Mr. Robert Polet is President and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of Gucci Group, the world’s third-largest luxury group, since July 2004.

Mr. Polet joined Gucci Group after a 26-year career at Unilever, bringing considerable global management experience and a deep knowledge of the development of consumer brands in a multi-cultural environment.

“What excites me is to energize people to bring brands to a new level, to achieve impossible things together with people and see the twinkle in their eyes when they achieve it” he says.

Born in Kuala Lumpur on July 25, 1955, Mr. Polet, a Dutch national, studied business administration at Nijenrode in the Netherlands and earned an MBA from the University of Oregon, USA.

Mr. Polet joined Unilever in 1978, and has worked there in a broad variety of marketing and senior executive positions throughout the world. He worked in Paris for two years, spent a year in Milan, and then moved to Hamburg. From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Polet was chairman of Unilever Malaysia, and he subsequently was chairman from 1992 to 1996 of the Dutch Uniliver’s foods company Van den Bergh’s.

In 1996, Mr. Polet joined Unilever HPC Europe in Brussels as executive vice president, Home and Personal Care. He was appointed president of the European Ice Cream and Frozen Foods division in 1998.

In his latest position, Mr. Polet was president of Unilever’s Worldwide Ice Cream and Frozen Foods division, a $7.8 billion business consisting of over 40 operating companies. During his four years at the helm of the division, profit margins increased by 70%.

Mr. Polet is married with two daughters. He speaks Dutch, English, German, French and Italian. His pastimes include sailing and travelling.