Household Products

Reckitt names Pepsico executive Laxman Narasimhan CEO

British consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser on Wednesday named PepsiCo executive Laxman Narasimhan to succeed Rakesh Kapoor as chief executive officer.

Narasimhan, PepsiCo's global chief commercial officer, will join Reckitt as CEO-designate and be appointed to the board on July 16.

He will become group CEO on Sept. 1, the company said in a statement.

Narasimhan's initial priorities will be to focus on delivering outperformance, especially in the health business unit, and to drive the Lysol maker's plan to split the firm into two business units under the same company, Reckitt said in a statement.

Kapoor said in January that he would leave by the end of 2019 after more than eight years at the helm.