Gerhard W. Pleuhs – GC Powerlist
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United States 2019

Gerhard W. Pleuhs

Executive vice president corporate and legal affairs and general counsel | Mondelēz International

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United States 2019

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Gerhard W. Pleuhs

Executive vice president corporate and legal affairs and general counsel | Mondelēz International

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In the capacity of executive vice president, corporate and legal affairs and general counsel, Gerhard W. Pleuhs leads the legal, corporate secretarial, compliance and security functions as well as corporate and government affairs at Mondelēz International, the Fortune 150 multinational confectionery, food, and beverage company. A German native, Pleuhs joined the law department of Jacobs Kaffee Deutschland in 1985, prior to its acquisition in 1990 by Altria Group, holding several senior positions within the German legal department, including chief counsel for the combined operations of Kraft and Jacobs Suchard. Between 2000 and 2003, he served as vice president and chief counsel for Kraft’s Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region, headquartered in Vienna, before moving to New York in 2003 to become senior vice president and general counsel of Kraft Foods International. Looking back on this period, Pleuhs emphasises that moving ‘from a purely local (German) role to an ever-growing international role with global leadership of a very diverse team in a company that is truly international’ has been the highlight and cornerstone of his career. At the same time, M&A has become his main passion and focus. Pleuhs negotiated Kraft’s (now Mondelēz International’s) acquisition of businesses in Morocco, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Poland, Turkey and Egypt. He gained recognition for his role as the lead negotiator in the company’s 2007 $7.6bn acquisition of Danone’s LU biscuit business, and was key member of the core team responsible for its $19bn acquisition of Cadbury in 2010. After being appointed executive vice president and general counsel of Kraft Foods in April 2012, he continued the role for Mondelēz International where he led a number of important work streams that enabled the transformative October 2012 spin-off of Kraft Foods Group. Pleuhs assumed the additional responsibility of heading up the company’s global corporate and government affairs team in September 2014. He was also responsible for the team of lawyers that successfully litigated a $2.76bn compensation claim from Starbuck’s for termination of a distribution agreement for Starbuck’s coffee in North American grocery stores. More recently he headed up the team that planned and negotiated the contribution of Mondelēz International’s global coffee assets to form a global coffee joint venture called Jacobs Douwe Egberts, in cooperation with JAB Holding company. Much of his time since the turn of the millennium has involved a wide variety of matters in numerous jurisdictions and areas of law and compliance, including a significant body of Mondelēz’s international M&A activity as well as structuring and optimizing Mondelēz International’s communications through a global “Newsroom” concept. Pleuh’s leadership skills have helped his team win industry awards for their innovation as a corporate and legal affairs function. ‘We have created a global community, connected through technology and an organisational model where we combine strong front line (local) performance with agile global working groups and centres of expertise’ said Pleuhs, on the changes he has implemented to the function. ‘This service delivery model provides career experience at a global level and ensures we avoid “re-inventing the wheel” locally on issues such as IP, social media, internal and external communications, data privacy and many beyond’, he adds.

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