Herbalife's CEO Hands Over the Keys After a Turnaround Run

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Herbalife is changing captains. Chief executive Stephan Gratziani will leave the role on October 31, 2026, and chief financial officer John DeSimone becomes interim CEO the next day, on November 1. The board has set up a committee to find a permanent successor, so for now the company is running on a well-known pattern: a trusted insider holds the wheel while the search goes on.

Mission accomplished, or at least stabilized

Gratziani joined in August 2023 as chief strategy officer, originally under an arrangement meant to last about 18 months. He arrived at a difficult moment: the company had gone through 12 consecutive quarters of decline in a tough post-pandemic period. Herbalife now says it has returned to growth, and Gratziani framed his exit around exactly that, pointing to a business that is growing again and has a strong foundation in place.

He is not disappearing entirely. Gratziani will stay on as a consultant focused on strategy and business development, and he will return his main attention to his own independent distributor organization, which counts nearly 700,000 distributors and preferred members. Few departing CEOs can say their next job comes with an audience that size.

Continuity from the finance office

DeSimone has been with Herbalife for nearly 20 years and has held roles including president, chief strategy officer and special adviser to the CEO. The board is counting on that institutional memory to keep things steady during the search. Executive chairman Michael O. Johnson credited Gratziani with a vision for the Herbalife community and a path toward leadership in health and wellness.

The interim chief inherits ongoing work on distributor engagement, technology, personalized products and growth, all against shifting consumer demand and a changing direct-selling market. In other words, the turnaround chapter is closed, and the harder sequel, keeping growth going, now begins.