Aline Santos

EVP Global Marketing & Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion
Unilever
UK, Europe

@alinesantos

 

Aline Santos joined Unilever in 1989 as a marketing trainee and has become a high-profile presence at the FMCG giant. She is now responsible for all marketing capabilities and innovation excellence around the world, as well as leading Unilever’s drive towards gender balance in the workplace. As the head of Unilever’s Global Diversity and Inclusion programmes, Aline has worked with the board to increase female representation in management from 38% in 2010 to 47% in 2017.

Santos has been the architect of many product launches and brand building campaigns with purpose at the heart, including the global Dirt is Good global campaign for Persil, OMO and Surf Excel and the iconic global Dove Real Beauty campaign. Speaking at Cannes this year, she said of the campaign: “Dove is growing faster than any other Unilever brand, because people love the campaign, so we’re winning in business as well as communications terms. Being one of the biggest advertisers in the world, we have a responsibility to inspire girls and women to be whoever they want to be. When we remove the stereotypes that put us in little boxes we get better results – buying intention increases by 18%, so it’s good for brands and good for society.”

She also leads Unilever’s #Unstereotype initiative that aims to eliminate outdated stereotypes from advertising, and helped to launch the industry-wide Unstereotype Alliance with UN Women.