Gillette Names First Female CEO as Senior Women Exit P&G

Asked in 2024 whether Procter & Gamble would ever be run by a woman, then Chief Executive Jon Moeller did not hedge. “I expect that someday you will. I’d be very surprised if you wouldn’t,” he told investors at a Florida conference that February.

Someday now has a date, though not at the company he led. Juliana Azevedo, a 30-year P&G veteran, becomes the first female CEO in Gillette’s almost 125-year history on 1 July, Boston Business Journal reports.

The same week, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that P&G is "seeing an exodus of top female executives in 2026", a characterisation the company rejects. The promotion had been made internally weeks earlier and was confirmed publicly as those retirements came to light. One high-profile promotion sits against three senior departures in the same week.

A promotion three decades in the making

Juliana trained as an industrial engineer in São Paulo and joined P&G as a marketing intern in Brazil in 1996. She rose to become the first woman to lead the company’s Latin America business. She currently runs home care and P&G Professional, and serves as the company’s executive sponsor for gender equality. The grooming unit she takes on houses the Gillette and Venus razor businesses.

She inherits the role from Gary Coombe, 61, who is retiring after roughly eight years in charge and four decades at P&G. The handover comes as Gillette commits close to US$1bn to a new global headquarters in Boston, the city where the brand began in 1901.

Three exits the company calls routine

The counterweight sits in Cincinnati. Alexandra Keith, CEO of Beauty, retired in February after 36 years. Jennifer Davis, CEO of Health Care, leaves on 30 June after 33 years. Fatima Francisco, who runs the US$20bn Baby, Feminine and Family Care sector, retires in September after 37 years.

The Enquirer reports company officials characterise the departures as “routine” transitions, noting most had served three decades or more. P&G points out that women hold 51% of its management roles. Four women have recently been promoted into president-level jobs, including Ranya Shamoon in Global Feminine Care and Mindy Sherwood as President of North America. When Jon made his 2024 promise, women had just passed half of the company’s global management roles for the first time.

Fatima is gracious about the change, calling it “an exciting new chapter for our Baby and Feminine Care businesses” on LinkedIn.

The test facing P&G’s people office

New P&G CEO Shailesh Jejurikar is five months into the job, and senior exits often trail a succession as executives overlooked for the top role move on. The months after a handover are the riskiest for retention, when boards read every appointment as a signal.

The backdrop sharpens the test. P&G, with US$84.3bn in annual sales, is partway through a restructuring that will cut up to 7,000 non-manufacturing roles across two years. CFO Andre Schulten, speaking at a Deutsche Bank conference this month, says slightly more than half of those cuts are done.

Amid that upheaval, Juliana will lead a 125-year-old brand that has never had a woman at the top, capping a climb from marketing intern to Chief Executive. Jon once promised the company a female boss someday. At Gillette, someday has arrived.