Emerging importance

Nestlé has caused a lot of speculation with the appointment of Wal-mart executive Wan Ling Martello as chief financial officer as a successor to Jim Singh. She is currently Walmart’s executive vice president of global e-commerce and emerging markets and has been involved in the food manufacturing sector before at Kraft Foods and Borden Foods.

The main benefit of this appointment, according to many analysts, is the experience in emerging markets may help the company achieve its goal of expansion in those regions. This strategy was highlighted in Nestlé’s comments when it took over Hsu Fu in July that it is aiming for 45% of revenue to come from developing countries by 2020. Martello’s languages include Mandarin and Hokkien Chinese and the Filipino language of Tagalog in addition to English so should stand the company in good stead.

Martello’s appointment is just the latest example of appointments beneficial to emerging markets. Rakesh Kapoor became chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser Group this month while Indra Nooyi has been chief executive of Pepsi since 2006. I think we are likely to see even more of these appointments as emerging markets continue to fuel growth.