Dive Brief:
- Unilever selected Reema Jain to serve as its new CIO, the company confirmed in a Friday email to CIO Dive. Jain will report to Sam Kini, chief digital and technology officer, who served as CIO until January.
- Jain first joined the company in May 2025 as global VP of digital technology, also serving as site lead for the company's global capability center in India. Jain also had a previous stint at the London-based consumer goods giant between 2016 and 2021, where she held several leadership roles including director of IT.
- As CIO, Jain will oversee "core technology foundations, including enterprise architecture and digital infrastructure," Unilever said in an email.
Dive Insight:
Jain's appointment comes less than a year into the tenure of CEO Fernando Fernandez, who took the helm last spring and continued a widescale transformation plan kicked off by his predecessor, Hein Schumacher, in 2024.
As part of the plan, the company conducted a review of its top leadership in a restructuring effort that Fernandez said would lead to a 25% reduction. The company also spun off its ice cream business, cut 7,500 jobs as part of the restructuring and, more recently, replaced its chief sustainability officer under Fernandez's tenure.
Much like other brands in the sector, Unilever’s plans for growth hinge on enterprise technology and AI adoption.
“We are making our organization fit for the AI age, transforming every link in the value chain, particularly around the consumer,” Fernandez said earlier this month during its Q4 2025 earnings call. "That means deploying AI to supercharge demand generation, scaling and hyper targeting marketing content … and working with retailers on agentic shopping models.”
Unilever recently unveiled a deal with Google to migrate its data and cloud platform to Google Cloud. The five-year partnership will help the company integrate its enterprise apps and data estates into the platform, and will accelerate AI adoption, plugging agentic AI into marketing efforts.
“This is a powerful moment to accelerate how AI and technology will shape and power our business,” Jain said in a LinkedIn post announcing her appointment. “I am a true believer that technology can be a powerful force for transformation, for people, for teams, for the way we work and create impact at scale.”
