Bulcke, who heads Nestle's Americas division, will take over April 10, the company said. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the chief executive, will remain as chairman.
Five of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected Nestle to break a tradition of naming veterans to the top job and appoint Polman, who joined the company from Procter & Gamble in 2006. Analysts say Polman was the architect of a buyback plan that sent Nestle shares surging last month. Bulcke started working at Nestle 28 years ago.