Popoff is currently General Manager of the Eastern Europe zone, and will add the new zones to his duties as of June 1st, 2016.
Under this new structure, L’Oréal says the two geographical zones will retain their specificities in terms of structure and operating account while benefiting from a critical size in relation to the Divisions and central services.
Growth
In its 2015 annual results the Eastern Europe zone posted sales growth of 9.8% like-for-like, with the Consumer Products and Professional Products Divisions, and L'Oréal Luxe, all recording double-digit growth, driven by Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Africa-Middle East has also seen strong sales growth of 12.1% like-for-like, with particularly fast growth in Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, where it topped 20%.
In both regions L’Oréal says that all divisions are making significant market share gains.
Profiles
L’Oréal are confident of the job Popoff will do given that he already does the same in a different region and also has a wealth of experience with the company, having joined 27 years ago.
In 1989 he joined as Product Manager for LaSCAD, before being named Marketing Coordinator for Garnier and Gemey covering Europe's four key countries in 1993.
Two years later he became Managing Director for L'Oréal Paris in Portugal, and then Managing Director of the Consumer Products Division in Russia.
He became Managing Director of LaSCAD in 1999, and then of the Consumer Products Division for France in 2004.
Popoff was subsequently appointed Managing Director for the Africa Orient Pacific Zone, initially for the Consumer Products Division and later for L'Oréal's four divisions.
In 2010, he joined L'Oréal’s Executive Committee as Managing Director for Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, before focusing on the management of the Latin America Zone in January 2012. In July 2013, he became Executive Vice-President Eastern Europe Zone.
His Africa-Middle East predecessor, Geoff Skingsley, has been at the company even longer, having joined L’Oréal Paris marketing in the UK in 1986 before being named General Manager of the Consumer Products Division in The Netherlands.
Subsequently, Skingsley enjoyed two different experiences as Country Manager, first for India and then for the United Kingdom, and was appointed Executive Vice President of Human Resources based in Paris and held the helm for 7 years.
In September 2011, he became General Manager of the Africa-Middle East zone, and has strongly contributed to L’Oréal’s growth in terms of business and building highly qualified multicultural teams.