While countless books, blogs, podcasts, and software solutions aim to help us better manage our calendars, inboxes, feeds, and habits—we lack time to listen to or learn from them. And it feels like once we manage some part of our day, two more new things suck us in. Bob hit a breakthrough in the past few years when he realized a higher level of the game: Managing our minds better is critical to managing our time better. You’ll hear strategic ways to understand and choose ways of living that give you more time back and make more meaningful moments throughout your day.

Bob now serves as co-founder and CEO of Hearty, a people-tech company, and other interesting ventures. While at P&G, Bob worked on brands like Tide and Mr. Clean. Bob shares real-life stories of his business ups and downs in his weekly newsletter “The Workaround” which you can subscribe to at beheartly.substack.com

This is a feature of an Alumni Leader’s frequently published thought leadership. Got an idea for a future “Learnings from Leaders” episode – reach out at pgalumpod@gmail.com

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Shaun is an internationally popular economics speaker who works with boards, billionaires, heads of state, CEOs, and senior executives of Fortune 500 & leading Chinese companies, private equity firms, SMEs, and long/hedge funds to develop their China growth, political, and investment strategies.

Shaun is the author of international best-sellers The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, The End of Cheap China, and The End of Copycat China and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, the New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, CBS, CNN, BBC, CNBC, PBS, CNBC, NPR / APM Marketplace, and MSNBC.

Born in New Hampshire, Shaun earned his BA from McGill University and his MA from Harvard. He’s previously taught executive education classes for London Business School and has served on the Board of Trustees for St. Paul’s School. Shaun lives in Shanghai, China.

This is part of our Chinese leaders series – hosted by P&G Alumni Emily Chang. Got an idea for a future “Learnings from Leaders” episode? Reach out at pgalumpod@gmail.com

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Manreet’s articles and essays have appeared in the NY Times, the International Herald Tribune, and the South China Morning Post, among others. Manreeet has taught for the New York Public Library and the City College of New York—and she’s a former corporate citizen having done stints in Asia, and a parent grappling with the world our kids will inherit.

Manreet’s recently completed Partition Trilogy—a series of 3 books titled Lahore, Hyderabad, and Kashmir—is a historical fiction set during, before, and immediately after the Partition, and independence of, India and Pakistan of 1947. Partition is among the great humanitarian disasters of the 20th century, and the largest mass migration in history. The history of Partition impacts and informs much of what is happening today in both Asia and the United States, from the tensions between India and Pakistan to the rise of nationalism and extremism in our politics around the world.

Manreet’s unique voice focuses not just on the personal musings of these larger-than-life historical figures, like India’s founding fathers Gandhi & Nehru, but also breathes life into characters who represent the stats and figures that we sometimes gloss over when we hear of a tragedy (including the role and subversion of women by history). This is a powerful conversation about the weaponization of history, and how storytelling and fact-checking have to work hand in hand to inform the next generation.

This is a past conversation from Raman’s other podcast, Modern Minorities, where each week we share minority conversations for all of our majority years. You’ll enjoy this candid conversation that we hope will provide new perspectives and learnings.

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Allison Kirkby—Diversity and Inclusion Award
Allison is an outstanding recipient of the 2025 P&G Alumni Diversity and Inclusion Award.  As the CEO of FTSE 100 British Telecom, she has proven herself an outstanding leader who delivers great results and inclusive cultures through classic best practices: publishing targets, measuring progress, and being held accountable for results. 

While Allison was on the BT Board, the organization made public its targets for increasing its workforce diversity: 32% female, 13% ethnic minority, and 10% disabled by 2025; and 25% ethnic minority by 2030. Since becoming Chief Executive, BT has made headlines for confirming that the representation of minority communities in local areas positively affects decisions around where offices are based. 

Furthermore, Allison has linked a proportion of her bonus to BT’s success in hitting its ambitious diversity targets. 

Allison has shown that inclusive culture is at the very heart of her leadership at BT — all while delivering better business results. 

Aliyu Mohammed Ali—Early Achievement
Aliyu has been selected as the recipient for the Early Achievement Award for transforming the traditional waste management industry of Dubai as the CEO/Co-Founder of Ehfaaz, a six-year-old circular economy company committed to closed-loop resource recovery. Ehfaaz gives used resources new life, utilizing discarded materials from the CPG industry to produce organic compost, animal feed, and industrial cleaning products. 

His innovations are modernizing recycling and waste management methods to create a more sustainable world. Aliyu has been featured in many Dubai and international publications. The UN’s annual climate change conferences featured Ehfaaz’s solutions at COP27 and Aliyu was a featured speaker at COP28. A PGAF board officer, Aliyu is also a mentor to business startups. 

Aliyu is an ardent advocate for the UN’s goals on climate change. True to his mission to sustain the world’s resources, his company name, Ehfaaz, means “to protect” in English.

Deborah Kielty—Community Service
A familiar name to most alumni, Deb Kielty has been selected as the recipient for the Community Service Award in recognition of her 30+ years of volunteer and nonprofit leadership – including roles as, World Trade Center Institute President, Families with Children from China Board Chair, Johns Hopkins Jhpiego Trustee and more. 

In 2001, Deb joined the World Trade Center Institute (WTCI), a nonprofit focused on driving new ideas and connections for growth and global good. After retiring from P&G Deb spent 20 years as WTCI President. Deb and her team have hosted knowledge exchange programs for over 8,000 visiting international professionals – covering hundreds of topics ranging from combating human trafficking to reducing recidivism — all in partnership with the U.S. State Department International Visitors Leadership Program. Under Deb’s leadership, WTCI grew its impact 8-fold behind the IVLP and many other innovative new programs – including Women Spanning the Globe Leadership, Global Pathways for Students, and AGILE Global Innovation.

For the past 10 years, Deb has also served on the global Johns Hopkins Jhpiego Board, a $400 million non-profit providing women and families living in poverty access to high-quality health care. She served for six years as a Trustee for Baltimore Outreach Services, one of the only homeless shelters that accept women and children. She served for 20 years on Baltimore’s Council on Foreign Affairs, bringing global thought-leaders to the mid-Atlantic. She was appointed to the Governor’s Subcabinet on International Affairs under several administrations in her home state of Maryland, receiving a Distinguished Service citation from Senator Mikulski. 

Elliott Millenson—John E. Pepper Humanitarian Award
Because of Elliot Millenson, the recipient of the John E. Pepper Humanitarian Award, untold thousands of people are alive and living fuller lives today.  He has consistently used skills gained in brand management at P&G to serve humanity. After P&G, at Harvard Business School, he helped develop the marketing strategy for the US Office on Smoking & Health, the government’s first anti-smoking campaign, (and wrote a case study on the challenges of government marketing).

In the 1980s, he was founder and CEO of Direct Access Diagnostics, giving consumers direct access to laboratory testing from the privacy of home. Thereby opening up the home testing market for infectious diseases – developing the world’s first home HIV test. Clinical trials demonstrated safety and efficacy – with results identical to the best HIV lab tests available — and survey data revealed  three times as many people would test with a home HIV test versus face to face testing. It took a nine-year fight but Elliott persevered and succeeded in getting the world’s first home HIV test approved. 

Today, home HIV testing is recognized by the World Health Organization and health authorities around the world as an important tool, providing a confidential, safe, and private way to test for HIV, thereby preventing new HIV infections, and getting infected people into treatment.  

Elliott is currently a Board member of Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a non-profit pharmaceutical company which recently received FDA approval for an OTC version of the opioid antidote naloxone.  His advocacy for home COVID testing — pushing the Federal government to develop and then broadly distribute rapid home COVOD tests– resulted in the distribution of hundreds of millions of tests, impacting millions of lives.

Kevin Houston—Innovation Award
Dealing with our environment is a global imperative.  Kevin Houston is the Innovation Award recipient for his work in making a significant step in the right direction. 

Kevin co-founded Carbon Masters — a climate tech company, established first in the UK in 2009, and then launched Carbonlites in India in 2012. Their stated mission is to reduce carbon emissions by replacing fossil fuels consumption with innovative, clean energy, low carbon solutions and products.

Kevin and his people have pioneered the conversion of food and agri-wastes to produce two climate-friendly products, sold and marketed under the brand name Carbonlites.

• Carbonlites Bio-Enriched Organic Manure — a carbon enriched organic fertilizer which puts carbon back into the soil and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, 
• Carbonlites Bio-CNG, carbon neutral fuel displacing diesel for electricity generation and transport, and LPG for commercial cooking 

Both mitigate carbon emissions and reduce the risks of climate change.

With the unprecedented rise in fossil fuel prices and the world only a decade away from avoiding the worst consequences of climate change, there is now an even greater need for low carbon solutions.

Ilaria Resta—John G. Smale General Management Award
IIaria Resta is recognized for the John Smale General Management Award and her many contributions across industries.

Ilaria is a passionate business leader with expertise in brand building, sales, and P&L management.  She has more than 22 years of experience at Procter & Gamble with a track record helping business transform crisis into success, renewing P&G’s European Hair Care business and, prior to that, restructuring the Duracell business before successful divestiture. As Vice President, Hair Care, North America, Ilaria and her team delivered the strongest business results in 11 years, growing market share and penetration, increasing double-digit revenues and high single digit profit, and  transforming the product portfolio and retail distribution. 

At Firmenich, Ilaria and her team delivered consistent top line and bottom improvements, achieving leading share in the Perfumery and Ingredients business (growing revenues under her three years tenure with a CAGR of 26%). She was the business leader who drove the merger with DSM and launched a successful IPO reaching a market cap of $30Bn. 

llaria  is acknowledged by WWD as Brand Builder of the Year in the US in 2019, from CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women) as winner of the Global Achiever Award, and as  a number one Swiss business leader from the Italy-Swiss Chamber of Commerce. 

Ilaria joined Audemars Piguet as CEO in August 2023, where her mission is to strengthen the foundation for accelerated growth and brand expansion.  

Rad Ewing—McElroy Award
Rad Ewing is the recipient of the McElroy Award. Rad led important marketing practice innovations at P&G that generated growth across all categories. These principles became the foundation of modern marketing practice, including 

• Point of Market Entry insights and programs that tied marketing to life stages 
• Marketing Best Practices analysis and creation of the mNet online resource to make P&G marketing knowledge more accessible and applicable 
• Product Initiative Success analysis and incorporation into the SIMPL product launch system that increased new product success rates 
• Shopper Marketing Framework that enabled retailers to better meet shopper needs and transformed P&G retail partnerships 
• Brand Building Framework that reinvented P&G’s marketing approach 

After a long and storied career at P&G, including receiving the first P&G Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, Rad went on to a consulting career applying these principles successfully in non-competing industries (Coca Cola Beverages, Samsung Electronics, McCormick, and non profit organizations). 

His evidenced-based, curiosity-forward approach led to many important advancements in marketing for P&G and the industry. Rad is rooted firmly in data and asks the “why” question to unlock the possibilities of making something better.  

Learn more about the category descriptions on our website, and be sure to register for the 2025 P&G Alumni Global Conference in Berlin to attend the awards ceremony!

Prior to becoming a coach, Dawn spent over 30 years at Procter & Gamble with responsibility for businesses of up to $12 billion in revenue and managing organizations of up to 3,000 people. Her experience includes startup, expansion, and restructuring of international markets in Asia, North America, Latin America, and Eastern and Western Europe. Dawn has guided hundreds of individuals, teams, and organizations to achieve greater success through the confidence to push the boundaries of what is possible and deliver the extraordinary. Dawn is a Co-Active Coach with Certifications from the Coaches Training Institute and the International Coaching Federation. She holds a BS degree from the University of Rochester, is a faculty member at the UC San Diego Rady School of Management, and speaks four languages. Dawn lives near Denver, CO with her family and enjoys snow skiing, traveling, and reading cookbooks.

This is part of our P&G Alumni Coaching series diving deep into relevant career coaching topics. Just as professional athletes have a coach to help them perform at their best, coaching can help you thrive in career and life, through powerful questioning, exploration, and action planning. P&G Alums can learn more and sign up for their first free first session at coaching.pgalums.com

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