hart, 71, a Kraft Foods director since 2007, joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School in 1995 as a professor of management practice and retired to its senior faculty in 2008. She was a member of the team that founded Staples Inc. and once worked for Star Market, the Supervalu division.

• Peter Henry, 42, a Kraft director since 2011, has been dean of the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University since January 2010. Before that he was on the faculty at Stanford University.

• Jeanne Jackson, 60, has served as president of direct to consumer for Nike Inc. since March 2009. She’s also worked for MSP Capital Wal-Mart.com USA LLC, the Banana Republic division of The Gap and The Gap.

• Terry Lundgren, 60, who joined the Kraft board in May, has served as president and CEO of Macy’s since 2003 and became chairman of the board in 2004. He also has worked for Neiman Marcus.

• Mackey McDonald, 65, a Kraft director since 2010, has served as a senior advisor to Crestview Partners since 2008. He retired as chairman of VF Corp. in August 2008.

• Jack Pope, 63, a Kraft director since 2001, has served as chairman of PFI Group LLC since July 1994. He also has served with MotivePower Industries Inc. and United Airlines and its parent, UAL Corp.

• Follin Smith, 52, served as EVP, CFO and CAO of Constellation Energy Group Inc., from December 2003 to May 2007. Smith also served at Armstrong World Industries Inc. and General Motors Corp.

Kraft also announced that Tracey Belcourt will become EVP-strategy for Mondelez in September. Belcourt will lead the strategy function and mergers and acquisition activities for Mondelez International and report to Rosenfeld.

“Tracey is a highly accomplished corporate strategist with extensive background in consumer industries,” said Rosenfeld. “She has broad international work experience throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. She joins us at an exciting time, as we chart the course for our new global snacks company.”

Belcourt has been a partner at Bain & Co. in Toronto since 1999, leading teams that specialized in the design and implementation of growth strategies to improve business performance across a variety of consumer industries. She was an economic consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development in Africa in 1999 and, prior to that, served for five years as an assistant professor of economics at Concordia University in Montreal.

In July, Kraft had revealed that Kim Rucker will become EVP of corporate and legal affairs for Kraft Foods Group in late August. She will report to Vernon. Rucker will join Kraft from Avon Products, where she serves as SVP, general counsel, corporate secretary and CCO.

The appointments of Rucker and Belcourt complete the leadership teams of the two companies for the spin-off, Kraft said.