2024 Speakers

As the only female CEO of a top 5 beauty company, Alex Keith leads Procter & Gamble’s global Beauty business: the world’s 4th largest beauty company, with a $15 billion portfolio that includes six brands with more than $1 billion in annual sales: Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Olay, SK-II, Safeguard and Old Spice. Since taking leadership of P&G’s Beauty portfolio in 2017, Alex has driven the sector’s turnaround, stemming 7 years of decline with 7 consecutive years of top-line growth. In 2022, Alex spearheaded P&G Beauty’s portfolio expansion with creation of a Specialty Beauty division, helping P&G better reach consumers in the prestige beauty segment with acquired brands like OUAI and First Aid Beauty. 

As Executive Sponsor for Corporate Sustainability, Alex works alongside P&G’s Chief Sustainability Officer to guide the Company’s sustainability progress, including programs like Ambition 2030 that have resulted in creation of P&G’s Climate Transition Action Plan (2021) and Plan for a Water Positive Future (2022). This builds from Alex’s establishment in 2019 of Responsible Beauty, a systems-thinking-based platform embedded across P&G Beauty’s global operations. 

During Alex’s 34 years with P&G, she has worked in Product Supply, Brand Management and General Management, spanning multiple business categories including Fabric Care and Beauty, and in the North America, Asia, and Europe regions. A passionate brand builder and intuitive, strategic business leader, Alex led category transforming innovations like Olay Complete Facial Moisturizer, Old Spice Body Wash, and Secret Clinical Strength early in her career. As Senior Vice President of North America Fabric Care, Alex led the overall strategy development, design, and launch execution of two new-to-the-world product forms: unit dose laundry detergents (Tide Pods and Gain Flings) and in-wash scent boosters (Downy Unstopables), which have since contributed several billion dollars of sales and value creation. In 2020, Alex was elected to Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Board of Directors. 

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona. She lives in Geneva, Switzerland with her husband, Chris Keith.