Newell Rubbermaid Announces New Organization and Leadership Team to Accelerate Growth Game Plan

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1 Newell Rubbermaid Announces New Organization and Leadership Team to Accelerate Growth Game Plan Bold step in transformation will speed development of best growth ideas, strengthen execution, and enhance shareholder returns ATLANTA, Oct. 26, 2012 Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) today announced a new organization model and a strengthened leadership team, including top outside appointments to its executive team, to accelerate implementation of the Growth Game Plan strategy. We have made excellent progress over the last year delivering results while also driving change, said Michael Polk, Newell Rubbermaid s President and Chief Executive Officer. Our market shares are increasing in most categories around the world and our margins are improving. These achievements give us confidence that we can now accelerate actions designed to unlock the upside of our Growth Game Plan. I see more potential in our business today than I imagined upon joining the company 15 months ago--and I am energized by the choices we are making, the team we are building and the opportunity ahead. The structural and leadership changes we are announcing today are bold steps that are critical to unlocking our full growth potential, Polk continued. Our employees have proven to me that they are capable of this level of change. By increasing the pace of our transformation we will more quickly realize the Growth Game Plan ambition of becoming a bigger, faster growing, more global, more profitable Newell Rubbermaid. A New Organization Model Built On Two Pillars: Development and Delivery Newell Rubbermaid will reorganize the company around the first two pillars of its Growth Game Plan-- Brand and Category Development (Making our Brands Really Matter) and Best in Class Execution and Delivery (Building an Execution Powerhouse). The new Development Organization will be accountable for building big brand ideas, high-impact disruptive innovation and a true point of difference through superior design and product experience. All of the company s marketing, insight, design, research and development, and corporate development talent will be part of the new Development organization. The new Delivery Organization will be accountable for P&L management and delivering the maximum commercial value from the growth ideas built by the Development Organization. The Delivery Organization will place much greater emphasis on building true strategic partnerships with our customers and suppliers while also building our go-to-market capabilities in the emerging markets. All of the company s general management, supply chain, customer and channel development talent will be part of the new Delivery organization, including the company s business segments, which will retain responsibility for the P&L. At the same time as strengthening development and delivery capabilities, Newell Rubbermaid will create much flatter structures, giving bigger roles to key leaders and driving simplification throughout the organization in order to focus on growth. The company will start by delayering the top structures, eliminating the two operating Groups (Consumer and Professional) while further consolidating the Global Business Units (GBUs) from nine GBUs to six Business Segments.

2 These six Business Segments will be part of the Delivery organization: Tools: Irwin and Lenox tools and Dymo industrial Commercial Products: Rubbermaid Commercial Products and Rubbermaid Healthcare Writing: Sharpie, Paper Mate, Expo, Prismacolor, Parker and Waterman Baby & Parenting: Graco, Aprica and Teutonia Home Solutions: Rubbermaid, Calphalon, Levolor, Kirsch and Goody Specialty: Bulldog, Ashland, Shur-Line, Dymo office, Endicia and Mimio New Executive Leadership: Significant Additions to the Newell Executive Team In the context of the company s new organization, the company is making a series of new leadership appointments to strengthen the Newell Executive Team. Mark Tarchetti, the former head of Global Corporate Strategy at Unilever, will join the company in January as Chief Development Officer and lead the new Development Organization. Originally from the United Kingdom, Tarchetti is the founder of international consulting firm Tarchetti & Co. Ltd. and has been supporting the development of Newell Rubbermaid s new business strategy over the last year. Prior to starting his own consulting firm, Tarchetti spent 14 years at Unilever in a variety of senior strategy, business and finance roles, culminating in being appointed the head of Global Corporate Strategy, reporting directly to Unilever s first external Chief Executive Officer and driving the development of the company s new corporate strategy with the top executive team. He will report to President and CEO Polk. William A. Burke III, currently Group President, Newell Professional, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer and will lead the new Delivery Organization. Burke has a proven track record of outstanding leadership and consistent growth in his 10 years at Newell Rubbermaid, including leading and repositioning the Lenox brand to deliver double-digit sales growth and heading the company s Professional businesses to accelerate international expansion. Burke s businesses have been the most significant contributors to company growth over the last few years. He will continue to report to President and CEO Polk. Bolstering the Development and Delivery organizations are the following significant new additions to the Newell Executive Leadership Team: Joe Cavaliere will join the company as Global Chief Customer Officer, reporting to Burke. Cavaliere has 28 years of experience in Customer Development and brings an outstanding track record of delivering growth, developing strategic customer partnerships that create value across the entire enterprise, and building world-class customer development capabilities. He is currently the head of Customer Development for Unilever in North America and before that was one of the top leaders in Customer Development at Kraft Foods. Cavaliere has led the transformation of Unilever s customer development capabilities in the U.S. over the last nine years, catapulting Unilever to top 5 placement in the U.S. consumer goods industry as measured by the Kantar Retail Survey. The customer and channel development leaders in the company will report to Cavaliere. 2

3 The company will appoint a Global Chief Supply Chain Officer, to be announced in the coming weeks. With nearly 30 years of supply chain experience, the last eight in senior leadership positions at a large industrial products company, this executive brings extensive experience from adjacent industries that will help the company build a common approach to global sourcing, distribution & transportation, customer and consumer service, manufacturing, and planning. This newly created position will report to Burke. Richard Davies will join the company as Chief Marketing & Insights Officer, reporting to Tarchetti. Originally from New Zealand, Davies most recently headed Unilever s Global Insights function of more than 700 people in more than 50 countries. He brings over 30 years of marketing, insights and brand strategy experience. Davies proven track record of creating brands and bringing innovation to the consumer, combined with his experiences living and working in markets around the world, make him the ideal leader to take Newell Rubbermaid s marketing and innovation agenda to the next level. The marketing and insights talent, currently in the business segments, will report to Davies. Chuck Jones, recently appointed Chief Design and Research & Development Officer, will continue as a member of the Newell Executive Leadership team, reporting to Tarchetti. Jones joined Newell Rubbermaid last month, bringing a global reputation for building design and R&D teams that deliver high-impact innovations. He has played key leadership roles in companies including Whirlpool, Masco, Xerox and Herman Miller. The R&D, industrial, graphic and interaction design talent, currently in the business segments, will report to Jones. The Development and Delivery organizations will be supported by strong and lean functional leadership teams in Finance and Information Systems, Human Resources and Legal: Doug Martin, appointed Chief Financial Officer of Newell Rubbermaid last month, will coordinate all of the company s cost and cash initiatives to unlock the trapped capacity for growth. Martin, who has 25 years of experience at Newell Rubbermaid in virtually every aspect of corporate and operating finance, will continue to report to Polk. Martin will add responsibility for Information Technology with this reorganization. Gordon Steele, Chief Information Officer, will report to Martin and will continue to be a member of the Executive Leadership Team. Steele joined Newell Rubbermaid from Nike in 2005 and has led the development of the company s information technology strategy and the deployment of SAP across North America and EMEA. With over 80 percent of the company s revenue now utilizing a common SAP platform, Steele will work with Martin to leverage this new cost visibility to drive out unproductive complexity and costs. All of the company s IT talent will report to Steele. 3

4 John Stipancich, currently Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, will continue in this role while also adding responsibility for delivering the company s results in EMEA. Stipancich s broad business experience in private equity before joining Newell Rubbermaid eight years ago will serve him well as the company continues to transform its EMEA business. He will continue to report to Polk but will be accountable to Chief Operating Officer Burke s Delivery leadership team for EMEA financial results. Jim Sweet, currently Chief Human Resources Officer, will continue in this role and report to Polk. Sweet, who joined the company in 2004, has been a business partner to the last three Chief Executive Officers at Newell Rubbermaid, has intimate knowledge of the company s people and organization, and has provided strong change management leadership and business partnering to all of the company s key leaders over that time. I could not be more excited about partnering with my new team as we drive the next phase of our transformation and growth, said President and CEO Polk. These individuals are recognized as among the top of their respective fields and they will all be key contributors to my leadership team. The fact that our new teammates have chosen to leave big roles with challenging responsibilities to join Newell Rubbermaid is a strong validation of our potential and the power of the Growth Game Plan. As a result of the structure change, Penny McIntyre (President Newell Consumer) will leave the company to pursue other opportunities. I wish Penny the best in her future endeavors and thank her for all of her tremendous efforts and accomplishments during her time with Newell Rubbermaid, said Polk. In addition, Ted Woehrle, Chief Marketing Officer, and Paul Boitmann, Chief Customer Development Officer, will be leaving the company. I want to thank Ted and Paul for their service, leadership and impact and wish them continued success as they pursue opportunities outside Newell Rubbermaid. About Newell Rubbermaid Newell Rubbermaid Inc., an S&P 500 company, is a global marketer of consumer and commercial products with 2011 sales of approximately $5.9 billion and a strong portfolio of leading brands, including Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Graco, Calphalon, Irwin, Lenox, Levolor, Paper Mate, Dymo, Waterman, Parker, Goody, Rubbermaid Commercial Products and Aprica. This press release and additional information about Newell Rubbermaid are available on the company s website, Contacts: Nancy O Donnell David Doolittle Vice President, Investor Relations Vice President, Corporate Communications +1 (770) (770) NWL-EX Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release that are not historical in nature constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to information or assumptions about the effects of sales, income/(loss), earnings per share, operating income, operating margin or gross margin improvements or declines, the European Transformation Plan, Project Renewal, capital and other expenditures, cash flow, 4

5 dividends, restructuring and restructuring-related costs, costs and cost savings, inflation or deflation, particularly with respect to commodities such as oil and resin, debt ratings, and management's plans, projections and objectives for future operations and performance. These statements are accompanied by words such as "anticipate," "expect," "project," "will," "believe," "estimate" and similar expressions. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forwardlooking statements include, but are not limited to, our dependence on the strength of retail, commercial and industrial sectors of the economy in light of the continuation or escalation of the global economic slowdown or regional sovereign debt issues; currency fluctuations; competition with other manufacturers and distributors of consumer products; major retailers' strong bargaining power; changes in the prices of raw materials and sourced products and our ability to obtain raw materials and sourced products in a timely manner from suppliers; our ability to develop innovative new products and to develop, maintain and strengthen our end-user brands; our ability to expeditiously close facilities and move operations while managing foreign regulations and other impediments; our ability to implement successfully information technology solutions throughout our organization; our ability to improve productivity and streamline operations; changes to our credit ratings; significant increases in the funding obligations related to our pension plans due to declining asset values, declining interest rates or otherwise; the imposition of tax liabilities greater than our provisions for such matters; the risks inherent in our foreign operations and those factors listed in the company s most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Exhibit 99.1 thereto, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Changes in such assumptions or factors could produce significantly different results. The information contained in this news release is as of the date indicated. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this news release as a result of new information or future events or developments. 5