To: Mr. Hy Braverman
From: Mr. John Mansolf
Date: 2/26/01
Re: Betsy Holden
Age: 44
Title: President and CEO Company: Kraft Foods
When her boss, Bob Eckert,
quit in May to go fix Mattel, Holden was promoted to run Kraft's domestic
foods. It's a full pantry: $17.5 billion in sales from brands like Maxwell
House and Jell-O. And it'll expand with Kraft's buyout of Nabisco. Betsy D.
Holden. Named CEO of Kraft Foods North America less than two months ago, Holden
will be in charge of integrating Nabisco's primary businesses with those of
Kraft Foods -- maker of Velveeta, Jell-O, Oscar Mayer hot dogs, and Maxwell
House coffees. It's no small task. The deal adds Nabisco's $8.3 billion in
annual worldwide revenue to Kraft's $27 billion.
It's
a meaty task for a woman who only stepped into the top spot at Kraft six weeks
ago, replacing Robert A. Eckert, who recently left to become chief executive at
struggling toy maker Mattel. "It has been an eventful few weeks,"
Holden, 44, said in an interview after the conference. Certainly one of
Holden's biggest challenges will be retaining the people who helped Nabisco
improve its performance over the past two years. It's a tight job market, and
there's bound to be some culture clash between the two food giants. That Holden
will have hefty stock options to offer should be a big help, she acknowledges.
But Nabisco's top executive, CEO James Kilts, has already said he will not be
joining Kraft. Holden worked for Kilts in his previous job as head of the
worldwide food business of Philip Morris, a position he left in 1997. Nabisco
brings a stable of strong food brands to Kraft, and Holden says she foresees
opportunities for combining the brands. Kraft already licenses Nabisco's Oreo
brand name for one of its cereals. Holden sees opportunities in other areas --
like cheese crackers, where Kraft cheese and Nabisco
crackers could make a tasty combination. Joint purchasing for everything from
raw materials to media will heighten efficiency, too. And combining the two
companies' distribution forces will cut costs and allow Kraft to tap into
Nabisco's longstanding relationship with small to midsize grocery stores. Holden says consumers will benefit too:
"They end up with more innovative products." She cites Kraft's record
of introducing new products, which have generated $500 million in revenue a
year over the past four years.
