Newell Brands, parent company of Coleman and many other brands, has placed its executive vice president and chief financial officer, Christopher Peterson, into the post of interim chief executive. Peterson is succeeding Michael Polk, who, as previously reported, will be retiring at the end of the month after overseeing Newell's “Accelerated Transformation Plan,” a restructuring of the consumer-products company into seven divisions with fewer brands. The company's board of directors will now therefore be reduced to 11 members. According to its chairman, Patrick Campbell, Newell expects to complete its search for a permanent CEO in the coming weeks. Peterson will be retaining his current posts. He was hired as Newell's CFO in December 2018 and previously occupied the same post at Revlon, heading up procurement, finance and IT. He also spent four years with Ralph Lauren, where he was senior vice president and CFO before becoming president of Global Brands. Before that, he spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble, ending his run there as vice president and CFO of Global Household Care. He began his career as an investment banker with Smith Barney Harris Upham & Co.

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