Procter & Gamble, the $375 billion* consumer goods company, has appointed Pepsi’s Seth Cohen as its new Global CIO – with Vittorio Cretella announcing his retirement from the role after 39 years in IT.
Cretella joined P&G in 2020 after 26 years at Mars, including 14 years as CTO and then Global CIO – no mean feat for someone who left school to join the Army at the age of 17, before taking up a role at IBM aged 23, armed with a computing diploma and a healthy dose of life experience.
Under his stewardship, the company, which reported Q2 sales of $21.4 billion on January 23, 2024, has migrated swathes of applications to the cloud including most recently, moving one of the industry’s largest ERP systems off-premises, and hugely overhauled its data strategy.
Speaking to The Stack earlier in his tenure, he said: “When we talk about data architecture, a large amount of the effort is linked with acquiring the data and making it usable; not so much in developing the algorithms. The visible and sexy tip of the iceberg is when we develop breakthrough algorithms [but] what often is forgotten is how long it takes to acquire the data to make it usable ... definitely one area of investment for us!”
P&G’s most recent annual report names “digital acumen” as one of its four key strategic pillars, saying this is “to drive consumer and customer preference, reduce cost and enable rapid and efficient decision making across the entire value chain — how we engage with consumers, how we innovate, how we go to market, and how we operate our business.”
That includes a huge effort around digital marketing and customer engagement, as well as supply chain optimisation: P&G spent $8 billion on advertising in 2023 across television, print, radio, digital and in-store.
Announcing his retirement on LinkedIn, Cretella said: “My time at P&G has truly been the pinnacle of my career. It has been a fantastic and fulfilling experience. At the same time, I’m greatly looking forward to my next chapter, which includes first and foremost giving time back to my family and to myself. I am glad to introduce my successor Seth Cohen, former CIO at PepsiCo and Reckitt Benckiser Group,” he added.
“I am confident that Seth’s experience and skills will ensure continuity of our digital journey, leveraging technology to serve and delight consumers.
“Seth will join us in April and will be appointed to the CIO role in June. Between now and then, I look forward to onboarding him to P&G, including meeting the IT team and getting fully grounded in the digital transformation strategy that has been delivering growth, value, and superior consumer experiences” P&G’s outgoing CIO concluded.
Among the areas he has been passionate about is diversity.
Cretella is an emeritus board member of NPower, a national non-profit that is “on a mission to move people from poverty to the middle class through tech skills training and quality job placement” (including for veterans and young adults from underserved communities) and previously told The Stack proudly that “we are the first company in the US to implement a neurodiversity hiring programme that includes promote the hiring of people with autistic spectrum disorder. And I think this is really essential, because the more diverse perspectives you have, the larger and the broader your own view and effectiveness becomes.”
Incoming P&G CIO Seth Cohen – who The Stack has tried and failed to pin down for an interview (you know where to find us when you're ready... ) – said: “The reputation of the team and the digital capabilities that Procter & Gamble has developed under Vittorio Cretella is world class.
"I’m excited to join such a great organization to carry that momentum forward. And, speaking of world class teams, I could not be prouder of PepsiCo IT team’s accomplishments! I will be watching from afar as these talented folks continue to drive capabilities into the markets,” he said.
Wishing Vittorio Cretella a fulfilling retirement and quality family time.
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*By market capitalisation.
