DAVOS, Switzerland — While Disney (DIS) CEO Bob Iger wages a campaign against proven value creator and activist investor Nelson Peltz, Unilever CEO Alan Jope has embraced the billionaire change agent.
Peltz joined the board of consumer products giant Unilever in May 2022 and according to Jope — who has said he will retire in 2023 — has brought "all kinds of good ideas" to the company since then.
"His view on what the company needs to do is very aligned with the agenda that we're working on," Jope told Yahoo Finance Live at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland (video above). "A big part of our agenda last year was to simplify our organization. That was something he felt needed to happen. He is somebody who has got a strong track record in the consumer products industry, and we thought would make a good board member for Unilever."
Investors are ultimately banking on Peltz to assist in pushing through a turnaround of Unilever, a maker of everything from Hellman's mayonnaise to Vaseline.
'Nelson is gearing up for a fight'
Peltz has the track record in consumer products to do so — he was an instrumental figure in reorganizing P&G (PG) as a then-member of that board.
The company restructured its divisions, cut costs, and has since gone on to a product innovation boom. Over the past five years, P&G stock has been a top-performer, up 66%.
Peltz also worked closely with now-former P&G CEO David Taylor, who ended up praising Peltz's work after a contentious proxy fight.
Since Peltz joined the board, Unilever held a well-received investor day late in 2022 where it outlined its restructuring efforts and bolstered product pipeline.
While Unilever has let Peltz into the board room, the yacht-sailing Iger of Disney fame has taken a different approach. He doesn't want to get anywhere near Peltz and whatever ideas he has for the media beast.
"Nelson Peltz does not understand Disney's businesses and lacks the skills and experience to assist the board in delivering shareholder value in a rapidly shifting media ecosystem," Disney said in an updated proxy statement on Tuesday. "The current Disney board is the right board for shareholders."
The company once again defended its stock performance under CEO Bob Iger's watch, noting during his first bout as chief executive Disney's total shareholder return totaled 554%, topping the 244% total return realized by the S&P 500 over that period.
Peltz's company Trian filed a proxy statement last week, pushing Disney to restore its dividend, improve succession planning, and cut expenses.
"Nelson is gearing up for a fight here," a source familiar with the matter told Yahoo Finance.
Peltz reportedly owns about $900 million in Disney stock.
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Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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