On September 2, Nestlé China announced the replacement of Nestlé Group CEO on its official website: Philipp Navratil will replace Laurent Freixe, who has been in office for only one year, and the appointment will take effect immediately.

Nestlé said that Fu Lehong’s departure was due to an investigation that found that he had an undisclosed relationship with his direct subordinates, which violated Nestlé’s “Code of Business Conduct”. According to best corporate governance practices, the board of directors of Nestlé Group commissioned the board of directors Paul Bulcke and the chief independent director Pablo Isla (Pablo Isla) to conduct a supervised investigation into this with the support of independent external lawyers.

“This is a necessary decision. Nestlé’s values ​​and governance are a solid foundation for Nestlé Group,” said Paul Bokai, chairman of the board of directors of Nestlé.

Since last September, Fu Lehong officially took over as CEO of Nestlé Group, he has since carried out a series of organizational structure and personnel adjustments, including a series of adjustments to Nestlé China: the cancellation of the independent Greater China region, the integration of Greater China into the Asia-Africa region, and the replacement of the CEO of Greater China.

At the 2025 semi-annual performance briefing in July, Fu Lehong also emphasized: “When I took over as CEO, one of my tasks was to revitalize my business in Greater China. The only way to achieve this goal is to strengthen coordination and strengthen governance.”

For Nestlé, performance growth is urgent. In the first half of 2025, Nestlé Group’s sales were 44.228 billion Swiss francs, a year-on-year decrease of 1.8%; net profit was 5.065 billion Swiss francs, a year-on-year decrease of 10.3%. Among them, Nestlé Greater China’s sales were 2.47 billion Swiss francs, a year-on-year decrease of 6.4%.

Have the sudden personnel changes of Nestlé Group affected its previous strategic direction? In response, Paul Bo Kai Beta said: “Our strategic direction will not change, and the pace of performance will not slow down.”

New global CEO Philip Nafrathir is also an elderly person in Nestlé. He joined Nestlé in 2001 as an internal auditor. After taking on multiple business roles in Central America, he was appointed head of markets at Nestlé Honduras in 2009. In 2013, Philip Nafrathir was responsible for Mexico’s coffee and beverage business. Nestlé introduced that “he played a key role in enhancing the Nestlé coffee brand.” In 2020, he transferred to Nestlé Coffee’s strategic business unit, responsible for formulating a global strategy and promoting innovation in Nestlé Coffee and Starbucks Coffee brands. He began leading Nespresso in July 2024 and joined the executive board of Nestlé Group on January 1, 2025.