Corporate Responsibility

Retailers and manufacturers targeting Gen X and Y shoppers this holiday season should introduce more transparency into their product labels and identify fair trade, conflict-free and environmentally friendly practices.

Results of a new survey by KPMG LLP reveal that nearly 70% of consumers younger than age 30 consider social issues such as sustainability, human rights and fair trade before making a purchase. This outpaces the fewer than 50% of consumers overall who feel the same way.

The WhiteWave Foods Company, a leading consumer packaged food and beverage company in North America and Europe, plans to acquire Earthbound Farm, a leading organic food brand, from its existing shareholders led by Kainos Capital and founders Drew & Myra Goodman, for approximately $600 million in cash.

Michael Jeffries is still CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch. The company has renewed Jeffries’ employment agreement for a second time, with this latest restructured agreement taking effect Feb. 1, 2014, when Jeffries' current agreement expires.

Stanley Black & Decker has added Debra Crew, president of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, to its board of directors. Crew joined PepsiCo in 2010 as president of the western region of PepsiCo Europe, and was promoted in 2012.

Prior to PepsiCo, she held a number of management and leadership roles at Mars, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream and Kraft Foods.

Newell Rubbermaid has named Paula S. Larson as EVP and chief human resources officer, effective Dec. 16. She succeeds James M. Sweet, who is retiring after nearly a decade of leading the company’s transformation efforts.

Oak Brook, Ill. -- The Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. has been named the recipient of the 2014 Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics by the Better Business Bureau.

The award was presented at the 17th Annual BBB Awards Luncheon Ceremony at the InterContinental Hotel in Rosemont, Ill.  

This is the second Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics that Inland has received from the BBB. The company was presented with its first Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics in 2009. Last year’s winner was The Boeing Co.

Leading global beauty company Coty has appointed Patrice de Talhouët as CFO. He will replace Sergio Pedreiro who will stay on at Coty through March 2014 to provide a seamless transition for de Talhouët, as well as to complete Coty's fiscal 2014 second quarter earnings release.

Peter Freedman was appointed managing director of the Consumer Goods Forum with responsibility for leading the Paris-based organization’s efforts to promote better lives through better business.