Unilever has appointed Genevieve Berger as its chief R&D officer. She will be the functional leader for research and development in Unilever and will directly lead all the resources and major laboratories dedicated to the company’s focus on scientific discovery.

She will also be responsible for Unilever’s Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC) as well as advising the executive on all matters of science and technology.
Berger will step down from the board of Unilever, where she is currently a non-executive director and will take up her new position at the beginning of July 2008.
Prior to the appointment, Berger was a professor of medicine at Pierre and Marie Curie University and at La Pitie-Salpetriere Teaching Hospital in Paris.