VEVEY, SWITZERLAND — Six weeks after Laurent Freixe took the reins as global chief executive officer, Nestlé SA is consolidating its geographic organization and making changes to its executive board.

Effective Jan. 1, 2025, Zone Latin America (LATAM) and Zone North America (NA) will merge with Zone Americas (AMS), led by executive vice president and current North America CEO Steve Presley, who will relocate to Nestlé’s headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, the company said.

Freixe, who became Nestlé’s global CEO on Sept. 1 with the departure of Ulf Mark Schneider, had previously been CEO for Latin America.

Also starting next year, Zone Greater China Region (GCR) will become part of Zone Asia, Oceania and Africa (AOA), led by executive vice president and current AOA CEO Remy Ejel. Plans call for David Zhang, currently executive vice president and CEO of Zone Greater China, to step down from the executive board and remain chairman and CEO of the Greater China Region. No changes are planned for Zone Europe (EUR), which will continue to be led by executive vice president and EUR CEO Guillaume Le Cunff.

With the changes, Nestlé will have five reporting segments: Zone AMS, Zone AOA, Zone EUR, Nestlé Health Science and Nespresso. The company said it also will continue to voluntarily report sales performance each quarter for North America and for Latin America within Zone AMS and for Greater China within Zone AOA.

“A leaner executive board structure and close collaboration of the leadership team at the headquarters will increase simplicity, speed up decision making and strengthen the momentum behind global initiatives,” Freixe said. “We will continue to build on the strengths of our market heads to ensure consistent in-market execution across the group.”

On the executive board, plans call for Bernard Meunier to step down on March 31, 2025, and take a new role leading strategic projects for Nestlé SA. The company said David Rennie, head of Nestlé Coffee Brands, will take over Meunier’s post as the head of strategic business units (SBUs) and marketing and sales. Along with the leadership changes, Nestlé Coffee Brands — except for Nespresso — will be integrated into the SBU organization.

With the moves, Nestlé said Nespresso CEO Philipp Navratil will join the executive board and now report directly to Freixe. Nestlé Health Science will continue to be led by Anna Mohl.

Also stepping down from the board is Beatrice Guillaume-Grabisch, head of human resources and business services, who is leaving “to pursue new professional opportunities,” Nestlé said, adding that her area of oversight will be split into its different functions “to underpin the importance of each of them.”

Taking over as head of human resources will be Anna Lenz, currently country manager of Nestlé Portugal. Lenz also will join Nestlé’s executive board. Hans-Ulrich Mayer will continue to lead business services and report to chief financial officer Anna Manz.

In addition, chief information officer Chris Wright, who oversees all information technology and digitalization, and Antonia Wanner, who leads the sustainability unit, will now report to Freixe without holding a position on the executive board, Nestlé said.

“With these organizational changes, all the leaders of key units driving our performance and our transformation will now report directly to me,” Freixe said. “This is crucial, as we sharpen our focus on consumers and customers and restore investment in our brands and in innovation to expand market share and accelerate our performance. Going forward, we are also placing a greater emphasis on Nestlé’s digital transformation into a real-time, end-to-end, connected, data- and AI-powered organization. I am confident these changes will optimally position Nestlé for future success.”