Paul Bulcke

Paul Bulcke (born 8 September 1954) is a Belgian businessman. He was CEO of Nestlé from 2008 to 2016. He was chairman of Nestlé from 2017 to 2025.

Early life He graduated as a commercial engineer at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and is an alumnus of the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. He also attended the program for executive development at the Swiss leading business school International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne.

He was succeeded as CEO by Ulf Mark Schneider in January 2017.

In September 2025, Nestlé announced Bulcke would leave his position at the end of September, six months earlier than planned, as part of an accelerated management transition.

Water sustainability

On 30 August 2012, Bulcke was quoted as saying: "If something isn't given a value, people tend to waste it. Water is our most useful resource, but those using it often don’t even cover the costs of its infrastructure. Fresh water is being massively overused at nature's expense, but it seems only a global crisis will make us realise the importance of the issue. What is environmentally unsustainable today will become socially unsustainable in the future."

Awards and honours On 25 May 2012, he received the VMA Award from the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School for his "lifelong career, which has been distinguished by sustained integrity, exceptional management capacity and inspiring leadership".

Personal life He is married, has three children, and speaks six languages: Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and English. He likes to go sailing as a hobby.