Nestlé-Laurent Freixe dispute – overview
- Former Nestlé CEO, Laurent Freixe, challenges dismissal over relationship breach
- He seeks unpaid 2025 bonus and unvested shares
- Freixe claims firing damaged reputation and career prospects after decades service
- Nestlé cited code of conduct violations, denying severance after September dismissal
Former Nestlé CEO, Laurent Freixe, is reportedly seeking to recover a bonus and unvested shares following his dismissal from the food and beverage giant. That’s according to media outlet Bloomberg.
Freixe, 64, was fired from his role as CEO in September last year, following “an undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate“. He’d held the post for just 12 months.
At the time, Nestlé said Freixe would receive no severance package due to “violations of the company’s code of conduct”.
Now, nine months later he is reportedly in pre-litigation settlement talks with the Swiss multinational where he worked for 39 years.
He’s said to be arguing that his dismissal “unfairly harmed his reputation and earning potential”, and wants his pro-rata bonus for the months he worked in 2025 paid and the return of three years of unvested shares that were forfeited upon his termination.
“Mr Laurent Freixe disputes both the grounds and the manner of his dismissal,” his lawyer Vanessa Chambour with Lausanne-based firm PSF 12 told Bloomberg. “After nearly forty years of unfailing service, he was removed without being heard and stripped of compensation he had legitimately earned, a punitive process that has unfairly damaged his reputation and his ability to pursue his career.”
After his dismissal, Freixe kept the title of CEO on his LinkedIn profile for more than six months, even after Nestlé reportedly asked him to change his status. He also did not voluntarily leave Nestle’s board of directors after being relieved of his duties, instead remaining a member until Nestlé’s annual meeting in April, when he was formally removed.
Nestlé has declined request for comment.
