Job title: Vice President
Department: Corporate Marketing & Research Services
At Henkel since: 1980

How did you get to work with Henkel?
I came to Henkel as part of the Dial acquisition. Right after graduating from college, I started working with the Dial Corporation. Actually I have a science background, so I started in product research development. Then I went back to business school to get my MBA. Afterwards I went into marketing and brand management where I worked for about 13 years followed by my current position as Vice President of Marketing and Research Services.

What are your areas of responsibility?
The marketing research and services area is a function that is common in consumer products companies in the U.S. I’m responsible for market research and consumer insights and also promotion and advertising media services. I’m also in charge of an area that we call creative services, which involves package graphics development; customer marketing; and the consumer information center where consumers call and ask questions. My departments’ primary clients are marketing, sales, product development and R&D.

What piece of advice would you give to people starting at Henkel?
It’s important to take a long term perspective on your career, to look and welcome opportunities that may be more lateral instead of just always being worried about the next upward career level. Tthere are many opportunities to learn across functions that will help a person advance in the future. Sometimes people can’t see that because they only want to be moving upward in their own area of expertise. But there is so much to be learned by taking a lateral assignment, by probably taking an international assignment. And it can help people to think in longer terms and not to be in such a rush to move up, but be thinking about their career on a further into the future basis. I believe Henkel has many opportunities in that way.

Did you have a mentor?
At the time of the acquisition of Dial, my supervisor, who was an executive vice president here, really helped me and the rest of the people reporting to him, manage the transition process very smoothly and he helped me understand what my role was.