Reckitt has said that its chief financial officer, Jeff Carr, is set to retire in March 2024 and be replaced by Nike's Shannon Eisenhardt.
Eisenhardt is the finance chief of Nike Consumer, Brand & Marketplace and has previously led the finance division for Nike North America and Nike Emerging Markets.
She spent nearly two decades at P&G in a range of finance roles, and will join Reckitt on Oct. 17 as CFO-designate.
New Chief Executive
The move comes as Reckitt, whose products also include Nurofen painkillers, Durex condoms and Strepsils cough lozenges, in April named company insider Kris Licht as CEO-designate to succeed Nicandro Durante, taking the helm by the end of the year after a transition period.
Durante took over in the interim after previous CEO Laxman Narasimhan left the maker of Dettol and Lysol cleaning products in September and subsequently joined Starbucks.
Reckitt last month reported that sales volume fell 4.3% in the second quarter, while retaining its 2023 target range of 3% to 5% for group like-for-like net revenue growth.
Reckitt is one of the many packaged goods companies that struggled with higher input costs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bloomberg News had reported late on Tuesday that Carr, 61, would step down.
'Excellent Service'
“On behalf of the Board and the entire company, I would like to sincerely thank Jeff for his excellent service to Reckitt," commented Chris Sinclair, chairman of the board. "Jeff began his career in Reckitt and returned in 2020 because of his commitment to the company and the fantastic opportunity to grow its leading brands.
"He has been instrumental in driving our strategic and cultural transformation, embedding a strong capital allocation process and delivering a world-class productivity programme over the past three and a half years. He is a highly valued member of the Executive Committee and Board.”
Analyst Viewpoint
Commenting on Carr's departure from Reckitt – one of many chief financial officers to recently announce they are stepping down – analyst Russ Mould of AJ Bell said, “Chief financial officers have a reputation for being focused on the accuracy of numbers. However, to look at their role based entirely on this conception would be doing them discredit.
“It is fair to say 2023 will go down in history as the year of the revolving door at UK plc. Reckitt’s appointment of a change in CFO represents the 35th FTSE 100 company this year to say their numbers person is leaving. That’s the highest figure by some mile since AJ Bell started tracking the data going back to 2000.
“Reckitt’s outgoing CFO Jeff Carr has been in the job for 3.4 years, making him the 42nd longest-serving person in his role among the current FTSE 100 peer group.
“Carr is retiring next year so there is no reason to suggest any bickering behind closed doors at Reckitt. He is being replaced by the CFO for Nike’s consumer, brand and marketplace division, Shannon Eisenhardt, who is also a former P&G long-timer – so a solid hire on paper.”
Additional reporting by ESM
