New York, USA - April 29, 2013, New York, USA - Avon Products, Inc. announced that Fred Hassan has resigned from the Avon board of directors.
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Mr. Hassan is the chairman of Bausch + Lomb. He was elected to this role in March 2010. Mr. Hassan is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Schering-Plough Corporation. He serves currently on the board of Time-Warner, and is a senior advisor with the private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
Mr. Hassan was chairman and chief executive officer of Schering-Plough Corporation from 2003 until its merger with Merck & Co. in November 2009. He previously served as chief executive officer and as chairman and chief executive officer of Pharmacia Corporation from 2001 to 2003 until its acquisition by Pfizer Inc. Mr. Hassan is also the former chief executive officer of Pharmacia and Upjohn Inc., which merged with the Monsanto Corporation to become Pharmacia Corporation in 2000.
He is a member of The Business Council, and is the past chairman of the board of directors of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). He holds a bachelor’s of science degree from the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London and an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School.
Doug Conant, who currently serves on the Board, has been elected to the position of non-executive Chairman.
Mr. Conant served as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Campbell Soup Company from January 2001 to July 2011. Previously he served as President of Nabisco Foods Company from 1995 to 2000, having joined Nabisco in 1992 and served as President of Sales; Senior Vice President, Marketing for The Nabisco Biscuit Company; and Vice President/General Manager of the Fleischmann's Company.
Mr. Conant is founder and currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of ConantLeadership, a company dedicated to improving the quality of leadership in the 21st century. He serves on the board of AmericsourceBergen Corporation.
The Board also appointed Kimberly Ross, Chief Financial Officer of Avon, to the Board of Directors, effective May 2, 2013.
Ms. Ross joined Avon in 2011 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. She oversees Finance, Strategic Planning and Investor Relations. Ms. Ross came to Avon after 10 years at Royal Ahold, a Netherlands-based international group. Since 2007, she had been Royal Ahold’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer as well as a member of the Executive Board. She has extensive experience in emerging and developed markets as well as the consumer products and retail sectors.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Ross worked at the accounting firm Ernst & Young Global Limited in New York. From 1995 to 2001, she rose through a series of audit, treasury and corporate finance positions at Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc., where she focused on the emerging markets of Latin America and Asia Pacific. She began her financial career in 1992 at the Anchor Glass Container Corporation in Pennsylvania.
Ms. Ross holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of South Florida and is a Certified Public Accountant. ■