TopVet: Alan G. Lafley

A. G. Lafley’s election last year as President and Chief Executive of Procter & Gamble capped his 23-year career with the 163-year-old company. Cincinnati-based P&G is one of the largest producers of home products in the world, including such household staples as Tide, Joy, JIF, Pampers, Pringles and Ivory.

The Keene, New Hampshire native joined P&G in 1977 following a five-year hitch in the Navy and postgraduate work at the Harvard Business School, from which he received his M.B.A.

He did his undergraduate work at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, from which he graduated in 1969 with a degree in history.

His first job at P&G was in marketing. After a variety of positions in laundry and cleaning, he was named group vice president in 1992. He was assigned to Asia in 1995 as executive vice president before returning home to head P&G’s global beauty-care operations and the North American market development organization. He is responsible for the company forming the San Francisco-based Reflect.com, which sells beauty products online, described by one intimate as “an unprecedented thing for P&G to do.” He is hailed as well for his people skills.

Mr. Lafley, 53, serves on the Board of Trustees of Hamilton College, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts.