Kraft chief exec angers MPs after third refusal to attend committee

16 March 2011 1:35 pm | By Steve Tolley

Kraft chief executive Irene Rosenfeld has angered the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee after failing to attend three evidence sessions.

Speaking in yesterday’s committee session with Kraft board members, which was intended to focus on the firm’s controversial hostile takeover of Cadbury, committee member Nadhim Zahawi highlighted Rosenfeld’s repeated non-attendance.

He said: “Do you understand why this committee finds it hard when she is front and centre in front of analysts, and when it comes to the acquisition. Yet she cannot come before a select committee and sends someone who cannot even close a factory because he does not have the executive responsibility?”

“Your brands have been taking a very negative pasting for the last 40 minutes.”

The date of one of the three hearings Rosenfeld was invited to was changed to suit her diary and another was offered by video link and it has been reported committee members were so angry over Rosenfeld’s third refusal to attend, they discussed issuing a subpoena for Rosenfeld to appear.

Responding to the MPs, Kraft executive vice president Marc Firestone said Rosenfeld considered him and two other board members present - president of European markets Trevor Bond and UK and Ireland president Nick Bunker - the best people to respond to the committee’s questions for a “full and open debate”.

BIS committee chair Adrian Bailey said: “You are anticipating lines of questioning and she alone is responsible on some matters. This committee may wish to ask questions only she can answer and she is not here. That is our concern.”

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