Dirk van de Put (born 14 May 1960) is a Belgian businessman, and the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of

Mondelez International Mondelēz International, Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, Holding company, holding, drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual rev ...

. CEO since November 2017, he also became chairman in April 2018.

Early life

Van de Put is a native of

Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

Antwerp Province Antwerp Province (; ; ; ), between 1815 and 1830 known as Central Brabant ( , , ), is the northernmost Provinces of Belgium, province both of the Flemish Region, also called Flanders, and of Belgium. It borders on the North Brabant province of t ...

, Belgium, and has a veterinary medicine degree from

Ghent University Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

, and a master's degree in business from the

University of Antwerp The University of Antwerp () is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is ''UAntwerp''. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 students, which makes it the third-largest university in Flanders. ...

. He is fluent in Dutch, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Career

Van de Put worked for

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

Mars Inc Mars, Incorporated (doing business as Mars Inc.) is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products and a provider of Animal welfare, animal care services founded on June 23 ...

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...

and

Groupe Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in 1919 in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris, where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's produ ...

, before becoming CEO of the Canadian frozen foods manufacturer

McCain Foods McCain Foods Limited is a Canadian multinational frozen food company established in 1957 in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada. It is the world's largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, with 1 in 4 french fries in the world being a ...

in 2010. He is a non-executive director of

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

. In November 2017, he succeeded Irene Rosenfeld as CEO of

. 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:

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 The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. In an interview with the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

, Van de Put stated that were Mondelez to leave Russia, the assets of the company would be left to "friends of

Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

," 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 " ere 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:van de Put, Dirk 1960 births Businesspeople in confectionery Belgian chief executives Living people Ghent University alumni University of Antwerp alumni People from Mechelen Mondelez International