Irving-based consumer products giant Kimberly-Clark announced that Craig Slavtcheff has been appointed chief research and development officer, effective July 29.
He will succeed Robert Long, who is retiring after 45 years in the CPG industry, including the last three years at Kimberly-Clark.
“Craig brings an incredible combination of science-backed expertise and tech-forward innovation to Kimberly-Clark, and we are delighted to welcome him to the team,” Chairman and CEO Mike Hsu said in a statement. “Throughout his career, Craig has established a track record of driving innovation with business impact and creating superior products through deep consumer insights. We will benefit from his wealth of experience as we continue to leverage science as our competitive advantage and increase our focus and investment in category-shaping technology to make consumers’ daily lives better.”
Slavtcheff has more than 30 years of R&D experience in the CPG industry.
Most recently, he was executive vice president, chief R&D and innovation officer of Campbell Soup Co., where he led the R&D function, including strategy, product development, and corporate science and technology.
Since joining Campbell in 2012, he transformed the R&D and innovation organization, introduced new methodologies—from agile design to AI and machine learning — and gathered insights to enhance relevance and time to market for innovation pipelines.
Before that, he held senior roles at The Sun Products Corp. and Unilever.
The company said that Slavtcheff has been named as an inventor on more than 70 U.S. and global patents, covering a wide range of product categories that generated growth platforms for leading brands.
Building on the company’s ‘momentum of accelerating pioneering innovation’
“Kimberly-Clark has an impressive innovation track record, having played a critical role in inventing many of the categories it operates in today,” Slavtcheff said in a statement. “With innovation as a pillar of the company’s strategy, it’s an exciting time to join Mike and the rest of the talented executive team to build on the company’s momentum of accelerating pioneering innovation for Kimberly-Clark’s next chapter of growth.”
The company said that Slavtcheff will lead an R&D team of scientists focusing on proprietary, right to win spaces that build differentiated consumer preference and durable brand equity.
This will enable Kimberly-Clark to further elevate and expand its categories by providing invaluable benefits to its consumers: greater absorbency, more comfort, to better skin health and sustainable solutions, the company said.
CEO Hsu recognized outgoing R&D chief Long for his contributions.
“I want to thank Robert for his tremendous contributions to Kimberly-Clark since joining our team in 2021,” Hsu said. “He played a key role in helping to establish innovation as a value-driver for our business, building a long-term pipeline of disruptive innovations rooted in advantaged technology. His leadership has been instrumental in establishing our strong foundation in material invention and product engineering, which will support our growth for years to come.”
Long said he was privileged to be part of a company with “a strong history of category-defining innovation.”
He added, “I’m grateful to have had the strong partnership of our executive leadership team and organizations across the enterprise to elevate innovation in our efforts to better serve consumers and customers. I’m confident Craig’s leadership will take innovation to the next level, and I look forward to more great things ahead for Kimberly-Clark.”
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