Shailesh Jejurikar

Overview

Shailesh G. Jejurikar
Born	1967 (age 58–59) Mumbai, India
Education	B.A. in Economics; MBA
Alma mater	Elphinstone College, Mumbai; Indian Institute of Management Lucknow
Occupation	Business executive
Employer(s)	Procter & Gamble
Known for	First India-born chief executive of Procter & Gamble
Title	President and Chief Executive Officer-designate
Term	From 1 January 2026
Predecessor	Jon Moeller
Board member of	Procter & Gamble; Otis Worldwide Corporation; Cincinnati Center City Development Corp; The Christ Hospital Health Network
Spouse	Sankhya Jejurikar
Children	Two sons

🌍 Shailesh G. Jejurikar (born 1967) is an India-born business executive who has spent his entire career at Procter & Gamble (P&G), rising from an entry-level brand management role in India in 1989 to become president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company effective 1 January 2026. He is the first India-born and only the second non-United States-born chief executive in the 188-year history of P&G, and is regarded as a long-serving “company lifer” whose tenure has spanned four continents and multiple consumer product categories.

🏢 Significance at Procter & Gamble. Jejurikar’s elevation caps more than three decades of leadership in P&G’s fabric and home care businesses, where he oversaw brands such as Tide, Ariel, Downy and Febreze and helped design the company’s modern global operating model. Before being named CEO, he served as P&G’s first-ever chief operating officer (COO) from 2021, with responsibility for enterprise markets spanning Latin America, India, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as global supply chain, sales, information technology and other key functions.

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Early life and education

🎓 Family background and childhood. Jejurikar was born in Mumbai, India, in 1967 to a Maharashtrian father and a Gujarati mother, and spent his early years in various “company colonies” on the outskirts of Indian cities as his father moved between corporate postings. Growing up in relatively remote townships outside major urban centres exposed him to diverse local cultures and, by his own later account, encouraged adaptability and ambition.

🏏 Schooling and sport. In his teens the family relocated to Hyderabad, where he attended the Hyderabad Public School, a selective institution whose alumni include future Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, with whom he shared a class. At school he served as head boy, captained the cricket team and represented Hyderabad in under-17 state cricket tournaments, combining academic performance with competitive sport. Although he initially contemplated a sporting career, he eventually chose to focus on higher education and a corporate path.

📚 University studies and management training. After returning to Mumbai, Jejurikar studied economics at Elphinstone College, earning a bachelor’s degree that introduced him to macroeconomics and business fundamentals. He subsequently secured admission to the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow (IIM Lucknow), one of India’s leading business schools, graduating with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 1989; he has credited the combination of disciplined team sport and rigorous management training during these years with shaping his later leadership approach.

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Career at Procter & Gamble

💼 Entry into brand management in India. Immediately after completing his MBA in July 1989, Jejurikar joined Procter & Gamble India as an assistant brand manager, beginning an uninterrupted career with the company that would span more than three decades. In his first years he worked on personal care brands in the Indian market, learning the fundamentals of consumer research, advertising and portfolio management while navigating the competitive dynamics of a rapidly liberalising economy.

🌏 International postings and regional leadership roles. During the 1990s he progressed through P&G’s marketing ranks in India and, by 1999, had become marketing director for the local subsidiary. Seeking broader experience, he accepted a sequence of international assignments in East Africa, Southeast Asia and South Korea, overseeing laundry and home care businesses in markets ranging from Kenya to Singapore and Seoul; colleagues later highlighted these postings as formative in developing his ability to adjust strategy to very different consumer environments.

🧴 North American home care and global brand franchises. In 2010 P&G transferred Jejurikar to its Cincinnati headquarters as vice-president for home care in North America, giving him responsibility for cleaning brands in the company’s home market and for the global surface care “brand franchise”. The role required him to coordinate product positioning, innovation and marketing execution across regions and to align local brand plans with global strategy, marking his transition into the company’s senior executive cadre.

🧺 Fabric care leadership and category revitalisation. Four years later he was appointed president of P&G’s fabric care business in North America while also overseeing the global brand-building organisation for fabric and home care. In that capacity he helped integrate research and development, marketing and a data-driven supply chain to refresh P&G’s detergent and fabric enhancer portfolio, including innovations within Tide and related brands that were credited with restoring market share growth in key categories.

🏠 Global Fabric & Home Care and sustainability sponsorship. In 2019 P&G promoted Jejurikar to chief executive officer of its global Fabric & Home Care division, the largest of the company’s five business sectors, encompassing detergents, cleaners and air care products such as Tide, Ariel, Downy and Febreze that together contribute roughly one-third of P&G’s sales and profits. In the same year he was named executive sponsor for global sustainability, a role he held until 2021 in which he helped embed climate and resource-conservation objectives into product design, packaging and supply chain plans.

⚙️ Chief operating officer. In July 2021 P&G created the post of chief operating officer and appointed Jejurikar as its first holder, effectively making him second-in-command to CEO Jon Moeller. As COO he oversaw the company’s “enterprise markets” cluster—Latin America, India, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe—alongside global manufacturing, supply chain, sales, procurement, information technology and new-business development activities, giving him day-to-day responsibility for both front-end execution and back-end efficiency across much of P&G’s operations.

🧭 Appointment as president and CEO. On 28 July 2025 P&G’s board elected Jejurikar as the company’s next president and chief executive officer, to succeed Moeller with effect from 1 January 2026. His appointment made him the first India-born and one of the very few non-U.S.-born CEOs of a major United States consumer goods company, a milestone widely noted in both Indian and international media.

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Strategic vision and business impact

🚀 Growth mindset and leadership philosophy. Throughout his career Jejurikar has promoted what he describes as a “limitless growth” mindset, encouraging teams to start by believing that ambitious outcomes are possible and then organising capabilities to deliver them. In interviews he has argued that business growth begins with a mental shift—“the key to business growth is first believing it’s possible”—and that leaders must combine high aspirations with disciplined execution and continuous learning.

📈 Emerging markets and portfolio strategy. Commentators expect Jejurikar to build on strategies pursued under Moeller, including premiumisation of core brands, digital transformation and ongoing productivity programmes, while placing greater emphasis on high-growth emerging markets that he knows well from his earlier postings. Analysts have suggested that he is likely to push deeper penetration in countries such as India and across Africa and Latin America, seeing them as key to recruiting the company’s “next billion” consumers and balancing slower growth in mature economies.

🏭 Operational excellence and supply chain innovation. As architect of many elements of P&G’s current operating structure, Jejurikar has been associated with the use of data analytics and automation to improve supply chain resilience and cost efficiency. His supporters point to his record in fabric and home care—where coordinated innovation in products, packaging and logistics helped the division outpace several competitors—as evidence that he will continue to champion operational excellence alongside brand-building and innovation spend.

🌱 Sustainability and corporate responsibility. Jejurikar’s period as global sustainability sponsor coincided with P&G’s announcements of more aggressive goals on emissions, packaging waste and resource use, and he has continued to portray environmental and social performance as integral to long-term business health rather than as peripheral commitments. Observers anticipate that under his leadership issues such as recyclable packaging, water and energy efficiency and responsible sourcing will remain embedded in product development and corporate strategy, particularly in categories such as home and fabric care that carry visible environmental footprints.

💹 Scale of the business he will lead. During the mid-2020s P&G generated annual revenues of around US\$84 billion, with the Fabric & Home Care division alone contributing roughly one-third of sales and profits, and maintained a stock market capitalisation in the range of US\$350–380 billion, placing it among the world’s largest public companies. Over Jon Moeller’s tenure as CEO the company’s share price broadly tracked the performance of major equity indices, leaving Jejurikar to inherit a financially strong yet growth-challenged enterprise whose next phase of expansion he is expected to define.

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Compensation, shareholdings and external roles

💵 Executive compensation. As chief operating officer in P&G’s 2024 fiscal year, Jejurikar received total compensation of approximately US\$10 million, consisting of a base salary of about US\$835,000 with the remainder delivered through annual incentives, stock awards and other long-term compensation elements tied to company performance. P&G, in line with many large public companies, structures a substantial proportion of senior executive pay in equity-based instruments linked to long-term shareholder returns.

📊 CEO pay package. In connection with his appointment as CEO, a July 2025 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed that Jejurikar would receive an annual base salary of US\$1.6 million from January 2026 and be eligible for a target annual bonus equal to 200 per cent of that salary. The board also approved a one-time long-term equity incentive award valued at US\$14 million, in addition to ongoing stock-based incentives expected for the role, intended to align his interests closely with those of shareholders.

📈 Share ownership and net worth. After more than three decades at P&G, Jejurikar has accumulated a significant personal shareholding in the company; public disclosures in 2024 indicated that he directly owned over 500,000 P&G shares, a stake valued at roughly US\$75–80 million at mid-2024 prices and placing him among the company’s largest individual insider shareholders. Indian diaspora media have estimated his overall net worth, after accounting for prior stock sales and other assets, in a range around US\$40–50 million, though such figures remain approximations based on public information.

🏛️ Board memberships and civic roles. Beyond his executive responsibilities at P&G, Jejurikar holds external governance roles including chair of the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), a non-profit focused on urban regeneration in the company’s home city, and membership of the board of directors of Otis Worldwide Corporation, where he chairs the compensation committee. He also serves on the board of trustees of The Christ Hospital Health Network in Cincinnati and has previously been involved with industry and community organisations such as the American Cleaning Institute and the Cincinnati Country Day School, reflecting an interest in civic, health and educational issues.

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Personal life and leadership style

🏡 Family and private life. Jejurikar is married to Sankhya Jejurikar, a visual artist, and the couple have two sons; the family has been based for many years in the Cincinnati area near P&G’s global headquarters. Friends and relatives have described him as deeply attached to his extended family and attentive to preserving family time despite the travel demands of his global roles.

📖 Interests and character. Accounts from family members and colleagues portray Jejurikar as a reserved but warm figure who enjoys reading, travel and following cricket, a sport he played competitively in his youth. Former classmates and associates have suggested that his early experiences as a team captain and his upbringing in close-knit company communities in India left him with a mix of competitiveness and community-mindedness that continues to shape his behaviour.

🧠 Leadership approach. In management style he is often characterised as analytical yet empathetic: highly data-driven in decision-making but deliberate about listening to diverse perspectives and asking probing questions “without ego”. Commentators have noted that he places emphasis on consumer understanding and “consumer delight”, and that he seeks to balance operational rigour with a human-centred culture that supports employee development.

🤝 Anecdotes and perceptions. A widely circulated story recounted by former P&G executive James Michael Lafferty describes how, in the mid-2000s, Jejurikar in Singapore offered his home as accommodation for Lafferty during repeated business trips to reduce company travel costs, despite the two barely knowing each other at the time. Lafferty later remarked that observing his host’s interactions with his wife and children gave insight into his values and, upon Jejurikar’s promotion to CEO, publicly expressed confidence that P&G was “in great hands” under his leadership.

🧩 Views on learning and reflection. Jejurikar has spoken about the importance of carving out time for reflection in a fast-paced corporate environment, arguing that leaders must cultivate “mind space” to remain continual learners and to challenge their own assumptions. Younger P&G managers have cited his willingness to mentor, his openness to questioning long-held practices and his emphasis on humility as reasons he is seen internally as both a demanding and supportive leader.

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Challenges, public perception and outlook

📉 Restructuring and cost programmes. As COO and incoming CEO, Jejurikar has been closely associated with P&G’s multi-year productivity and organisational simplification initiatives, including plans announced in 2023 to eliminate up to 7,000 non-manufacturing positions over two years largely through attrition and restructuring. Implementing such measures while sustaining morale and talent retention across a global workforce is expected to be one of the more sensitive aspects of his early tenure.

🌍 Macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds. P&G faces ongoing pressures from trade tensions, regional conflicts, inflation and currency volatility that have affected input costs and consumer demand; the company has estimated that tariff-related and other external factors would add roughly US\$1 billion in pre-tax costs in certain years. These conditions contributed to periods of relatively flat sales growth in the early 2020s, underscoring the need for renewed innovation and productivity gains as Jejurikar takes charge.

🛒 Competition and changing consumer preferences. In core markets such as the United States—where roughly half of P&G’s revenue is generated—established brands must compete with private-label and digitally native challengers, while also responding to rising consumer interest in sustainability and health-oriented products. Analysts expect Jejurikar to focus on keeping long-standing brands such as Tide, Pampers, Gillette and Pantene relevant to younger and more environmentally conscious consumers through product innovation, marketing and potential portfolio adjustments.

🌐 Diversity, nationality and corporate leadership. Jejurikar’s appointment adds him to a group of Indian-born leaders heading major global companies, alongside figures such as Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, at a time when debates about immigration and economic nationalism remain prominent in the United States. Commentators have viewed his selection as both a business decision grounded in long experience at P&G and a symbolic milestone for representation; Indian industrialist Anand Mahindra, for instance, welcomed the appointment as evidence of Indian-origin leaders’ ability to “navigate the hearts and minds of U.S. consumers”.

🔭 Prospects as CEO. Upon being named CEO, Jejurikar stated that he was honoured to lead P&G and highlighted the company’s people, brands, innovation capabilities and operational excellence as the foundations for “sustained growth and value creation”. Observers generally expect his tenure to blend continuity—maintaining the company’s focus on core categories and disciplined capital allocation—with selective shifts in emphasis toward emerging markets, sustainability and further modernisation of the supply chain.

📜 Legacy and assessment. Commentators have described Jejurikar’s trajectory—from a middle-class upbringing in India and early ambitions in cricket to the helm of one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies—as emblematic of the increasingly global nature of corporate leadership. As he assumes the CEO role, assessments of his legacy will depend on his ability to find new engines of growth for P&G while maintaining its financial strength, reputation and long-cultivated corporate culture.

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