Robert A. McDonald
Chairman, President and CEO, Procter & Gamble Company
Vice Chair and Committee Chair: Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee.
Robert A. McDonald is the President and Chief Executive of Procter & Gamble. He has nearly 30 years of brand-building, market development, global business unit and global operations leadership experience across the Company and throughout the world. Robert was born in Gary, Indiana, and raised in the Chicago area. In 1975, Robert graduated from West Point in the top 2% of his class with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. He served as the Brigade Adjutant for the Corps of Cadets and was awarded the Silver Medal from The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce, for being the most distinguished graduating cadet in academics, leadership and physical education. After graduation, he served as a Captain in the U.S. Army for five years, primarily in the 82nd Airborne Division. During his service, he not only completed his qualifications for Airborne, Ranger, Jungle, Arctic and Desert Warfare, Jumpmaster, Expert Infantry, and Senior Parachutist, but also earned an MBA from the University of Utah in 1978. Upon leaving the military he received the Meritorious Service Medal. Robert joined Procter & Gamble in 1980, working on prominent brands such as Dawn, Cascade and Tide. He spent most of the 1990s leading P&G’s businesses in the Philippines, Japan and Korea, including responsibility for P&G’s Hair Care business in Asia and the P&G Beauty business in Japan. Robert led Global Fabric & Home Care, the Company’s largest and most mature business, which delivered strong sales growth and record-setting profits during his tenure. As Vice Chair, Global Operations, he led P&G’s market development organizations and was a member of the team that created the Company’s winning Low-Cost Business Model, which has helped drive developing markets to more than 30% of Company sales and company-average margins. As Chief Operating Officer, Robert has worked closely with the leaders of Marketing, R&D, Product Supply, Customer Business Development and others and has championed the integration of P&G’s global brand-building capability. He also played a pivotal role in the integration of Gillette and led P&G’s game-changing “go-to-market” reinvention. In 2007, Robert received the inaugural Leadership Excellence Award from the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard Business Review. He serves on the Board of Directors of Xerox Corporation and is Chairman of the Board for GS1, an international supply chain standards organization. Robert advises Duke University, Northwestern University, the University of Utah, and St. Petersburg State University in Russia, and is Special Goodwill Envoy of Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Robert is Vice Chair of the U.S.-China Business Council, and member of the U.S. Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN) and Singapore’s International Advisory Council of the Economic Development Board. Robert is a passionate reader and never misses his early morning workouts. He resides in Cincinnati with Diane, his wife of 31 years. They are the parents of two grown children, Jennifer and Robert.