2025 just started and most of us feel, it will shake old structures even more than the years before because the world is changing more rapidly than we ever have experienced. This year’s conference considers this feeling of uncertainty and will enable all of us to co-create new thinking on how to empower ourselves individually, with our families and friends, in the communities we live, and in the organizations we lead.

We, the P&G alumni community, have a track record of making a difference in the world – individually and collectively. The conference is designed to bring us together and to give us new impulses to be future-proof leaders on all levels.

As we continue to orchestrate the agenda to make it as diverse and enriching as possible, we will share our highlights over the next months. The fireside chat between former P&G CEO David Taylor and young tech start-up founder Daniel Dippold was our highlight in December. Today, we give you insights into the keynote speeches of two already-announced female leaders.

Veronika Rost started her professional career in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble with positions in Germany, France and Switzerland and is now Managing Director of Philip Morris Germany. She will share her experience on how to radically and successfully transform a company’s and consequently a whole industry’s business model to build a resilient and future-proof entity:

1. Hear why the market leader in cigarettes made the bold decision to move away from its traditional and successful products and invent smoke-free alternatives that are potentially less harmful.
2. Learn how the company overcame the resulting internal and external skepticism and even resistance in pursuing this smoke-free future.
3. Understand the ongoing challenges and opportunities in redefining a whole industry and how to regard consumers, include stakeholders and opinionmakers, and modify an organization with the help of strong leadership.

Jutta dos Santos Miquelino, co-CEO of and dos Santos GmbH and author of the inspiring book The Glass Elevator wants to remind us that great leadership is not a crown we wear, but the path we carve through empathy, innovation, and shared growth.

Jutta’s keynote, “Oneness in Leadership: Navigating the 5 Dimensions of Reality,” is set to take us on a journey from personal growth to collective excellence. She will draw from her groundbreaking concept of 5D-Leadership a blueprint for unlocking both individual and collective potential in today’s ever-evolving landscape.

Here’s a glimpse of what you can expect:

1. Harnessing personal growth as the foundation for leadership.
2. Bridging purpose and collaboration for organizational excellence.
3. Fostering innovation through collective intelligence.

Is this great food for thought for you? There is more to come and even food for the body and soul! Inspiration from excellent speakers, panels and break-out sessions, catering during both days and lively dinners on both evenings of the conference are included in one ticket! For 499€ till January 15 or 649€ as of Jan 16 (excluding registration fee) you will have the chance to join an unforgettable experience!

See the full list of speakers on our website. Forward this link to P&G alumni in your personal network and invite them to join and meet you in Berlin! More highlights are being prepared for you—stay tuned!

Sound promising? Well, this is just the beginning! Our list of speakers grows as we move forward with our planning. You can also look forward to:

• Bracken Darrell, CEO of VF Corporation, one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear and accessories companies
• Karl Krainer, Chief Thinker & Founder at Gedankenfabrik,
  a reinvention consultancy
• Veronika Rost, Managing Director of Philip Morris Germany,
  working on the vision of delivering a smoke-free future
• Jutta dos Santos Miquelino, co-CEO of the consultancy dos Santos and author of the recently published book “The Glass Elevator”,
  a transformative leadership program

See the full list of speakers on our website which is updated continuously. Forward this link to P&G alumni of your personal network and invite them to join and meet you in Berlin!

We are looking forward to sharing one highlight in 2025 with many of you in Berlin and will make sure to keep you regularly updated about the planning.

Wishing you magical holidays with your families and friends and a healthy, optimistic start in 2025!

I am pleased to report that 2024 finds the Network and our Foundation to be very healthy, continuing to grow and positioned well for the future.

Following our successful  2023 Global Conference held in Washington, DC we are well into the execution of our 2025 conference in Berlin—continuing our history of alternating these events between North American and other key geographies.  The event is being organized by our German Chapter and led by Board Vice Chair Ute Hagen and German Chair Otmar Debald.  The event will take place at the Grand Hyatt in the center of Berlin and will run from Thursday evening, June 12 through Saturday evening, June 14. Among many others, David Taylor has agreed to be an important part of the agenda.  We hope many of you will attend.

Financially, we continue to be on very solid footing and the Foundation had a banner year which you can track in the Impact Report. Rest assured that our conservative approach to financials has the Network and the Foundation protected with the funds needed to operate for several years and plans underway to expand our ability to generate the funding required to grow our offerings for our alumni.

In 2024 we added several new faces to the Network Board and thank several of our peers who have moved on. Joining the Board are Hanxi Zhao from China, Neil Comerford from the UK and South Africa, Fer Jimenez Riveroll from Mexico, and Kendra Speed from the US. We want to thank Stevi Carr, Lisa Reynolds, and Michelle Solano for their service. Our board continues to reflect the diversity of our membership and the global reach of our mission.

Consistent with our mission, we continue to expand our offerings, adding them to our existing enrichment programs, and dramatically improving our communications tools and processes, all in order to serve our members better.

Notable successes, among our programs and initiatives, include:

• Our “Learnings from Leaders” podcast continues to grow its audience.
• Our webinar series, including those in Spanish, continues to secure compelling speakers.
• Our Coaching Program – designed and managed by our Women’s Leadership Forum— expanded out of the test and continues to receive very positive feedback. Moreover, we are exploring ways to bring the expertise of our coaches to the employees of companies run by our alumni.
• Our Peer-to-Peer leadership teams—CEOs, CMOs, and C-Level Women—in >$1B companies continued to gain traction and were an integral part of the global conference. We are exploring groups for CFOs, CIOs, and others.
• Our entrepreneur Business Catapult program has been revised to provide opportunities to alumni entrepreneurs, coaches, and investors – with a financial benefit for the Network.
• Our Younger Alumni efforts are being bolstered by the addition of several younger alumni to the Board.

Further:

• We executed a new event at the Conference dedicated to our Black Alumni with the objective of better serving this community. Kendra Speed has taken on the leadership of that forum.
• We continued to add and build our chapter organization and had several chapter leaders in attendance at the Conference. Ranu Gupta who leads our chapter efforts has helped us add chapters in several cities and countries around the world.
• As can be seen in the 2024 Alumni Foundation Impact Report, our Foundation had another remarkable year in terms of both fundraising and grants, dramatically increasing our impact against the objective of alumni involvement in fostering economic empowerment around the world.

As we enter 2025 in a world of greater uncertainty than we have encountered in some time, we continue to believe that the shared values that connect us as alumni will allow us to deal with whatever comes our way.  My own belief has always been that when we harness the experience, expertise, and creativity of Procter people, we can make great things happen.

As we move forward, I am pleased to report that the Network and the Foundation are healthy and thriving – and it’s all thanks to you.

From our families to yours, our sincere wish for 2025 of Peace On Earth and Goodwill toward Everyone.

Ed Tazzia, Chairman

35 years ago, the “wind of change” blew in Berlin, leading to the reunification of the two German countries and the fall of the iron curtain between East and West in Europe. Now, P&G alumni will gather in Berlin to get inspired and co-create ideas on how to navigate through ever-growing uncertainty in a world that is changing more rapidly and fundamentally than ever.

How can we P&G Alumni in our very diverse roles continue to be at the forefront of future-proofing leadership?

We already have more than 60 registered early birds who will get together on June 12-14, 2025 to dive into the four key topics framing the 2-days conference:

1. Resilience and Sustainability of companies and organizations
2. Human-centricity as a key success factor
3. Agility and Digital Disruption
4. Beyond Corporate (the eco-system of entrepreneurship) shaping the world in the non-profit sector.

Besides our P&G Alumni Award winners, we have already secured such outstanding alumni as Austin Lally, Dalia Feldheim, Jim Lafferty, Stefan Homeister, Bob Kunze-Concewitz, Anke Hampel, Till Wahnbaeck sharing their insights with us and leading break-out sessions. Many more speakers are getting on board as we shape the agenda of this inspiring conference!

The keynotes and panel discussions throughout the first day will be closed with an Alumni award dinner at the Grand Hyatt.

On the second day, we will have a gala dinner at Spreespeicher, an event location specially chosen for dinner and dancing in the well-known P&G spirit.

To share this overall experience with your spouses and even your adult children, tailored programs are being prepared to get you all excited about this special occasion in Berlin. These include exclusive Get-your-Guide tours as well as special discussions and CEO meet-ups in addition to the main program for your next generation and young alumni.

What are you waiting for? Get your ticket here!

Who has not yet seen David Taylor in the last newsletter, here he is again inviting you all to be part of the upcoming gathering!

Check our webpage frequently as we will continuously update how many P&G alumni have already signed up and who will take part in leading the program.

REGISTER NOW AT https://bit.ly/400Vjf7 

Navigating through uncertainty can be done with different superpowers. Our speakers will inspire you with what they practice and what has proven to stabilize their business and people during these times. They are open to sharing their secrets exclusively with P&G alumni as a gesture to give back to the alma mater which unites us all.

David Taylor, former CEO of P&G had already agreed at the Global Conference in Washington in 2023 to join the next one as he very much appreciates the growth mindset of P&G alumni and their solution-oriented attitude. Listen to his words in his video message here and follow his call to be one of the early birds to book your ticket. “Early bird”-tickets are available now at 499€ (full price will be 649€)

Do you feel energized by interactions with 400 alumni in break-out sessions, panel discussions, one-to-one encounters, fun, and dance in hand-selected venues?

Is it intriguing for you to spend a long weekend in Berlin during the best season of the year, with the longest days and shortest nights? We offer you a unique opportunity on June 12-14 next year!

If your answer is “yes” to these questions, we are pleased to open registrations to those who want to share their enthusiasm for this extra-ordinary business conference with former P&G CEO David Taylor, 7 P&G Alumni Award winners, a multi-national Orga Team and around 400 P&G alumni.

We will share more speakers over the next months.
Follow us and be surprised who will be announced next!

“Early bird”-tickets are available now at 499€ (full price will be 649€) here.

P&G brought us together – P&G Alumni keep us together
Let’s keep the P&G spirit alive and embrace it as a superpower to face any uncertainties coming up in the future!

Allison Kirkby—Diversity and Inclusion Award
Allison is an outstanding recipient of the 2025 P&G Alumni Diversity and Inclusion Award.  As the CEO of FTSE 100 British Telecom, she has proven herself an outstanding leader who delivers great results and inclusive cultures through classic best practices: publishing targets, measuring progress, and being held accountable for results. 

While Allison was on the BT Board, the organization made public its targets for increasing its workforce diversity: 32% female, 13% ethnic minority, and 10% disabled by 2025; and 25% ethnic minority by 2030. Since becoming Chief Executive, BT has made headlines for confirming that the representation of minority communities in local areas positively affects decisions around where offices are based. 

Furthermore, Allison has linked a proportion of her bonus to BT’s success in hitting its ambitious diversity targets. 

Allison has shown that inclusive culture is at the very heart of her leadership at BT — all while delivering better business results. 

Aliyu Mohammed Ali—Early Achievement
Aliyu has been selected as the recipient for the Early Achievement Award for transforming the traditional waste management industry of Dubai as the CEO/Co-Founder of Ehfaaz, a six-year-old circular economy company committed to closed-loop resource recovery. Ehfaaz gives used resources new life, utilizing discarded materials from the CPG industry to produce organic compost, animal feed, and industrial cleaning products. 

His innovations are modernizing recycling and waste management methods to create a more sustainable world. Aliyu has been featured in many Dubai and international publications. The UN’s annual climate change conferences featured Ehfaaz’s solutions at COP27 and Aliyu was a featured speaker at COP28. A PGAF board officer, Aliyu is also a mentor to business startups. 

Aliyu is an ardent advocate for the UN’s goals on climate change. True to his mission to sustain the world’s resources, his company name, Ehfaaz, means “to protect” in English.

Deborah Kielty—Community Service
A familiar name to most alumni, Deb Kielty has been selected as the recipient for the Community Service Award in recognition of her 30+ years of volunteer and nonprofit leadership – including roles as, World Trade Center Institute President, Families with Children from China Board Chair, Johns Hopkins Jhpiego Trustee and more. 

In 2001, Deb joined the World Trade Center Institute (WTCI), a nonprofit focused on driving new ideas and connections for growth and global good. After retiring from P&G Deb spent 20 years as WTCI President. Deb and her team have hosted knowledge exchange programs for over 8,000 visiting international professionals – covering hundreds of topics ranging from combating human trafficking to reducing recidivism — all in partnership with the U.S. State Department International Visitors Leadership Program. Under Deb’s leadership, WTCI grew its impact 8-fold behind the IVLP and many other innovative new programs – including Women Spanning the Globe Leadership, Global Pathways for Students, and AGILE Global Innovation.

For the past 10 years, Deb has also served on the global Johns Hopkins Jhpiego Board, a $400 million non-profit providing women and families living in poverty access to high-quality health care. She served for six years as a Trustee for Baltimore Outreach Services, one of the only homeless shelters that accept women and children. She served for 20 years on Baltimore’s Council on Foreign Affairs, bringing global thought-leaders to the mid-Atlantic. She was appointed to the Governor’s Subcabinet on International Affairs under several administrations in her home state of Maryland, receiving a Distinguished Service citation from Senator Mikulski. 

Elliott Millenson—John E. Pepper Humanitarian Award
Because of Elliot Millenson, the recipient of the John E. Pepper Humanitarian Award, untold thousands of people are alive and living fuller lives today.  He has consistently used skills gained in brand management at P&G to serve humanity. After P&G, at Harvard Business School, he helped develop the marketing strategy for the US Office on Smoking & Health, the government’s first anti-smoking campaign, (and wrote a case study on the challenges of government marketing).

In the 1980s, he was founder and CEO of Direct Access Diagnostics, giving consumers direct access to laboratory testing from the privacy of home. Thereby opening up the home testing market for infectious diseases – developing the world’s first home HIV test. Clinical trials demonstrated safety and efficacy – with results identical to the best HIV lab tests available — and survey data revealed  three times as many people would test with a home HIV test versus face to face testing. It took a nine-year fight but Elliott persevered and succeeded in getting the world’s first home HIV test approved. 

Today, home HIV testing is recognized by the World Health Organization and health authorities around the world as an important tool, providing a confidential, safe, and private way to test for HIV, thereby preventing new HIV infections, and getting infected people into treatment.  

Elliott is currently a Board member of Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a non-profit pharmaceutical company which recently received FDA approval for an OTC version of the opioid antidote naloxone.  His advocacy for home COVID testing — pushing the Federal government to develop and then broadly distribute rapid home COVOD tests– resulted in the distribution of hundreds of millions of tests, impacting millions of lives.

Kevin Houston—Innovation Award
Dealing with our environment is a global imperative.  Kevin Houston is the Innovation Award recipient for his work in making a significant step in the right direction. 

Kevin co-founded Carbon Masters — a climate tech company, established first in the UK in 2009, and then launched Carbonlites in India in 2012. Their stated mission is to reduce carbon emissions by replacing fossil fuels consumption with innovative, clean energy, low carbon solutions and products.

Kevin and his people have pioneered the conversion of food and agri-wastes to produce two climate-friendly products, sold and marketed under the brand name Carbonlites.

• Carbonlites Bio-Enriched Organic Manure — a carbon enriched organic fertilizer which puts carbon back into the soil and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, 
• Carbonlites Bio-CNG, carbon neutral fuel displacing diesel for electricity generation and transport, and LPG for commercial cooking 

Both mitigate carbon emissions and reduce the risks of climate change.

With the unprecedented rise in fossil fuel prices and the world only a decade away from avoiding the worst consequences of climate change, there is now an even greater need for low carbon solutions.

Ilaria Resta—John G. Smale General Management Award
IIaria Resta is recognized for the John Smale General Management Award and her many contributions across industries.

Ilaria is a passionate business leader with expertise in brand building, sales, and P&L management.  She has more than 22 years of experience at Procter & Gamble with a track record helping business transform crisis into success, renewing P&G’s European Hair Care business and, prior to that, restructuring the Duracell business before successful divestiture. As Vice President, Hair Care, North America, Ilaria and her team delivered the strongest business results in 11 years, growing market share and penetration, increasing double-digit revenues and high single digit profit, and  transforming the product portfolio and retail distribution. 

At Firmenich, Ilaria and her team delivered consistent top line and bottom improvements, achieving leading share in the Perfumery and Ingredients business (growing revenues under her three years tenure with a CAGR of 26%). She was the business leader who drove the merger with DSM and launched a successful IPO reaching a market cap of $30Bn. 

llaria  is acknowledged by WWD as Brand Builder of the Year in the US in 2019, from CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women) as winner of the Global Achiever Award, and as  a number one Swiss business leader from the Italy-Swiss Chamber of Commerce. 

Ilaria joined Audemars Piguet as CEO in August 2023, where her mission is to strengthen the foundation for accelerated growth and brand expansion.  

Rad Ewing—McElroy Award
Rad Ewing is the recipient of the McElroy Award. Rad led important marketing practice innovations at P&G that generated growth across all categories. These principles became the foundation of modern marketing practice, including 

• Point of Market Entry insights and programs that tied marketing to life stages 
• Marketing Best Practices analysis and creation of the mNet online resource to make P&G marketing knowledge more accessible and applicable 
• Product Initiative Success analysis and incorporation into the SIMPL product launch system that increased new product success rates 
• Shopper Marketing Framework that enabled retailers to better meet shopper needs and transformed P&G retail partnerships 
• Brand Building Framework that reinvented P&G’s marketing approach 

After a long and storied career at P&G, including receiving the first P&G Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, Rad went on to a consulting career applying these principles successfully in non-competing industries (Coca Cola Beverages, Samsung Electronics, McCormick, and non profit organizations). 

His evidenced-based, curiosity-forward approach led to many important advancements in marketing for P&G and the industry. Rad is rooted firmly in data and asks the “why” question to unlock the possibilities of making something better.  

Learn more about the category descriptions on our website, and be sure to register for the 2025 P&G Alumni Global Conference in Berlin to attend the awards ceremony!