Jeremy Schwartz
Most consumer businesses now carry two pressures that pull in opposite directions: deliver short-cycle commercial growth, and rebuild the operating model around sustainability and digital. Boards say they want both. Operating teams find the trade-offs land on their desks with no senior playbook. The gap between ambition set at the top and decisions taken in the P&L is where most transformations stall.
Jeremy Schwartz is a former CEO of The Body Shop and senior leader at L’Oreal, Coca-Cola and Pandora who advises boards on running consumer businesses through commercial and sustainability transformation at the same time.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Jeremy Schwartz
- He has sat in the chief executive seat at The Body Shop and as interim joint CEO at Pandora, so the advice on transformation comes from someone who has signed off the trade-offs, not described them.
- He led the launch of “Enrich Not Exploit” at The Body Shop, a sustainability commitment with hard 2020 targets across ingredients, packaging, suppliers and stores, and oversaw the business through the 1bn euro sale to Natura.
- He proposed the consumer concept behind Coca-Cola Zero during his time as Marketing and Innovation Director for Coca-Cola Europe, giving him credibility on commercial brand creation as well as ethical repositioning.
- His current mandates as Practice Chairman at Kantar and advisor to McKinsey’s Business Transformation Practice keep him close to live programmes inside large consumer and retail organisations.
- Few speakers can argue the commercial case for sustainability from inside the P&L of a global beauty business and the boardroom of a listed jewellery company.
Biography highlights
- CEO of The Body Shop, 2013-2017; led the “Enrich Not Exploit” sustainability strategy and the 1bn euro divestment from L’Oreal to Natura.
- Chief Operating Officer and interim joint CEO of Pandora A/S.
- Managing Director, L’Oreal UK; Marketing and Innovation Director, Coca-Cola Europe; Brand Director, Sainsbury’s; CMO, News International.
- Practice Chairman, Kantar Sustainable Transformation Practice; Senior Advisor, McKinsey Business Transformation Practice.
- Founder and host of the “Saving Tomorrow’s Planet” podcast.
- Founding trustee, Against Malaria Foundation.
Biography
The hardest job in a consumer business right now is holding two clocks at once. The quarterly clock that the market reads, and the multi-year clock that sustainability commitments, digital re-platforming and supply chain redesign actually run on. Schwartz has run a business under both.
As CEO of The Body Shop from 2013 to 2017, he led the launch of “Enrich Not Exploit”, a sustainability commitment with measurable 2020 targets on ingredients, packaging, fair trade sourcing and habitat protection. Over the same period he steered the business back to growth and through the 1bn euro sale from L’Oreal to Natura. Before that he was Managing Director of L’Oreal UK, Marketing and Innovation Director for Coca-Cola in Europe (where he proposed the consumer concept behind Coca-Cola Zero), Brand Director at Sainsbury’s, and CMO at News International. He later served as Chief Operating Officer and interim joint CEO of Pandora.
His advisory work now sits inside the practices that buy-side leaders actually use. He is Practice Chairman of Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice and Senior Advisor to McKinsey’s Business Transformation Practice. That keeps the speaking material close to live transformation programmes rather than retrospective case studies.
He hosts the “Saving Tomorrow’s Planet” podcast, interviewing leaders who are reducing emissions inside operating businesses, and is a founding trustee of the Against Malaria Foundation. The through-line across all of this is the same argument he makes to boards: sustainability and commercial growth are not parallel agendas to be balanced, they are the same agenda once the operating model is set up to carry both.
Key speaking topics
- Consumer brand transformation
- Sustainability and commercial growth
- Retail leadership
- CEO and executive team performance
- Marketing and innovation in consumer businesses
- Purpose and culture in transformation
- Digital transformation in retail
Ideal for
- CEOs and executive committees in consumer, retail and FMCG businesses balancing growth targets with sustainability commitments.
- CMOs and brand leaders rebuilding propositions around purpose without losing commercial discipline.
- Boards and chairs evaluating ESG and transformation programmes with real P&L implications.
- Senior leadership teams inside transformation, sustainability or digital programmes that need an outside CEO voice.
Audience outcomes
- A working argument for why sustainability and commercial growth belong in the same operating plan, drawn from a CEO who has run it.
- Specific examples from The Body Shop, Pandora, L’Oreal and Coca-Cola of how brand, marketing and sustainability decisions look from inside the P&L.
- A clearer view of where consumer transformations stall and what senior leaders can do about it before they reach the operating teams.
- Practical reference points for boards on how to set sustainability targets that survive contact with quarterly performance.
Talks
A talk on translating organisational purpose into commercial decisions and measurable commitments inside a consumer business.
Key takeaways:
- How “Enrich Not Exploit” was structured as a set of operating targets, not a marketing platform.
- Where purpose-led brands lose credibility with consumers and how to avoid it.
- What boards need to ask before signing off a purpose statement.
A talk on redesigning the consumer operating model around sustainability without sacrificing growth.
Key takeaways:
- The trade-offs between sustainability targets and commercial performance, and how to sequence them.
- Lessons from ingredients, packaging and store decisions at The Body Shop.
- How to build a sustainability strategy that survives a change of CEO or owner.
A talk on digital transformation in consumer and retail businesses from the CEO seat.
Key takeaways:
- Why most retail digital programmes underdeliver and where the senior leadership gap sits.
- How to align marketing, technology and store operations inside one transformation plan.
- What the board should be tracking month by month.
A talk on the leadership disciplines that hold a transformation together at executive committee level.
Key takeaways:
- How to run a top team through a high-stakes commercial and cultural change.
- Where executive alignment breaks down and how CEOs can get ahead of it.
- The leadership behaviours that travel across consumer, retail and FMCG businesses.