At a Glance

  • Unilever has confirmed that Reema Jain will serve as its new Chief Information Officer (CIO). The company confirmed the news in an email to CIO Dive on Friday. Jain will report to Chief Digital and Technology Officer Sam Kini, who previously held the CIO role concurrently until January.
  • Jain first joined Unilever in May 2025 as Vice President of Global Digital Technology and also served as site leader for the company's global capability center in India. Previously, she worked at the London-based consumer goods giant from 2016 to 2021, holding several leadership roles including IT Director.
  • Unilever stated in the email that as CIO, Jain will be responsible for "the core technology foundation, including enterprise architecture and digital infrastructure."

Deep Dive

Jain's appointment comes less than a year after CEO Fernando Fernandez took office. Fernandez took over the company last spring and has continued the large-scale transformation plan initiated by his predecessor Hein Schumacher in 2024.

As part of that plan, the company conducted a restructuring review of senior leadership. Fernandez has said this will result in a 25% reduction in leadership. The company also divested its ice cream business and cut 7,500 roles in the restructuring. More recently, under Fernandez, the company also replaced its Chief Sustainability Officer.

Like other brands in the industry, Unilever's growth plans rely on enterprise technology and AI adoption. Fernandez said during the Q4 2025 earnings call earlier this month: "We are adapting the organization for the AI era, transforming every part of the value chain, especially around the consumer. This means deploying AI to enhance demand discovery, scale and hyper-target marketing content, and working with retailers to develop agentic shopping models."

Unilever also recently announced a partnership with Google to migrate its data and cloud platforms to Google Cloud. The five-year collaboration will help the company consolidate enterprise applications and data assets, accelerate AI adoption, and integrate agentic AI into marketing efforts.

In a LinkedIn post announcing her appointment, Jain said: "This is a powerful moment to accelerate how AI and technology shape and drive our business. I firmly believe that technology can be a powerful force for transformation, for our people, teams, and the way we work and scale our impact."