Procter & Gamble announced July 28 its chief operating officer, Shailesh Jejurikar, 58, will become its next leader on Jan. 1.
Current CEO Jon Moeller, 61, who has led the Cincinnati-based consumer products giant since 2021, will become executive chairman and “serve at the pleasure of the Board of Directors.” A Chicago native, he has worked at the company for nearly four decades since starting as a cost analyst in 1988.
Jejurikar joined Cincinnati-based P&G in 1989 as an assistant brand manager for personal health care in India. He has been the chief operating officer since 2021. Before that he served as the CEO of P&G’s Global Fabric and Home Care from 2019 to 2021, overseeing many of P&G’s most-iconic brands: Tide, Ariel, Downy, Gain, Febreze, Swiffer which represent a third of the company’s sales and profit.
“Shailesh has been an integral part of P&G’s leadership team with substantial contributions across multiple businesses and in both developed and developing regions … He has consistently delivered strong results in thebusinesses and markets he has led,” said Joe Jimenez, P&G’s lead director on its board, in a statement.
In a government disclosure, P&G said Jejurikar would be paid an annual salary of $1.6 million, receive additional annual incentive pay worth as much as $3.2 million. The company’s board has also approved a long-term incentive award valued at $14 million for Jejurikar, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Jejurikar would be first Asian to lead P&G
Born in Mumbai, India with an economics degree from Mumbai University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow, Jejurikar will be the first Asian to lead P&G. Besides company founders English-born William Procter and Irish-born James Gamble, the only other company head that wasn’t American was Durk Jager, CEO from 1999 to 2000, who was born in the Netherlands.
Jejurikar will also stand for election in October to the company’s board of directors.
Procter & Gamble cutting jobs, restructuring
The leadership change comes weeks after P&G announced it would cut 7,000 office jobs in a restructuring move amid slowing sales. In April, the company forecast its organic sales growth (which excludes the impact of foreign exchange, acquisitions and divestitures) would climb a meager 2% for the fiscal year ended June 30 – the worst performance since 2018.
Based in downtown, P&G is the largest consumer products company in the world, responsible for making toiletries in consumers’ pantries or medicine cabinets, such as Pampers diapers, Tide laundry detergent, Crest toothpaste and Gillette razors.
The company employs 108,000 worldwide, including 10,000 in Greater Cincinnati.
This story was updated to add a video.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: P&G names new CEO starting in 2026
Reporting by Alexander Coolidge, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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