Marcel Smits, CFO of food products company Sara Lee, is in the running for the top job at the firm after CEO Brenda Barnes announced her resignation last week.

Smits has been building his resume for the permanent post as acting CEO while Barnes was on leave. He took over the responsibilities when Barnes left on medical leave in May—after suffering from a stroke.

However Smits faces some tough competition for the post from fellow-executive CJ Fraleigh—who is Sara Lee’s head of North American retail and food service operations. In addition, executive search firm Egon Zehnder has reportedly been hired to handle the search for a permanent replacement.

Smits came to Sara Lee as finance chief in October last year from Royal KPN—the Dutch telecommunications firm—where he was CFO.

Whoever wins the top job, it is a tough time to take over at Sara Lee as the company continues to struggle in its quest to overcome six quarters of stagnant or falling sales. CEO Barnes had focused on asset sales and increasing revenue from packaged foods in order to turn things around at the company.

Most recently, the European Commission has raised concerns over the acquisition of Sara Lee’s personal care unit by Belgian conglomerate Unilever. Should this fall through it will be a big spike in the group’s aim to focus on its core food products business, sell off non-core assets and begin to boost shareholder value.

Unilever reported on Thursday that it had received a statement of objection from the EC over the $1.65 billion deal, citing potential antitrust concerns over a number of products.