Nestlé names new CEO as Santos retires

Nestlé Philippines, Inc. announced the appointment of Salvador Pigem as its new chief executive officer effective April 1, 2003, following the retirement of Juan B. Santos, which takes effect March 31, 2003. Santos will continue as chairman of the company, ranked one of the country‘s top 10 corporations.

Before his appointment to the top post at Nestlé Philippines, Pigem, who hails from Barcelona, Spain, was market head of PT Nestlé Indonesia from November 1999 to February 2003. His career with Nestlé began in 1978, when he joined Sociedad Nestlé AEPA in Barcelona as project engineer, and later was tapped to head the construction unit at the corporate office in charge of factory construction projects.

In 1985, he worked as manufacturing manager for infant cereal at the Nestlé La Penilla factory, and was later promoted to assistant factory manager. In 1988, he became factory manager of Nestlé’s largest ice cream factory in Europe, France Glaces Findus, in Beauvais, France.

In 1991, Pigem was sent to Nestlé Philippines on a short mission. A year later, he was assigned to Nestlé Thailand Ltd. in Bangkok as technical manager. He moved to Nestec Ltd. in Vevey, Switzerland as technical manager and research and development coordinator at the Confectionery and Ice Cream Strategic Business Unit after two years.

In April 1996, he returned to the Philippines to become general manager of the Ice Cream Division. He left Nestlé Philippines in October 1999 to head PT Nestlé Indonesia.