Quick Facts
Biography
Keith Weed is Unilever's CMCO, responsible for the marketing and communications functions, a role which also includes leadership of Unilever's sustainability agenda and the Unilever corporate brand. He has held this role since 2010. Before this he was Unilever's Head of Global Home Care & Hygiene.
Education
Weed, born in 1961, obtained a Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honours from Liverpool University in 1983.
In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Southampton Solent University recognising his contributions to business.
Career
Weed worked as an engineer after graduating university before joining Unilever in 1983 as a marketer. Throughout his career at Unilever, he has been chairman of Lever Fabergé and chairman of Unilever Export. He has worked for Unilever in the UK, France, the United States, both in global and regional roles across general management and marketing. More recently he was global head of Home Care & Hygiene, covering Fabric Cleaning, Fabric Conditioning, Household Cleaning Products, Oral Care and Portable Water. As Unilever's chief marketing and communications officer, Weed is on Unilever's executive board with the Marketing, Communications and Sustainable Business teams reporting to him.
Since becoming CMCO, Weed has pioneered new ways of integrating sustainability in business and led the creation of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan . Weed dissolved Unilever's Corporate Social Responsibility departmentand has integrated sustainable growth throughout Unilever’s business. The Unilever Sustainable Living Planseeks to grow the business while reducing its environmental footprint and increasing its social impact. In 2014, Weed gave a TED Talk about the global issue of climate change and argues that sustainability and economic growth can go hand-in-hand.
In 2016 Weed was LinkedIn's second most influential writer on the platform in the UK.
In 2017 Weed was named the most influential CMO globally by Forbes.He was also voted as the Marketers Marketer of the Year by Campaign readers.
Outside Unilever, Weed is a fellow of The Marketing Society, of which he was president from 2003 to 2006, and is a fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. He was a non-executive director of Sun Products Corporation from 2008 to 2016. He is currently a board of trustees director for Business in the Communityand a Board Director of the Effies.