Our series of head-to-head interviews with members of the Unilever Leadership Executive continues with Peter ter Kulve, President of our Home Care business group, who discusses how our Clean Future strategy redefines a rapidly changing industry.

As President of Home Care, Peter ter Kulve leads Unilever’s fastest-growing business group. Quick-paced, science and tech-led, and with massive potential for growth and sustainability, Home Care is the perfect fit for this corporate globetrotter with an entrepreneurial heart.

Career and leadership
Peter, have you always worked in the home care space?

I started my career at Unilever in 1988 in frozen food and ice cream, where I ended up leading the ice cream category. After a long stint in that division, I moved to Southeast Asia where I worked in general management roles across the Unilever portfolio from home care to personal care to foods.

What attracted you to working at Unilever?

I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and I started my first business when I was just 12 – selling sandwiches at school during breaktime.

After university, I wanted a role that was entrepreneurial but also international. I felt brand management would give me that entrepreneurial space within a company context and that Unilever, with its enormous global reach, could provide the international element.

What do you find most rewarding about your job?

Unilever’s Home Care business is gigantic. Its volume is as large as the rest of Unilever combined, serving 3.5 billion people worldwide, and yet our consumers’ washing conditions – from water hardness to humidity – are incredibly local and varied. This makes for all kind of really exciting challenges. Also, I'm passionate about how science and technology transform industries for the better, making them more sustainable, and work to do just this in the world of home care.

What I always loved about working in ice cream was the execution intensity imposed by the seasons. The home care industry has the same intensity. It’s highly competitive and extremely fast moving, so we have to strive to be several steps ahead of the game, all the time.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I like to be surrounded by people who build, create and use ingenuity to solve problems, and I see my job as sparking them with energy, guidance and ideas. That’s my space.

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