Marchoe Northern is returning to the U.S. fresh from global success

After leading two of Procter & Gamble Co.’s fastest-growing businesses from Geneva the past two and a half years, Marchoe Northern recently returned to to P&G's Cincinnati headquarters as senior VP-North American Home Care to lead the biggest and most profitable region for the household cleaning business. Northern's unit includes the Swiffer, Febreze, Cascade, Dawn and Mr. Clean brands, along with Microban, an antibacterial spray cleaner that kills germs on surfaces for 24 hours after use. She oversaw the new brand's launch during the front end of the pandemic in 2020. Microban was an outgrowth of hygiene and anti-bacterial plans Northern helped develop as she also built sustainability criteria into innovation plans for P&G Home Care globally. See all of Ad Age's 2022 Leading Women here. The 24-year P&G veteran started her career in the manufacturing organization before moving into marketing and general management and has worked in family care and oral care as well. Northern has won P&G’s Top Achiever Award during her time in North America operations (manufacturing business) and Coach of the Year in the company’s brand organization. What advice would you give your younger self? Stop comparing yourself to other people. Stop comparing your project list, how you show up in meetings, your career aspirations and your vacation plans. Incorporate approaches you see others use to be successful—but make it a point to identify and play to your own strengths and focus on being excellent at being you. What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? Having my fourth child felt like a big risk. I was in a great place in my career and had really figured out a rhythm for my life at work, at home and in my community. We already had three kids—and I had this mindset that having a fourth kid would push me past a breaking point, but that’s all it was: a mindset. As I look back on it, I realize that having a fourth child completed our family and made me realize how much I was worrying about and anticipating scenarios that simply didn’t happen. Taking the risk allowed me to embrace new ways of thinking that have accelerated my development, including boldly making the decision to take a role to move with my family to Geneva in 2019. If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you be doing and why? If I wasn’t working here at P&G, you would most likely find me in state or local politics, working to impact social policies to make our world more equal. What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks? We should always strive to create teams that mirror the people we serve—for me, that’s the entire North American population—which is moving toward 40% multicultural. This starts with attracting and developing diverse talent to lead our businesses—talent that is diverse in terms of skills, strengths and experiences. By ensuring we start with diversity at the top, we influence our pipeline in two ways: We increase the diversity of the people hiring our teams, and when potential candidates assess whether they should work here, they see people that look like them in positions of leadership—which reinforces that ”someone like me” can succeed in the organization. See all of Ad Age's 2022 Leading Women here. What is the biggest lesson you have taken away from the pandemic? The biggest lesson I’ve learned during the pandemic has been the importance of people and partnerships. I have a new appreciation for the people in my life personally and professionally, recognizing that the time spent with the ones we love most is essential to our well-being. Understanding this has re-energized my commitment to the work I get to do with my team in Home Care and has prompted me to rethink how we work—so we all have the physical and mental energy to be fully present for the people in our lives, inside and outside of work.

Marchoe Northern is returning to the U.S. fresh from global success

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