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Dirk van de Put (born 14 May 1960) is a Belgian businessman, and the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mondelez International. CEO since November 2017, he also became chairman in April 2018.

Early life

Van de Put is a native of Mechelen, Antwerp Province, Belgium, and has a veterinary medicine degree from Ghent University, and a master's degree in business from the University of Antwerp. He is fluent in Dutch, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Career

Van de Put worked for Coca-Cola, Mars Inc, Novartis and Groupe Danone, before becoming CEO of the Canadian frozen foods manufacturer McCain Foods in 2010. He is a non-executive director of Mattel.

In November 2017, he succeeded Irene Rosenfeld as CEO of Mondelez International. He also became chairman in April 2018. He was hired by Mondelez with a reputation for driving growth in traditional packaged food brands. While Mondelez grew 1.5% in 2016 and 0.9% in 2017, Van de Put is promising organic revenue growth of 3% per year and is working to achieve this by increasing advertising spend and giving more responsibility to local marketing managers. In the third quarter of 2019, growth reached 4.2%, and operating profit for 2019 was increased by 20%.

Personal life

Van de Put has Belgian and US citizenship. He is married and has two sons.

Controversies

Child labor

In November 2023, International Rights Advocates filed a class-complaint against Mondelez International and Van de Put, alleging that as CEO:

rather than honor the pledge that they made , defendants and all of the other major chocolate companies, have done little to address the ongoing and pervasive use of child workers performing the worst forms of child labor on their sourcing plantations and have focused on misleading the public by falsely claiming their “rehabilitation” programs offer meaningful assistance to children found working on their plantations.

Statements on activities in Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian War

As CEO of Mondelez International, Van de Put has defended the continued operation of the company in Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian War. In an interview with the Financial Times, Van de Put stated that were Mondelez to leave Russia, the assets of the company would be left to "friends of Putin," which would generate more cash to fund Russia's war efforts than the amount of taxes the company currently pays to Russia. Van de Put further asserted that "here has been no shareholder pressure whatsoever" for Mondelez to end operations in Russia, and that shareholders do not "morally care" whether the company remains in Russia.

References

1. ^ Meddings, Sabah (17 October 2021). "Mondelez boss Dirk Van de Put: We made Cadbury stronger". The Sunday Times.
2. ^ CNBC (2 August 2017). "Dirk Van de Put named CEO of Mondelēz as long-time CEO Irene Rosenfeld retires". cnbc.com. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
3. ^ "Outsider replaces long-time CEO at Oreo cookie maker Mondelez". 2 August 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017 – via Reuters.
4. ^ "Who is Dirk Van de Put, the new CEO of Mondelez?". Retrieved 8 January 2018.
5. "Who is Dirk Van de Put, the new CEO of Mondelez?". chicagobusiness.com. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
6. "What this snack foods giant is getting right". Crain's Chicago Business. 2019-10-31. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
7. "Class Complaint For Injunctive Relief and Damages" (PDF). Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
8. "Mondelez chief says investors do not 'morally care' if groups stay in Russia". Financial Times. 2024-02-22. Retrieved 2024-08-08.

• Belgian businesspeople
• Belgian chief executives
• Living people
• Ghent University alumni
• University of Antwerp alumni
• People from Mechelen
• 1960 births