Kimberly-Clark Australia and New Zealand appoints Belinda Driscoll Managing Director
Kimberly-Clark has announced Belinda Driscoll as the newly appointed Managing Director (MD) for Kimberly-Clark Australia and New Zealand (K-CANZ), the youngest and first female MD for K-CANZ in the ANZ region in almost 100 years.
Belinda joined Kimberly-Clark as a Senior Marketing Director in 2020. Under her leadership, the business has continued to perform strongly with a retail sales value increase of 13% in the last two years driven by strong market share results across its Huggies and U by Kotex brands (59% and 36% respectively) and its Kleenex Mill in South Australia now producing a record 1.2 million toilet rolls every day. In the last 12 months K-CANZ has also launched several popular, more sustainable innovations including Australia’s first Aussie-made 100% bamboo toilet paper, Kleenex Eco; 100% bamboo paper towel, Viva Eco, Huggies 100% biodegradable baby wipes; U by Kotex Thinx reusable period underwear, and the first reusable Huggies swimmer pants launched in Summer.
Kimberly-Clark ANZ Vice President & Managing Director, Belinda Driscoll said, “Whilst we’ve had our fair share of supply challenges over the last couple of years, our business is in a strong position with some of the best market share results we’ve seen in close to a decade. In order to continue this growth, we also remain firmly focused on the wellbeing of our people, our communities and the planet. We have a team of very passionate people working hard to reduce our environmental impact every single day, not only because it is crucial to strengthening our portfolio of brands, it’s high on the list of employee expectations too.”
“Our focus on building local talent and capability, diversity and inclusion, and our commitment to our communities and reconciliation are also very important to me and our business. I believe they are key to building a more positive work culture and greater engagement because they are areas that our people really care about; they provide a strong sense of purpose.” added Belinda.
Belinda’s promotion is one of several new appointments within the organisation, including a 44% increase in female representation within their leadership team (from 1/9 female leaders in 2019 to 5/9), and she is committed to developing further opportunities for everyone.
“Our growing team is a reflection of the exceptional talent we have in the ANZ business. We have a number of capability programs running through, and an extensive training ground for our people. In the last year we’ve seen several local and international promotions which is a reflection of the importance of career progression at K-CANZ.” commented Belinda.
Belinda has extensive experience within the consumer product sector and prior to Kimberly-Clark, she spent 17 years at Johnson & Johnson, serving in several international and local leadership roles across Asia, Europe, the United States of America and Australia. In her most recent role she led the largest business unit within J&J Medical, as Sales and Marketing Lead for Sutures.
Belinda is based in Sydney, Australia and officially started in the new role in late 2021, transitioning responsibility from Doug Cunningham who was promoted to President of the Europe, Middle East and Africa businesses.
