Kraft Heinz names CFO to replace Knopf
(Reuters) - Kraft Heinz Co on Monday named Paulo Basilio as chief financial officer, in a strategic move that would put a more "seasoned" executive in place of David Knopf.
Under Knopf, who became CFO in 2017 at the age of 29, Kraft wrote down $15.4 billion in value of its brands Kraft and Oscar Mayer. He will return to private equity firm 3G Capital where he has been a partner since 2015.
Kraft Heinz, which counts billionaire Warren Buffett as its largest investor, has been battered by competition from private-label brands, changing consumer tastes and lower investment in its brands due to heavy cost-cutting under leaders installed by second biggest investor 3G Capital.
Earlier in the month, the company withdrew its outlook for the year after further writing down the value of several business and restating financial results in June for a near three-year period after an internal investigation into lapses in procurement practices by some of its employees.
Buffett teamed up in 2015 with 3G Capital to orchestrate the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz Co.
Basilio was CFO until October 2017, following the merger.
He is currently the chief business planning and development officer for the packaged food company and will take over from Sept. 1. (https://bit.ly/2ZdS45M)
(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shinjini Ganguli)
