Kimberly-Clark announced that Craig Slavtcheff has been appointed Chief Research and Development Officer, effective July 29. Slavtcheff will succeed Robert Long, who is retiring from the company after 45 years in the CPG industry, including the last three years at Kimberly-Clark.
Slavtcheff is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of R&D experience in the CPG industry. He most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief R&D and Innovation Officer of Campbell Soup Company, 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. Prior to that, he held senior roles at The Sun Products Corporation and Unilever.
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 bands.
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.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American multinational personal care corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products.