Estee Lauder Makes Changes to Global Supply Chain Team
The Estée Lauder Companies announces that after nearly 13 years with the company, Gregory F. Polcer, executive vice president, global supply chain, has made the decision to retire, effective July 1, 2021. He will be succeeded by Roberto Canevari, who will assume the role, effective May 1, 2021. Canevari will report directly to Fabrizio Freda, president and chief executive officer. Polcer will work closely with Canevari over the next several months to support a smooth and successful transition.
“Greg has led ELC’s global supply chain with a great blend of strategic insight and innovative thinking,” said Freda. “He has evolved our supply chain organization into a truly integrated, state-of-the-art global network that touches all aspects of our business and drives tremendous value. He has also been instrumental in elevating and operationalizing our core principles of safety and sustainability, and has been an enthusiastic and vocal champion of inclusion & diversity within his team and across the enterprise. Greg’s genuinely positive energy, enthusiastic leadership style and unique interdisciplinary expertise will be truly missed.”
“I am thrilled to welcome Roberto to The Estée Lauder Companies,” continued Freda. “He is a highly respected and talented supply chain expert and global leader who has successfully helmed and transformed the end-to-end supply chain organizations of several global, luxury, and brand-led companies. Throughout his career, he has consistently driven exceptional product quality and customer experience, as well as forward-looking sustainability strategies and practices. Roberto brings a unique combination of operational expertise and creative passion to ELC. I look forward to partnering closely with him to continue to innovate and improve our world-class supply chain organization.”
As executive vice president, global supply chain, Canevari will oversee the company’s global supply chain operations, including end-to-end procurement, manufacturing, planning, quality assurance and logistics for our diverse brand portfolio across all channels and geographies. He will work to develop and implement innovative strategies and solutions to meet and exceed the demands of our global consumers, while partnering closely with brand and function leaders to leverage emerging trends, drive innovation and continuously improve processes.
Additionally, building on the company’s long-term, outstanding relationships with global suppliers, Canevari’s focus will include strengthening and strategically evolving partnership models, prioritizing safety, sustainability, and responsible sourcing to help continue to create the most luxurious and efficacious beauty products.
Canevari has held supply chain leadership roles across a variety of industries. He most recently served as Unilever PLC’s executive vice president of supply chain, Europe, where he oversaw end-to-end supply chain operations for the company’s European business, and was responsible for a team of more than 10,000 employees and 44 factories with production across the food, home and personal care categories. Prior to that, Canevari was chief supply chain officer at Burberry Group PLC for nearly seven years, where he transformed the company’s global supply chain scope and strategy, developing new methods for omnichannel fulfillment and leveraging manufacturing resources to manage upstream quality.
Among his key achievements at Burberry, Canevari led the improvement of service-to-consumer KPIs and continuously elevated product quality, while improving cost performance to meet margin targets. Notably, he also played a significant role in Burberry’s Responsibility and Sustainability agenda, helping lead the company to be consistently listed at the top of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for their industry globally.
Prior to his time with Burberry, Canevari served in executive supply chain roles of increasing responsibility at several high-profile global companies, including as group supply chain executive director at Carrefour SA. He also spent a number of years at Nestlé, leading supply chain and procurement operations for Nestlé Water.
“I am thrilled to be joining The Estée Lauder Companies,” said Canevari. “Greg has done a truly incredible job developing and leading a uniquely talented and dynamic global supply chain organization. It is an honor to step into this role, and I am eager to continue to build on the success of this critical function. I look forward to partnering with Fabrizio and the entire Executive Leadership Team to contribute to the overall success and continued growth of ELC.”
