New position at Newell Brands: chief transformation officer

Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid, fresh off its deal to acquire Jarden Corp. , hired Russ Torres to the newly created role of Chief Transformation Officer.

Torres will be responsible for leading all integration and transformation efforts for the future Newell Brands organization, including delivering the revenue and cost synergies associated with the pending combination with Jarden Corporation as well as completing the remaining savings in Project Renewal.

Torres will report to Mark Tarchetti, who will become the President of Newell Brands upon completion of the Jarden transaction.  The $15 billion deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.

"We are building a world-class team to unlock the full potential of Newell Brands.  We are delighted that a leader of Russ's experience and abilities is joining the company to play such a pivotal role on the company's leadership team,” Tarchetti said. “Russ will be a tremendous asset to our team as we bring Newell Rubbermaid and Jarden together to build a new company with much greater potential than either organization had standalone."

Torres was previously a Partner at Bain & Company, one of the world's top management consulting firms. He played a lead role in the most recent phase of Renewal at Newell Rubbermaid, which is targeting $350 million in savings.  While at Bain & Company, Torres focused exclusively on consumer products where he led multiple large-scale transformations and played key roles in several large M&A transactions.  He also has executive experience leading transformations at Kraft Foods and Mondelez International.

Torres will join Newell Rubbermaid on April 1 and the company expects to make a number of appointments to the cross-functional integration team in the next 30 days.