RB announces retirement of Adrian Hennah. He will be succeeded by Jeff Carr as Chief Financial Officer.

Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (“RB”) announces the appointment of Jeff Carr as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director to succeed Adrian Hennah, who will be retiring. He will join the Company and the Board on or before 9^th April 2020.

Jeff Carr will join RB from his current role as Chief Financial Officer, Management Board and Executive Committee member at Ahold Delhaize where he has been since 2011.  Jeff Carr began his career at Unilever as a graduate trainee and has held senior roles at Grand Metropolitan plc, Associated British Foods plc, easyJet plc and First Group plc and in senior finance roles in RB between 1994-2004. Jeff also serves as non-executive director of Kingfisher plc.

Adrian Hennah will be stepping down as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director when Jeff starts, remaining with the Company until his retirement date of 21 October 2020 to ensure a seamless transition.

Laxman Narasimhan, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“We are pleased to have appointed Jeff as Chief Financial Officer. Jeff brings extensive experience across consumer and retail companies and is also an alumnus of RB. Jeff has a record of transformational strategic and operational leadership, consistent performance delivery, strong capital allocation discipline and with building strong teams; all of which lead to long term shareholder value creation.

“I am grateful to Adrian for all the support he has provided to me since I joined RB and I would also like to thank him for his leadership and strong commitment to RB over the past seven years.”  

Jeff Carr commented:

“I spent part of my early career at RB and I am delighted to be re-joining RB as its CFO. I have always valued the business’s entrepreneurial energy and creativity and, like Laxman see great potential to drive positive change. I look forward to starting in the role next year.”

Adrian Hennah, Chief Financial Officer, commented:

“It has been a privilege to serve as CFO of this great business for seven years, alongside so many impressive colleagues. I look forward to supporting Laxman while he gets his arms fully around the business, to re-introducing Jeff to the business, and beyond that to new challenges.”

Remuneration disclosure

As CFO of Reckitt Benckiser Group, Jeff will receive a salary of £680,000.  He will receive a pension allowance of 10% of salary in line with the wider RB workforce in the UK, and other benefits in line with RB Policy.  He will be eligible to participate in the Company’s existing annual bonus plan with a target of 100% of salary; in line with our Remuneration Policy this has a maximum of 3.57 times and with one-third of any bonus deferred into RB shares for a period of three years.  He will receive an initial LTIP grant of 40,000 shares and 80,000 options, for the three-year performance period 2020-2022, followed by a two-year holding period.  The share ownership requirement will be 100,000 shares and there will be a formal post-employment shareholding requirement, for two years after departure.  As Jeff is moving from the Netherlands to the UK, he is eligible for relocation benefits.

There are no buy out awards being made to Jeff on joining RB.

All remuneration arrangements are consistent with the terms of the Directors’ Remuneration Policy approved by shareholders at the AGM in May 2019.  Further detail will be set out in the 2020 Directors’ Remuneration Report.

Adrian Hennah will be treated in accordance with the Company’s approved remuneration policy and his service contract, remaining eligible for salary, benefits and bonus until the date he retires from the Company. Any bonus paid for 2019 and 2020 will be subject to one-third deferral into RB shares, in line with our recently approved remuneration policy. All Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) awards which are unvested at the point that Adrian retires from the Company will be pro-rated to the date of leaving and remain subject to performance conditions. No further LTIP awards will be granted. Upon retirement in October 2020, after pro-rating, Adrian will retain an interest under the LTIP in approximately 60,000 shares and 120,000 options vesting dependent on performance to 2020 and 2021, and subject to a further two-year holding period.

Full details will be disclosed on the Company’s website in due course in compliance with Section 430(2B) of the Companies Act 2006 and in the Directors’ Remuneration Report within the Company’s Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2019, and subsequent years, as appropriate.

The company confirms there is no further information to be disclosed under the requirements of listing rule 9.6.13R in relation to Jeff Carr’s appointment.

Reckitt Benckiser Group plc’s LEI code is 5493003JFSMOJG48V108