Gary Leibowitz

Gary Leibowitz is a seasoned global business and strategy leader, advisor and coach, with capital markets, investment banking and private equity career foundations. Leibowitz is currently Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at Unilever plc, a global leader in consumer products across the foods, home and personal care sectors. His career features deep experience with both industry

leaders and dynamic disruptors at early stages of development.

For over 25 years, Leibowitz has driven growth and transformation agendas across the business world, leading rigorous, insight-driven strategic decision processes, enhancing organizational effectiveness and winning and retaining Wall Street investor support. In addition to leadership roles in US and European business giants, he has maintained a focus on nurturing multi-stakeholder  development in emerging markets across Africa and Latin America, building value chains from agricultural communities to female-led small retailer networks.

Leibowitz served as Senior Advisor in McKinsey & Company’s Global Consumer Practice, coaching world-leading as well as smaller clients on major strategic decisions and commercial effectiveness. Previously, for over a decade, Leibowitz co-architected and built SABMiller plc, a $100 billion global brewing group and Coca Cola bottler, originating in Africa and ultimately an industry leader in the US, Europe, Latin America, China and Australia. He successfully built influence and trust across numerous management teams, local distributors, boards and shareholders through challenging economic cycles, board change, joint ventures and large scale acquisitions.

Leibowitz’s early career began in investment banking at Merrill Lynch & Co. in the early 1990s and continued into private equity investment in the context of the transition from communism to market-led economies in Central & Eastern Europe. Leibowitz has served as a Board director or observer at private equity investee companies, corporate subsidiaries, and the UK Investor Relations Society, and he is an executive coach and mentor in connection with the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Leibowitz is based in both Los Angeles and London.