Kees Kruythoff

Background

About Kees Kruythoff

A globally experienced business person and entrepreneur, Kees has lived and worked in Europe, South Africa, China, Brazil, and the U.S. He is committed to building solutions to create a more sustainable and equitable world. For 27 years, Kees worked for Unilever. The last 8 years he was part of the global Unilever Executive team, first as President North America and following that, as President for the Global Home Care division. Kees is passionate about the private sector as a force for good, and was proud to lead the implementation of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which was recognized as one of the 10 most prominent business leaders in Brazil in sustainability. He left Unilever in the middle of 2019 and became part of the founding team of IMAGINE.one. A for-benefit business and foundation, IMAGINE helps shift global industries and companies to combat climate change and inequality and accelerate to become Net Positive. At the beginning of 2020, Kees became the chairman and CEO of LIVEKINDLY Collective. The company is made up of plant-based food brands (Fry’s Family Foods, Oumph, LikeMeat, No Meat and The Dutch Weed Burger), as well as LIVEKINDLY. The intent is to build the pre-eminent global plant-based food company and make plant-based living the new norm. In June 2022 Kees left LiveKindly Collective as the business was built to last and environment changed both in the capital markets, and the consumer market for plant based food. Kees continued to support the Food Transformation through investments in Food Tech Start ups with Nicoya (with 16 portfolio companies), scale ups as Thematic Chair for Summa Equity (Europe’s biggest impact investment fund) and globally with Bain Capital with investments in 1440 Foods in the USA and Impact HD in Japan. He also serves on several boards including chairman of MrGreenAfrica and board member of RCL Foods. In his personal life, he’s surrounded by a lovely wife and 5 beautiful daughters, who were born in South Africa, the Netherlands and Brazil. Any free time he has is spent with them, playing sports, or traveling around the world. His motto: Be Fearless, Be Useful, Be Kind