Phil Giesler has become head of Anglo-dutch consumer goods maker Unilever’s New Businesses Unit after more than five years leading its corporate venturing and private equity investments in the US.
Giesler is now co-located between the UK and US.
By email he said: “I have recently changed roles, heading up our New Businesses Unit [from being director of innovation for Unilever Corporate Ventures].
“This is very closely aligned to our ventures work but more on the front end, seeking out new opportunities for businesses Unilever wants to build, cooking the idea and then incubating into a new business with our ventures colleagues helping us on financing.”
He was a founding member of US-based venture capital firm Physic Ventures, and accountable for Unilever’s anchor investment in this fund as a full-time member of the Physic operating team based in San Francisco.
His biography at Physic said he was “responsible for leveraging Unilever’s technical and marketing resources to the full advantage of the Physic team and its portfolio companies, including access to more than 5,000 scientists and engineers involved in new product development, access to deal flow, market research, scientific data, marketing and distribution expertise, due diligence capabilities and a broad network of contacts”.
Giesler was formerly a board director of Textronics, a Unilever portfolio company sold to sports wear maker Adidas. He is currently an observer on the boards of Attune Foods, Rayne and Yummly. Other portfolio companies have included HaloSource, Own, SurfaceLogix and Textronics.
He has also been a chairman of the US trade body National Venture Capital Association’s (NVCA) corporate venture advisory group.
Formerly, Giesler led Unilever’s global technology centre for household care in Italy, responsible for global research and development for all elements of Unilever’s $1.5bn business in the division.