Rudy Markham retired as the chief financial officer of Unilever in 2007 and was appointed to the UPS Board of Directors on Nov. 8, 2007.

Markham spent 39 years at Unilever, joining the company in 1968 as a commercial management trainee. He spent most of his early career in the finance function of various Unilever companies in Europe before being appointed financial director of Unilever in Zurich.

Markham returned to Rotterdam as head of the Finance Department and became group treasurer of Unilever in 1986. From 1989 to 1998, he was based in Unilever's East Asia Pacific Region and directed operations in Australia and New Zealand, then Japan and then China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Markham joined the Board of Unilever as Strategy and Technology Director and became a member of its Executive Committee in May 1998. He was appointed financial director in August 2000, reporting directly to the company's chief executive. In May 2007, Markham retired from Unilever's Board and on Oct. 31, 2007, he retired as CFO.

Markham is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Association of Corporate Treasurers in the UK.

A native of Alresford, Hampshire, England, he is aged 61.