Following initial roles in marketing and brand management, he assumed increasingly global leadership responsibilities, including positions as Marketing Director for Germany and the Netherlands, General Manager of the newly created cosmetics and perfumery division, and as Vice President of Luxury Perfumes for the Western Hemisphere, based in Santa Monica. Subsequently, he served as Vice President of the Laundry, Cleaning and Paper Products division in Germany, and from 1998 as head of business in Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia, based in Istanbul. In 2001 he became President of P&G North-East Asia, based in Kobe, Japan. From 2004, he served as Group President for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, based in Geneva. From 2007 to 2015, Werner Geissler was part of Procter & Gamble’s senior management team in Cincinnati, serving as Vice Chairman of Global Operations and taking on global responsibility.
Since leaving the company in 2015, Werner Geissler has remained active on the international stage, serving as an Operating Partner at the private equity fund Advent International and as member of the supervisory boards of global companies such as Philip Morris International and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
In our alumni interview, we talked with him about the skills he believes are crucial for a global career today, why he has always maintained contact with academia throughout his career, and why he is now supporting a student of the WiSo Faculty with a Deutschlandstipendium (German Scholarship Programme).
The conversation shows how a strong corporate culture, international experience, and targeted talent development shape sustainable leadership success—and why ambition, risk-taking, cultural adaptability, and the willingness to explore new paths can be decisive in achieving an international leadership role.