Michael Polk joined Newell Rubbermaid as President and Chief Executive Officer in July 2011. Previously, Mike was President of Global Foods, Home and Personal Care at Unilever, where he was responsible for the development, innovation and marketing of Unilever\'s entire 64 billion dollar portfolio of categories and brands. During eight years at Unilever, he is credited with transforming the company’s business in the Americas, sharpening Unilever’s global portfolio strategy, and creating a more competitive, faster-growing, innovation-driven organization. He was a member of the Unilever Executive Board from 2007-2011. Earlier, Mike spent 16 years at Kraft Foods serving as President, Asia Pacific Region, Kraft Foods International and President, Nabisco Biscuit & Snacks, Kraft Foods North America. In both positions, he served on Kraft’s Management Committee. Prior to Kraft, Mike spent three years at Procter & Gamble working in manufacturing and research & development in the Paper Products Division. He has a B.S. in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
I think this combination of engineering and business is really, really critical, particularly in businesses where you've got a tangible, physical product. It may be different in a service industry, or maybe not, because of the software that drives consumer connections to the product. But for me, yo...(Full transcript available to logged in subscribers.).
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