Quick, pop quiz! Name the CEOs of the biggest food and beverage FMCGs. Now, name the women. We’ll wait.
Nope? No one? That’s because the top seat in the biggest companies are all taken by men. Nestlé is headed up by Philipp Navratil, PepsiCo by Ramon Laguarta, Unilever by Fernando Fernandez, Mondelēz by Dirk Van de Put, Danone by Antoine de Saint-Affrique...
Do I keep going? The same goes for General Mills, Kraft Heinz, and The Coca-Cola Company.
For those that have worked long enough in the industry, they’ll remember some notable female CEOs in Big Food. Indra Nooyi was in the driving seat at PepsiCo, Irene Rosenfeld at Mondelēz, and Michele Buck at Hershey. But today, in the biggest food makers on the planet, no female holds overall accountability for results.
There is only one conclusion: food and beverage has a CEO gender problem.
Why woman make it into the c-suite, but not the top seat
Despite a significant recent shake-up in FMCG leadership – with many new CEOs appointed – a pressing question remains for women who reach the c-suite but are passed over for the top job: why aren’t women being selected to lead F&B?
Of all the possible reasons, two ring particularly true. The first relates to the biggest brief of the biggest job in the business: managing profits and loss.
It appears that big P&Ls are still a men’s game. And by that, I mean that the most-worn paths to the top – whether through CFO or COO tracks – are still largely male dominated. Of the aforementioned companies, there’s just one female CFO and one female COO. And they both serve at the same company: Nestlé.
The other relates to motherhood. In an industry that never sleeps, let alone takes months or years off to care for offspring, motherhood can penalise females in the race to the top. FMCG is global, it’s travel-heavy, and crisis-prone with businesses navigating food safety crises, commodity spikes, and supply chain shocks at every turn. There’s an expectation of constant availability as employees rise through the ranks that not all women can give.
F&B must address gender inequality at the helm
To some extent, both issues are systemic. Without mandated gender‑equal parental leave, women will continue to take more time out to raise children than men. But that doesn’t absolve F&B; companies can still choose to offer equal parental leave voluntarily.
And then there’s the P&L problem. One that needs addressing early on in future leaders’ careers. Why not rotate high-potential women into revenue and operations roles from the get-go – before they cement themselves in positions that still skew largely female, like marketing and HR.
According to Spencer Stuart, one of the biggest names in executive search and leadership consulting, the CPGs that do get more women into big P&L leadership roles treat it like a planned talent project: they look for leadership ability rather than just the “right” career path, track the numbers to spot where women drop out, give them clear steps to get P&L experience, and back them with mentors.
With FMCG leadership in flux once again, the food and beverage industry can’t repeat the pattern of overlooking women for top roles. The disparity is becoming too obvious to ignore. Planning the talent pipeline, fixing structural inequities, and ensuring qualified women are not passed over must be part of any credible leadership strategy.
