P&G announced that Susan E. Arnold, president–global business units, will retire effective Sept. 1, 2009, after 29 years of service. She will step down as president on March 9, 2009, and will continue to serve in a special assignment, reporting to A.G. Lafley, chairman and CEO. The vice chairmen of P&G global business units who have reported to Arnold will report to Lafley, effective immediately, reducing a layer of management as part of the company's ongoing simplification effort.
"Susan has been an integral part of P&G's leadership team during the past decade, most recently as president of global business units responsible for more than $80 billion in sales and more than 300 brands worldwide," said Lafley. "She has also been an architect of the company's winning beauty strategy for the past decade. She's led the transformation of P&G into one of the world's leading beauty companies—with vision, creativity, consumer understanding and game-changing innovation."
Under Arnold's leadership, P&G's beauty business has nearly tripled in size, from approximately $7 billion in 1999 to $20 billion. When she became president of the company's personal beauty care business 10 years ago, P&G had only one billion-dollar beauty brand, Pantene. Today, there are eight billion-dollar brands in the company's beauty and grooming portfolio—Pantene, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Wella, Mach3, Gillette, Fusion and Braun—and eight more with sales between $500 million and $1 billion a year.
Most recently, according to a press release, Arnold has played a pivotal role in P&G's focus on sustainability. Under her leadership, P&G adopted company-wide sustainability goals, and sustainability has been integrated into strategies and plans in every business unit.
