OREANDA-NEWS. Unilever today announced that the following Directors will offer themselves for re-election at the Annual General Meeting of Unilever N.V. on 29 April 2015 and the Annual General Meeting of Unilever PLC on 30 April 2015 (the 2015 AGMs): Laura Cha, Louise Fresco, Ann Fudge, Jean-Marc Hu?t, Mary Ma, Hixonia Nyasulu, Paul Polman, John Rishton, Feike Sijbesma and Michael Treschow.

Byron Grote, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Kees Storm and Paul Walsh will not be offering themselves for re-election at the 2015 AGMs.

Michael Treschow, Chairman of Unilever, said:

“I would like to thank Byron, Sir Malcolm, Kees and Paul for their contributions as Unilever Non-Executive Directors. They have each brought invaluable experience to the Unilever Boards and been a great source of advice and guidance for the business.

"When Kees was chair of the Audit Committee he made a huge contribution to both the transformation of that Committee and of Unilever itself. Since 2011 Kees has served as Vice-Chairman and Senior Independent Director playing a key role in developing our long term business model and I would like to thank him for his support in that role.

"Byron has been a long term member of the Audit Committee and has, since 2011, expertly chaired that Committee. During a time of much regulatory change he helped to navigate the standards towards more integrated reporting and leadership in corporate governance.

"Sir Malcolm has been a valuable member of the Unilever Boards and has played an active role in both the Corporate Responsibility Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

"Paul has contributed greatly over the last few years as chair of the Compensation Committee, putting leading practices in place in our overall remuneration framework which has helped Unilever to further strengthen its performance culture.

"They leave with the best wishes of us all.”

If re-elected as a Director at the 2015 AGMs, Ann Fudge will become the Vice-Chairman and Senior Independent Director and Chairman of the Compensation Committee, John Rishton will become Chairman of the Audit Committee and Feike Sijbesma will become Chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Louise Fresco will continue as Chairman of the Corporate Responsibility Committee.

It is proposed that Dr. Judith Hartmann and Mr. Nils Smedegaard Andersen join the Boards as Non-Executive Directors. They will be proposed for election to the Boards at the 2015 AGMs.

Dr. Hartmann has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of GDF SUEZ with effect from 16 March 2015. She has been Chief Financial Officer and a member of the executive board of the international media and services corporation Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA since 2012. Prior to that, she had been at General Electric since 2000, where she had a number of CFO roles in Europe, USA and Latin America, the last of which was CFO GE Germany. Dr. Hartmann has also been a Non-Executive Director of RTL Group and of Penguin Random House since 2013.

Mr. Andersen has been Group Chief Executive Officer at A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S since 2007. Prior to that he was Executive Vice-President (1999-2001) and President, Chief Executive Officer (2001-2007) at Carlsberg Breweries. He is Chairman of Dansk Supermarked Group, Vice-Chairman of the ERT European Round Table of Industrialists, a Director of Inditex and a member of the Committee on Business Policies, Confederation of Danish Industry.

Michael Treschow, Chairman of Unilever, said: “I am very pleased that Judith and Nils have agreed to be proposed to join the Boards. They are both distinguished in their fields and will further strengthen the financial and industry expertise of the Boards, which will add considerably to the business.”