Firmenich, the world’s largest privately-owned fragrance and taste company, has appointed three new Master Perfumers. François-Raphaël Balestra, Wessel-Jan Kos and Haresh Totlani will join Firmenich’s most prestigious group of Master Perfumers dedicated to Consumer Fragrances for Beauty and Home Care. They will be joining an exclusive elite of only nine Master Perfumers who have reached the highest level of excellence and achievement in their respective fields, while exhibiting exemplary leadership qualities and a lived commitment to Firmenich’s values.
“Firmenich’s innovation and deep understanding of consumer habits and preferences enables us to deliver market-leading fragrances,” Firmenich CEO Gilbert Ghostine said. “What makes us stand out is our perfumers’ spark of creative genius. Their mastery makes for the truly successful touch that inspires consumers to fall in love with our customers' brands and products. I am delighted to welcome three new Firmenich Master Perfumers who have shown excellence in their field, commitment to our values and who act as true role models for the whole community of perfumers.”
Ilaria Resta, Global President, Perfumery, commented: “Our three new Master Perfumers have over 80 years’ experience at the cutting edge of perfumery innovation, and their path to this level shows their dedication, work ethic, and strong commitment to their craft. They combine exceptional creativity with understanding of technology to augment performance, as well as an innate ability to drive customer intimacy by understanding consumer insights and anticipating the future trends in a complex and ever-changing market. One of the biggest mission of masters is to leave a long-lasting legacy in the market with their creations that live the test of time and become icons, as well as with their dedication to pass their experience to the younger generations to create the masters of the future.”
François-Raphaël Balestra is a Swiss national who graduated from EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, with a Master’s in Chemical Engineering. He joined Firmenich in 1999. Together with his role as perfumer for beauty care and home care products, creating olfactive signatures of major laundry products all over the globe, he is also the head of New Ingredients Discovery for Perfumery at Firmenich. Here he works in close collaboration with R&D on the screening of new generations of molecules and biotechnology ingredients to integrate to the perfumer’s palette and enhance perfumery creations. He notably collaborated on the creation of Dreamwood™, a white biotechnology innovation inspired by sandalwood that is 100% natural, 100% renewable carbon and ultimately biodegradable and Muguissimo™, an exceptionally close to nature Lily-of-the-Valley note born from green synthesis.
His vocation to become a perfumer started with his first visit to Firmenich Geneva’s offices at the age of seven, as the son of a now retired perfume lab assistant who had spent 40 years in the company. His fascination for the work of perfumers and the variety of raw ingredients naturally led him to becoming a perfumer. “Inspiration always comes from the ingredients first, they stimulate my creativity, especially our proprietary ingredients that embody the soul of Firmenich, they express our uniqueness, our difference, and our commitment to perfection,” he says.
Wessel-Jan Kos, a Dutch national from Hilversum, is a third-generation perfumer after his father and self-taught grandfather. His career as a Firmenich perfumer spans more than three decades. A graduate from ISIPCA, the renowned fragrance and cosmetics school in Paris, he is an all-round perfumer creating fragrances for all beauty care and home care applications for world renowned brands, winning over 200 new products a year over the past decade. Wessel-Jan’s career at Firmenich has taken him around the globe: in Geneva, Dubai, London, Cologne and Princeton, USA. During his years in the UK, he was the Vice President of the British Society of Perfumers. Wessel-Jan has been instrumental in the development of malodor counteraction technologies at Firmenich, putting his name to several patents. He has also contributed to the rise of biotechnology ingredients over the last years, notably Z11 HD, 100% biodegradable and made from 100% renewable carbon. “I like my fragrances to be simple and direct, so that people immediately understand what I intend to create,” he says.
Haresh Totlani has been with Firmenich for the last 24 years, in Geneva, Singapore, Mumbai and London. He has created signature winning fragrances for many of the world’s best-known brands in Asia and Europe, as well as regional and local brands in many categories, especially for soap, shower gels, shampoos, fabric softeners and laundry detergents. Haresh, an Indian national, holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai and completed an Executive MBA Program from Kellogg-HKUST. From 2012 to 2015, he was the Head of Firmenich’s Creation Center in India, a role given for the first time to a perfumer. He has been a mentor to many younger Firmenich trainee perfumers and fragrance evaluators, and is a winner of the Patrick Firmenich Award both in 2019 and 2020, recognizing his creative excellence and his outstanding use of Firmenich ingredients to bring unique signatures to customers’ products. Haresh Totlani believes “perfumes change the way people feel. It makes them happy and confident.”
Firmenich, the world’s largest privately-owned fragrance and taste company, today releases its annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, tracking progress toward the group’s groundbreaking sustainability targets. Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 was marked by strong sustainability performance across the Group’s three key pillars, climate, nature, and people, backed by growing, best-in-class independent evaluation and reinforced ESG governance.
“I am proud that we continued to accelerate our industry-leading ESG actions despite the challenging economic climate and kept making measurable progress toward our 2025 targets, even exceeding them for renewable ingredients and Living Wage,” said Gilbert Ghostine, CEO Firmenich. “Our Firmenich Inclusive Capitalism business model is gaining more traction and proving more and more relevant in today’s world. Every year, new climate extremes are having a growing impact across the globe: Firmenich’s bold environmental ambition is a vital business investment today and for the future.”
“Firmenich ESG strategy keeps progressing across our own operations and along our supply chain,” said Thomas Andro, Senior Director, Corporate Sustainability. “Furthermore, consumer demand for sustainable products is a structural growth trend in our industry and Firmenich’s outstanding ESG credentials, combined with our leadership and innovation in natural and renewable ingredients, are becoming even more relevant for our customers as they progress with their own sustainability roadmaps.”
FY2022 ESG Performance Highlights
Acting on Climate Change: Firmenich was one of only two companies to receive a fourth consecutive CDP Triple A rating for climate, water, and forests. Three manufacturing sites, in Norway, Singapore and South Africa, were carbon neutral in FY22, all operating without the use of offsets. Firmenich maintained decoupling of growth in manufacturing output from its CO2 emissions: in FY22, Scope 1 and 2 emissions were reduced by 36.1% vs. 2017, and the new ingredients sites reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 12.2% vs. 2020. The Group maintained 100% Renewable Electricity in its operations including in new acquisitions1. Firmenich aims to reach carbon neutrality in its direct operations by 2025, absolute carbon emissions reduction by 2030 in line with limiting temperature rise to 1.5˚C, as well as net-zero emissions by 2039 across its direct operations and value chain (Scopes 1, 2, and 3). Its net-zero targets were validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in August 2022, making Firmenich the first company in its industry to receive SBTi approval.
Embracing Nature: Building on UEBT validation of the Group’s biodiversity strategy, work began on restoration at 15% of Firmenich sites with biodiversity risk, in line with Science-Based Targets for Nature. Implementation of 100% verified Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) was increased. Firmenich continued to expand the proportion of ultimately or partially biodegradable ingredients in its fragrances to 96.6% on average, having surpassed its 95% target a year earlier. Firmenich reinforced green proteins in product development, enabling customers to accelerate the plant-based food revolution and contribute to climate change mitigation.
Caring about People: Building on gender pay equity and its work to strengthen inclusion, Firmenich achieved Living Wage certification by Fairwage Network in 2022 ahead of the Group’s 2025 target, a key step to ensure decent living standards for all employees and their families. The Group advanced its high global health and safety standards with an improved 0.26 Total Recordable Case (TRC) rate, and a third consecutive Gold Award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Firmenich continued to maintain zero human rights non-compliance and scaled up its effort to drive concerted business action by becoming United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Impact Sponsor for Labor and Decent Work.
Overall, Firmenich achieved an upgraded rating from Sustainalytics with a score of 7.5, in the global top 50 of approximately 15,000 companies, that highlights the Group’s low ESG risk profile. A second consecutive Platinum rating by Ecovadis with an industry-leading score of 88% placed Firmenich in the top 1% of all companies assessed worldwide. The Group was also rated for the first time as one of the “2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies” by Ethisphere®, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices.
Firmenich continued to work actively in alliances and partnerships, including the UN Global Compact, the Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT), One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B), and the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), to drive positive change at scale and foster effective action on climate, nature, and people in the business community.
More detailed information on Firmenich’s ESG journey is available online in the ESG Report 2022.
The attached visuals from pp 9-10 of the report provide a snapshot of ESG performance highlights and progress against targets in the climate, nature and people pillars.
Firmenich, the world’s largest privately-owned fragrance and taste company, has announced it has been recognized for its exemplary leadership in Diversity & Inclusion, winning the Cercle Suisse des Administratrices Grandes Entreprises Award 2022.
The Cercle Suisse des Administratrices is an association that promotes diversity and competencies within governance bodies – Board of Directors and management in Switzerland. It was created to give more visibility to the many women playing a senior role on management teams and boards of directors and its awards are widely considered the most prestigious in the diversity arena in Switzerland.
The judges applauded Firmenich’s inclusive culture, the strong representation of women across senior leadership roles, the absence of gender pay gaps, and its equitable recruitment, training and mentoring programs. Firmenich was selected as a finalist out of 36 companies and received the award during a ceremony held at the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne.
“I am very proud that Firmenich received the 2022 Grandes Entreprises Award from Cercle Suisse des Administratrices,” said Mieke Van de Capelle, Chief Human Resources Officer, Firmenich. “This award recognizes our ongoing efforts in embedding equality across our leadership and senior roles worldwide, as well as across the wider organization. We continue to set the standard for excellence as the best place to work in our industry. While I am very proud of this achievement, we recognize this is a journey. Therefore, we are constantly focusing on new frontiers with targeted actions that go beyond gender. By embracing the power of inclusion, we continue to be a leading creative powerhouse.”
“Firmenich was selected out of 36 companies and the Jury was particularly appreciative of the voluntary and long-standing commitments of this family-owned global company. The progress and results of its diversity and inclusion programs and the policies across all levels of its organization and its Board of Directors, are among the defining elements that were taken into consideration by the Jury," said Dominique Faesch, Présidente du Prix 2022, Cercle Suisse des Administratrices.
Since 2018, Firmenich has raised women’s representation in leadership roles to 46%, and eliminated gender pay gaps. According to the UN, women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn for work of equal value. Firmenich has also expanded flexible working opportunities worldwide, made recruitment and promotion practices more diversity-focused, created diversity and inclusion training and mentoring programs, and enhanced equal representation at all levels including critical pathways to senior management. Since 2020, 50% of Firmenich’s Executive Committee are women.
In addition to achieving gender equality, Firmenich is also focused on raising the bar with targeted action beyond gender. This is about embracing the power of inclusion of minority groups, securing effective representation and engagement of people with different abilities, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds and sexual orientation.
Building on its achievements, the Firmenich’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy sets ambitious 2030 people goals, including commitments on human rights, ethnic pay equity, creating 5,000 job opportunities for youth and continuing to raise the representation of differently-abled people in its workforce to 10%.
This Award is one of many milestones along Firmenich’s journey to be the most inclusive player in its industry and the world of work. Firmenich was the 7th company in the world and 1st in its industry to be globally certified as a gender equal employer by EDGE; the Group was recognized as a Diversity & Inclusion leader with the Responsible Business Award by Ethical Corporation; Firmenich’s CEO joined the Valuable 500 movement to put disability inclusion on their leadership agenda; and Firmenich was one the first four companies in French-speaking Switzerland to receive the Swiss LGBTI* label.
The Cercle Suisse des Administratrices Awards 2022 showcased companies leading in gender equality and women leadership. For more information on the awards, visit the website at https://cercle-suisse-administratrices.ch
*: LGBTI stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex
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