Unilever names US communications chief

NEW YORK - Unilever has named Nancy Goldfarb as its director of public relations, where she will serve as the chief press officer for the US.

Goldfarb takes responsibility for Unilever's corporate PR and media relations, as well as providing counsel to Unilever's businesses for major brand PR initiatives. She reports to Paul Wood, vice-president of corporate affairs for Unilever's US operations.

She was previously the director of corporate affairs at Bristol-Myers Squibb, joining that company in 1991. Goldfarb has also worked at the agency Ketchum Public Relations, where she was senior vice-president of the New York office and head of the consumer marketing practice.

In joining Unilever, she will be working for a company with sales of $11bn (拢7.5bn) in the US annually, and staff of 28,000. Its brands include I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, Hellmann's and Ben & Jerry's ice-cream.

Unilever was in the news last year when rival consumer and household goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble revealed it had hired a corporate intelligence firm to examine Unilever's haircare business, but alerted its rival when the firm went too far in gathering sensitive information. The dispute was settled with a rumoured $10m payoff by P&G.

Unilever uses a number of PR agencies on its brands, including Hill & Knowlton and M Booth & Associates.

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