Like his predecessor, Mr Patrick Cescau is a Unilever "lifer", having joined the group in 1973 straight from a business degree and MBA at Insead.But observers expect his approach to contrast with the prominent role in UK business life enjoyed by co-chairman Mr Niall FitzGerald.
Mr FitzGerald will retire at the end of September, one year earlier than expected, and will be replaced by Mr Cescau, who is currently head of Unilever's foods division.
"Niall has gone out and about," one analyst said yesterday. "I imagine Patrick will be much more inside Unilever. I see him being more a chief executive, where Niall has been very much a chairman."
Where Mr FitzGerald amassed an extensive range of outside appointments, Mr Cescau currently lists just two: he is a non-executive director of Pearson, which owns the Financial Times; and he is "conseiller du Commerce Exterieur de la France" in the Netherlands, where he currently lives.
"Patrick is quieter, less of a showman," according to Mr David Lang, analyst at Investec.
"He's a good listener and team leader, who is more intense and less ebullient than Niall. He has a great deal of relevant operational experience as well as knowledge of the financial markets," he added.
Before his current post, Mr Cescau had the key task of managing the integration into the group of Bestfoods, the US food business Unilever bought in 2000.
He is reckoned to have performed well in that role as regards achieving synergies and revitalising Unilever's food business by harnessing the talents of some of the senior Bestfoods executives.
Although Mr Cescau looks likely to prefer a personal profile lower than Mr Fitzgerald's, such a contrast may count for less than appears at first sight.
"What matters far more than these cosmetic differences is what he wants to do with the group," another analyst commented.
"I would be amazed if he had got to the top of the business without some pretty clear ideas of what he wanted to do, and I would expect to hear about significant changes."
Meanwhile, Unilever unveiled a strategy yesterday to succeed its ambitious "Path to Growth" restructuring, which has seen the closure of 138 factories and a reduction in staff of 51,800.
The plan for 2005-2010 leaves much more to the imagination, boasting "underlying assumptions" rather than the minefield of targets that made Path to Growth so perilous to navigate in its later stages.
The strategy does have a name - Unilever 2010 - but the company seemed reluctant to use it yesterday, as if to do so might accidentally invoke new targets.
It was much more keen to talk about its new "mission" - boosting the vitality of consumers in every way.
The reticence to talk about targets is a direct reaction to the way Unilever has been punished for failing in one area of Path to Growth - its attempt to boost sales growth.
Yesterday, as expected, it abandoned its hope of increasing sales of its biggest brands by an annual 5-6 per cent, suggesting a range of 3-5 per cent as more representative of typical growth.
This failure has coloured the stock market perception of the company, to the obvious frustration of Mr FitzGerald, Unilever's co-chairman. He says the company has hit - or will hit - a wide array of other targets set in Path to Growth, such as improved operating margin.
The new plan gives Unilever more flexibility. The priority is total shareholder return - Unilever wants to be in the top third of its peers on this measure, which looks at share price appreciation and dividends.
