Stephen Pain

VP Reputation Strategy, Planning & Research
Unilever


Stephen is VP Reputation strategy, planning & research at Unilever plc. Unilever has a clear ambition to double the size of the business while reducing the environmental footprint and increasing positive social impact. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan establishes a new operating model for the company directed at achieving sustainable growth. Stephen’s role includes the development of a globally aligned stakeholder engagement strategy based on a data-driven, research-based approach to support this ambition. He is also Business Partner to the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer.     
 
Unilever is a consumer goods business with worldwide turnover in 2011 of €46.5 billion. The company’s brands include Dove, Knorr, Persil, Comfort, Lipton, Flora, Hellmann’s, Wall’s, Magnum, PG Tips, Toni & Guy, Marmite and many others. The company employs 171,000 people and its products are sold in more than 190 countries with two billion consumers using a Unilever product on any given day. 
 
Stephen was formerly Group Corporate Affairs Director of Aviva plc, one of the world’s largest savings, investments and insurance groups, and led the communication activity that supported the merger and integration of CGU and Norwich Union in 2000 and then, in 2002, the launch of the Aviva brand. Subsequently, he was the architect of the group’s transformation from 40 brands to one global brand, Aviva. 
 
Prior to Aviva, he was Corporate Affairs Director at retail group, Storehouse plc, and, before that, at Severn Trent Plc, the water and waste services company. He is a Fellow and former secretary of the Investor Relations Society, and a Visiting Executive Fellow at Henley Business School. Stephen also sits on the Advisory Board of Criticaleye. He lives in Henley-on-Thames with his wife, Fiona, and their two children, Lucy and Alexander.