Nestlé appoints Wal-mart executive Martello
Nestlé has named Wal-mart executive Wan Ling Martello as chief financial officer (CFO) to succeed Jim Singh.
Martello, 53, will take charge in April after Singh, 65, retires. Martello is currently Walmart’s executive vice president of global e-commerce and emerging markets and previously held posts at Kraft Foods and Borden Foods.
“For a company of too many ‘insiders’ at senior level positions, this external perspective and experience could prove to be very useful at Nestlé,” Andrew Wood, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein in New York, wrote in a note to investors.
Martello’s experience in emerging markets may help the company achieve its goal of expansion in those regions. The company, which agreed to its biggest Chinese acquisition with a bid for candy maker Hsu Fu Chi International Ltd in July, has set a target of getting 45 per cent of revenue from developing countries by 2020, compared with about a third now. Unilever generates about half its revenue from those markets.
Martello speaks Mandarin and Hokkien Chinese and the Filipino language of Tagalog in addition to English. None of Nestle’s executive-board members list Chinese among their language skills in their profiles on the company’s website. She will also be Nestle’s highest ranking female executive.
The new CFO may also improve ties between Nestle and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer and one of the Swiss manufacturer’s largest customers, analysts at MF Global, including Andy Smith in London, said in a research note.
Once Martello takes her new post, Nestle will have changed half its executive board members since Paul Bulcke became CEO in 2008.