Sue Garrard to depart from Unilever

Unilever’s global comms and sustainability chief Sue Garrard is set to step down from her role this August. She joined Unilever in 2011 from the Department for Work and Pensions, where she was comms director, and was tasked with streamlining Unilever’s comms into one entity. When she became senior vice president for sustainable business and comms, she implemented the Sustainable Living Plan to make Unilever a sustainable business, a plan widely considered an inspirational example of how to put purpose right in the middle of a successful global corporation.
Garrard is responsible for teams in 180 markets covering media relations, employee engagement, public affairs and issues and crisis handling. She was a non-executive director of the Serious Organised Crime Agency until 2013, and has been vice-chair of the Advertising Association since 2014. Paul Matthews, VP global media relations, external affairs will take over the comms role, and chief sustainability officer Jeff Seabright will be in charge of sustainability.