How Unilever’s Marketing Leadership Drives Increased Impact

Unilever has announced that Esi Egglestone Bracey, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, will be leaving the consumer goods firm at the end of January 2026.

Holding the role since the start of 2024, Esi has led how Unilever transforms its brand marketing and how it engages with consumers during a time of drastic industry change and digital revolution.

Fernando Fernandez, Unilever CEO, said: “I would like to thank Esi for her significant contribution to Unilever and wish her every success in the next chapter of her career.”

She joined Unilever in 2018 to lead Beauty and Personal Care for North America, with the firm saying she delivered “a step-change in performance” and helped “lay the foundations for breaking growth momentum in the US business”.

Unilever says that its rapid transformation has reached a stage where greater ownership and proximity to its Business Groups will drive increased impact.

The firm is welcoming Leandro Barreto, currently Chief Marketing Officer of the Beauty and Wellbeing Business Group, to extend his remit and become Chief Marketing Officer of the whole of Unilever.

Esi will work with Leandro in January to create a smooth transition for the company.

“With strong groundwork in place,” Fernando said, “I know Leandro will make a big impact in his expanded role as we accelerate desire at scale and turn Unilever into a true marketing and sales machine.”

A Unilever veteran

Discussing the announcement on LinkedIn, Esi says: “After more than three decades of running and growing businesses around the world, the last two years as Chief Growth and Marketing Officer gave me the change to drive transformation at true scale - €60bn (US$70.2bn), across markets and brands.

“The foundation is set and it’s exactly the right time to further drive the transformation into the brand and business.”

She added that Leandro is a “brilliant marketer” and “has been a key part of the transformation journey”.

Leandro has been at Unilever for 23 years, starting his career in the firm in marketing for home care in 2003, according to his LinkedIn profile.

From here he progressed through the marketing ladder, moving to Global Brand Marketing Director of Dove Haircare in 2011, Senior Director of Global Marketing for Dove Skin Cleansing in 2016 and Vice President of Global Marketing for Skin Cleansing and Baby Care in 2018.

In 2024 he took on the CMO role in Beauty and Wellbeing, where he has embedded digital-first ways of working and advanced analytics to accelerate social transformation and market responsiveness.

Growth under the current leader

In Esi’s post, she shared that she’s proud of the change in performance during her tenure.

She said: “We reframed what Beauty and Personal Care could be - doubling the growth rate anchoring growth in Dove, over-delivering a US$2bn vision, shifting to more impactful innovation and operationalising the One Dove Team across categories.”

During her tenure, the firm has become a major supporter and co-founder of the CROWN Act coalition, which means Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.

This advocates for legislation to ban hair discrimination based on texture and protective styles in workplaces and schools, ensuring people aren’t penalised for natural hair.

Esi said this is “widely recognised as one of the industry’s most transformative efforts”.

Reflecting on her achievements across modernising marketing models and promoting performance-driven actions, she added: “None of it was marketing for marketing’s sake. It was about connecting creativity to performance, and brands to culture.”