Jump to content

Antoine de Saint-Affrique

From bizslash.com

"You play at your best when you are free - not when you are afraid."

— Antoine de Saint-Affrique[2]

Overview

Antoine Bernard de Saint-Affrique
Born (1964-12-26) 26 December 1964 (age 60)
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
CitizenshipFrance
EducationESSEC Business School; executive program, Harvard Business School
Alma materESSEC Business School
OccupationBusiness executive
EmployerDanone
Known forLeading Danone's "Renew Danone" strategy; former CEO of Barry Callebaut
TitleChief Executive Officer of Danone
Term2021–present
PredecessorEmmanuel Faber
Board member ofBurberry (non-executive director); Essilor International (former independent director)
SpouseCarole de Saint-Affrique
Children4

🧑 Antoine Bernard de Saint-Affrique (born 26 December 1964) is a French business executive who has served as chief executive officer (CEO) of Danone since September 2021. He previously headed Swiss cocoa and chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut from 2015 to 2021 and spent more than two decades in senior roles at consumer goods group Unilever, including as president of its Foods division and a member of the group executive committee.[3][4] Widely associated with a focus on profitable growth combined with sustainability, he launched the "Renew Danone" turnaround strategy to revive growth at the dairy and nutrition group following a period of investor unrest.[5] Saint-Affrique has also served on the boards of companies such as Burberry and Essilor International and is known for emphasising candid diagnosis, decentralised decision-making and long-term sustainability in his leadership approach.[6][7]

Early life and education

🏡 Family background. Saint-Affrique was born on 26 December 1964 in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb of Paris, into a family with long-standing links to French public service; one ancestor was ennobled as Baron de Saint-Affrique under Napoleon, and his father Jean worked as a magistrate.[8][9][10] Growing up in what has been described as an intellectually demanding environment, he developed a disciplined demeanour and an early familiarity with legal and administrative matters that later influenced his managerial style.[10]

🎓 Business education and naval service. After preparatory studies, Saint-Affrique entered ESSEC Business School, graduating in 1987 with a degree in business administration before carrying out a year of mandatory national service as an officer in the French Navy.[10][3] He later complemented this training with an executive education programme at Harvard Business School in 2002, a step often cited as emblematic of his interest in international management and continuous learning.[9][4]

Career

Early career at Unilever

🪥 Unilever apprenticeship. Saint-Affrique joined Unilever in 1989, beginning his career in marketing roles that included reviving sales of struggling toothpaste brands, an early test of his ability to reposition mature consumer products in competitive categories.[10][6] His early years with the group exposed him to fast-moving consumer goods markets and to the operational disciplines of a large multinational.

💼 Entrepreneurial condiments buyout. In 1997 he left Unilever to participate in a leveraged buyout of Amora-Maille, a French condiments business being spun off from Danone, exchanging the security of a blue-chip career for the risks of a smaller, highly leveraged company.[10][4] The turnaround of Amora-Maille, completed by 2000, gave him experience in restructuring, cost control and brand revitalisation; after the deal he returned to Unilever with a reputation as a dynamic manager able to operate in both entrepreneurial and corporate environments.[4]

📈 Rise within Unilever. After rejoining Unilever in 2000, Saint-Affrique held a succession of senior posts, including head of sauces and condiments for Europe, chief executive of the Hungary–Croatia–Slovenia business from 2003 and, from 2005, responsibility for operations across Central and Eastern Europe, covering 21 countries.[4][6] In 2009 he was appointed to lead Unilever's global Skin Care unit and in 2011 became president of the Foods division and a member of the Unilever group executive committee, overseeing a portfolio generating more than €12 billion in annual revenues.[3][5]

Barry Callebaut

🍫 Move to Barry Callebaut. In October 2015 Saint-Affrique left Unilever to become chief executive officer of Swiss-based cocoa and chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut, marking his first appointment as CEO of a listed company.[4][5] The group is one of the world's largest suppliers of chocolate and cocoa products to industrial and foodservice customers, and his mandate was to accelerate growth while strengthening the supply chain.

🌿 Chocolate growth and sustainability agenda. During his six-year tenure at Barry Callebaut, he pursued a strategy built around expanding into new geographies, stepping up innovation, keeping a tight focus on costs and embedding sustainability in cocoa sourcing through the "Forever Chocolate" programme.[4][11] Under his leadership, the company's sales volumes and operating profit rose significantly and its share price more than doubled between 2015 and 2019, while it received high rankings from environmental organisations for its climate and forest commitments.[5][11]

Danone

🥛 Appointment as Danone chief executive. In May 2021 Danone announced that Saint-Affrique would succeed Emmanuel Faber as CEO, following a period of activist shareholder pressure over the French group's lagging sales growth and margins relative to rivals such as Nestlé and Unilever.[5][6] Faber, who had championed a purpose-driven strategy and the adoption of "entreprise à mission" status, was removed after investors argued that execution and profitability had suffered, and Saint-Affrique was brought in as a candidate promising both financial discipline and continuity on sustainability.[12] He took up the role in September 2021, inheriting a company with around 100,000 employees and a portfolio spanning dairy, plant-based, infant nutrition and bottled water brands.[3]

🕵️ Early diagnosis of Danone's challenges. On arrival at Danone, Saint-Affrique undertook what he later described as an uncompromising assessment of the group's strengths and weaknesses, telling an IMD audience that management had been "very open to the market and quite uncompromising on the good, the bad and the ugly" in analysing performance.[13] He acknowledged publicly that Danone had underperformed peers while insisting that it operated in attractive categories and held strong local brands, arguing that "uncomfortable truths" needed to be faced in order to create the freedom to rebuild the business.[13][5]

🔄 Renew Danone strategy. In early 2022 Saint-Affrique and his team launched "Renew Danone", a multi-year transformation plan intended to restore sustainable growth by resetting culture, execution and the business model.[14] The programme emphasised an "executional reset" with clearer accountability and faster decision-making, a financial and business-model reset focused on selective investment and margin recovery, and a shift to a more decentralised, locally anchored organisation building on the earlier "Local First" initiative.[14][5] Saint-Affrique framed the plan as getting "back to basics" while keeping Danone's purpose-led culture, frequently reiterating that "80% right immediately is better than 100% late" in explaining his preference for timely, pragmatic decisions over elaborate long-term blueprints.[13]

🧃 Portfolio choices and M&A stance. As part of Renew Danone, Saint-Affrique pruned underperforming brands and sharpened investment behind categories such as plant-based alternatives and specialised nutrition, while reaffirming a long-term commitment to Danone's core dairy and water businesses.[14][15] He oversaw the disposal of assets including the North American Vega plant-based brand and signalled that non-core operations could be sold or repositioned, but publicly rejected market speculation that any of the group's main divisions might be divested, arguing that they provided strategic balance.[15][6]

📊 Financial performance under Renew Danone. Under Saint-Affrique's leadership, Danone returned to stronger top-line growth, reporting like-for-like sales increases of around 7% in 2022 and further growth in 2023 despite inflationary headwinds, driven in part by price increases with broadly resilient volumes.[16] The company's European operations achieved positive volume and mix growth for eight consecutive quarters, reversing earlier decline in its core region, while operating margins began to recover as cost-saving and productivity measures flowed through.[16][17] Investor sentiment improved markedly: Danone's share price, which had stagnated in the late 2010s, reached an all-time high of close to €80 in late 2025, with a gain of more than 20% in 2023 alone.[18]

💱 Balance of profit, debt and sustainability. Commentators have described Saint-Affrique's strategy at Danone as centred on "profitable growth and strong cash flow generation" coupled with a "trustworthy sustainability strategy", reflecting investors' expectations that he maintain the group's social and environmental commitments while rebuilding margins.[12][5] He has emphasised reducing leverage over share buybacks, stating in 2024 that share repurchases were "not a priority" while the company focused on debt reduction and investment in its brands.[19]

Financial profile

💶 Executive compensation and incentives. As CEO of Barry Callebaut, Saint-Affrique earned total annual compensation of around US$7 million, including salary, bonus and share-based awards in his final year at the company, placing him among the better-paid executives in the European food sector.[9][4] At Danone his remuneration package has been reported at approximately €6.1 million annually in recent years, with a base salary of €1.4 million and the remainder tied to short-term bonuses and long-term incentive plans, a level Simply Wall St has characterised as broadly in line with peers.[20]

🏦 Perceived wealth and shareholding. Saint-Affrique's personal wealth derives primarily from his long career in senior corporate roles rather than from entrepreneurial windfalls, and he has not appeared on major billionaire rankings.[21] Danone's regulatory filings show that he owns around 7,500 shares in the company, representing a very small fraction of the share capital but aligning a portion of his wealth with other shareholders.[22] Public commentary has generally focused less on his personal fortune than on the structure of his incentives and their linkage to long-term performance and environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets.[20]

Other roles and public activities

🏛️ External board and advisory roles. Alongside his executive positions, Saint-Affrique has held a number of non-executive and advisory roles. He joined the board of Burberry Group plc in 2017 as a non-executive director, bringing consumer goods and emerging-markets experience to the British luxury fashion house, and previously served as an independent director of Essilor International in the ophthalmic optics sector.[9][6] He has also been appointed as a French Trade Advisor, drawing on his experience working in Hungary, Russia, the United Kingdom and Switzerland to provide guidance on export and investment issues.[9]

🌐 Engagement in industry and sustainability forums. Saint-Affrique has been active in industry bodies and global sustainability debates, including participation in the One Planet Business for Biodiversity coalition and contributions to World Economic Forum discussions on plastic pollution and food systems.[23][24] In the dairy sector he has addressed the International Dairy Federation's World Dairy Summit on topics such as the nutrient density of dairy products, the financing of regenerative agriculture and the need for stronger public–private partnerships to support farmers under climate and economic pressure.[25]

Personal life

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Marriage and family life. Saint-Affrique is married to Carole de Saint-Affrique, and the couple have four children; sources describe the family as having accompanied him on several international postings as his career took him from France to the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.[8][3] Commentators note that he tends to avoid publicity around his private life and is regarded as a low-key presence away from work.[8]

⛵ Interests, personality and habits. A stint as a reserve officer in the French Navy in the late 1980s is often cited as formative in shaping Saint-Affrique's emphasis on discipline, teamwork and resilience, and he has remained an enthusiastic sailor.[10][3] Profiles depict him as calm under pressure and meticulously prepared—former colleagues recall his close attention to brand performance details—yet approachable and culturally adaptable, speaking fluent English and having picked up other languages during assignments in Eastern Europe.[7][16]

Management style and leadership

🤝 Leadership style and decision making. Saint-Affrique has characterised his leadership philosophy as combining analytical rigour with pragmatic action, famously telling IMD that "80% right immediately is better than 100% late" when urging managers to confront issues quickly rather than wait for perfect information.[13] He stresses psychological safety and empowerment, arguing that "you play at your best when you are free, not when you are afraid", and has described his role as creating conditions for teams to take responsibility while aligning around clear objectives.[7]

🧑‍🏫 Mentoring and talent development. Alongside his corporate responsibilities, Saint-Affrique has taught marketing as a visiting instructor at Mines ParisTech and other institutions, a role that he has said reinforces his commitment to nurturing younger generations of managers.[9][10] At Danone he has launched programmes to identify and fast-track promising internal talent, telling interviewers that one of his aims is to "create room for budding talents to emerge and thrive" as part of the company's renewal.[7][13]

Controversies and challenges

⚖️ Shareholder activism and purpose debate. Saint-Affrique's appointment at Danone came in the wake of an unusually public governance battle, as activist investors criticised Emmanuel Faber for prioritising environmental and social goals over shareholder returns and pressed for managerial change.[5][12] Observers questioned whether the new CEO would dilute Danone's "dual economic and social project" or instead seek to "earn the right" to pursue purpose by first improving execution, and his early statements emphasised continuity on sustainability combined with sharper financial discipline.[6][5]

🚫 Russia expropriation and geopolitical risk. One of the most acute external shocks of Saint-Affrique's tenure occurred in 2023, when the Russian government placed Danone's Russian operations under temporary state administration and installed Yakub Zakriev, a relative of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, as the unit's new head.[26] The move effectively expropriated a business representing around 5% of Danone's global revenue; the group subsequently initiated legal action and wrote off the asset, while reaffirming its financial guidance, illustrating the geopolitical risks inherent in its footprint.[26][16]

✂️ Restructuring, job cuts and labour relations. Implementing the Renew Danone agenda has involved significant organisational restructuring, including the completion and extension of the earlier "Local First" programme that entailed several thousand job reductions, particularly in head office and support functions.[14][5] While many investors welcomed the simplification of reporting lines and cost savings, employee representatives and unions in France raised concerns about the social impact and potential loss of expertise; management responded with consultations and severance measures, arguing that a leaner structure was necessary to restore competitiveness.[12][16]

👔 Burberry directorship controversy. Outside Danone, Saint-Affrique has faced criticism from some shareholders of Burberry over his capacity to serve on the fashion group's board while running a large multinational. At Burberry's 2022 annual general meeting more than 20% of investors voted against his re-election as a director, and similar levels of dissent were recorded in 2023 amid concerns about "overboarding".[27][28] In January 2025 Burberry announced that he would step down at the 2025 AGM, presenting the decision—welcomed by corporate governance advocates—as allowing him to focus on his primary executive role.[29]

🌪️ Ongoing challenges and strategic questions. Analysts continue to debate whether Saint-Affrique will be able to sustain Danone's recent momentum in the face of headwinds such as input-cost inflation, competition from plant-based alternatives to dairy and scrutiny of bottled water's environmental impact.[16][18] He has supported regulatory initiatives on healthier eating and sugar reduction and framed Danone's role as providing more nutritious options while improving the environmental footprint of its products, but some commentators warn that his balancing act between shareholder demands and broader stakeholder expectations will remain difficult.[19][23]

Legacy and assessment

🧭 Legacy and assessment. Commentators often describe Saint-Affrique's career as that of a turnaround specialist who combines operational detail with a long-term sustainability lens, moving from brand management at Unilever to leading Barry Callebaut and then attempting to revitalise Danone.[6][4] Supporters argue that his willingness to confront "uncomfortable truths" and to link purpose to performance has begun to restore credibility with investors while preserving Danone's social mission, whereas critics question whether the gains achieved so far can be maintained over a full cycle.[13][12] Saint-Affrique himself has framed challenges as opportunities, remarking that recognising a problem is the first step in turning it into a chance for improvement, and his tenure at Danone is widely seen as the decisive chapter in his corporate legacy.[13][16]

Related content & more

YouTube videos

Load video
YouTube
IMD CEO Dialogue interview in which Antoine de Saint-Affrique discusses sustainable growth and leadership at Danone (2023).
Load video
YouTube
Danone corporate video where CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique explains the group's partnership with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

biz/articles

References

  1. ↑ "Danone CEO: 80% right immediately is better than 100% late". IMD Business School.
  2. ↑ "Antoine de Saint-Affrique". IMD Business School.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "Antoine de Saint-Affrique". Danone. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 "Antoine de Saint-Affrique" (PDF). Barry Callebaut. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 "Danone names new CEO: 'Antoine de Saint-Affrique is a standout leader in the consumer goods world'". FoodNavigator. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 "Danone names new CEO – who is Antoine de Saint-Affrique?". Business Chief UK & Europe. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Antoine de Saint-Affrique – CEO Dialogue podcast". IMD. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Antoine Bernard de Saint-Affrique". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 "Antoine Bernard de Saint-Affrique". Wikipédia. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 "Biographie d'Antoine de Saint-Affrique". LSA-Conso. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Sixty-one companies in Brazil have committed to combating deforestation in the Cerrado". WWF Brazil. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 "Danone names new CEO – analyst reaction". FoodNavigator. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 "Danone CEO: '80% right immediately is better than 100% late'". IMD. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "Explore Danone's Renew strategy for growth". Danone. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Danone CEO says businesses not for sale". Just Food. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 "Antoine de Saint-Affrique". DairyNews Today. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  17. ↑ "Danone reports 4.8% increase in third quarter 2025 sales". DairyNews Today. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Danone (BN.PA) – Stock price history". CompaniesMarketCap. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Danone CEO says buybacks not a priority amid debt reduction focus". Investing.com. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Shareholders will probably not have any issues with Danone S.A.'s CEO compensation". Simply Wall St. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  21. ↑ "Danone S.A. (DANO.Y) leadership & management team analysis". Simply Wall St. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  22. ↑ "Danone Universal Registration Document 2024" (PDF). Danone. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Danone". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  24. ↑ "Antoine de Saint-Affrique – contributor profile". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  25. ↑ "Danone CEO calls for greater public–private partnerships to support dairy's role in sustainable food". DairyNews Today. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Chechen leader's 'dear' nephew made head of seized Danone subsidiary in Russia". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  27. ↑ "2022 annual general meeting voting outcome update". Burberry Group. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  28. ↑ "2023 annual general meeting voting outcome update". London Stock Exchange. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  29. ↑ "Burberry director to retire following shareholder dissent". Investing.com. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
Retrieved from "https://www.bizslash.com/w/index.php?title=Antoine_de_Saint-Affrique&oldid=3161"