Meri Stevens
Chief Operations Officer at Kenvue
Tell us a bit about you and your career so far
I’m proud to serve as the Chief Operations Officer at Kenvue, the world’s largest pure-play consumer health company by revenue and maker of iconic brands like Neutrogena, Listerine, Aveeno and Tylenol.
I’m an engineer, a mum and a passionate skier with 40 years dedicated to optimising businesses through digitally-enabled operations. When I started in manufacturing and grew through multiple functions, businesses and industries, I could not have imagined how the world and our role as leaders would evolve. The biggest change is managing the complexity and volatility of our environments, the diversity of our teams and the speed and agility required to succeed. To execute at Kenvue, we have built a strong, experienced team; a prioritised transformation strategy; and aligned across the organisation. Combined, these have allowed us to exit the pandemic and separate from Johnson & Johnson to become an independent company, delivering on Kenvue’s ability to meet demand, unlock value and drive sustainability.
As a leader, it’s important to give back to the community. I invest time and energy in creating the next generation of leaders and STEM professionals at Kenvue and as the Vice Chair of the Smithsonian Science Education Center Advisory Board.
What was it that attracted you to Kenvue?
To start, it’s all about the brands, trusted for more than 100 years. When the opportunity to separate from Johnson & Johnson and create Kenvue with a clear purpose – to realise the extraordinary power of everyday care – and strong values with a huge opportunity to unlock value, I jumped at the chance to join the leadership team.
It has not been an easy journey. I love a challenge and leading operations for Kenvue during its separation from Johnson & Johnson was particularly thrilling because it created an opportunity to transform our operations and build fit-for-purpose capabilities, including transitioning thousands of employees, devices, applications, systems and processes. As part of the transformation, we refined our network, increased product resiliency and accelerated our digital capabilities. As an independent consumer health company, we’ve had the agility and flexibility to pilot and scale digital solutions that eliminate information and physical flow blockers to increase the efficiency of our operations, but also anticipate customer needs, inform decision-making and meet demand for long-term big bets.
What does your role entail?
I work alongside thousands of Kenvuers driving the responsiveness and resiliency of our operations, the quality of our products and the health and safety of our team. If I’m not on the road, where I love to walk stores, plants and distribution centers, I head to the office early where my day follows the rhythm of the organisation – global calls to start, then Europe, US and Latin America, then evenings with the APAC team.
On any given day, I’m alternating between discussions on growing our brands, unlocking value to fuel investment and stakeholder opportunity and increasing sustainability. I collaborate across Kenvue, customers, suppliers and advisors and always take time to learn from peers because great ideas come from everywhere. I’m still as energised about the profession as I was fresh out of college.
Operations is a people business. I prioritise time to equip and upskill our talent in a digital world while also reserving moments for coffee chats so I can hear firsthand what’s on the minds of our Kenvuers.
Lastly, I’m an avid reader and, in between meetings and bites of my lunch, I’m consuming industry news and trend research to inspire new thinking and push us out of our comfort zone.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I’m a life-long athlete. There are so many lessons in the training, camaraderie and competition that sports require. So, it’s probably no surprise that I often think about our operations team as a sports team – everyone has a role to play to execute our playbook. We either win together or we lose together.
I enjoy engaging in dialogue and the opportunity to challenge ideas and be challenged. The best teams are always willing to disrupt themselves when new information or outcomes demand it. I expect all discussions to be data-driven with well-thought-out alternatives and recommendations that will yield strong outcomes and I encourage candor and welcome tough questions. But ultimately, like any good coach, I am decisive and unafraid of tough choices. Once a decision is made, I’m here to remove roadblocks and help the team move with speed.
How does Kenvue ensure it is a diverse and inclusive place to work?
At Kenvue, our work is to put the power of everyday care into the hands of consumers around the world. But we start with our team and take actions every day to foster an inclusive workplace culture and create a sense of belonging for all. We believe that bringing diverse backgrounds and perspectives together helps us drive innovation and deliver solutions that exceed consumer expectations and create long-term value. Our approach is focused on building a workforce that reflects our world, fostering a workplace where everyone belongs and supporting a marketplace that serves all people.
How is the company nurturing the next generation of female supply chain professionals?
Growing up, I was deeply passionate about math and science and I’m forever grateful to my father who championed my passion, challenging me at every level to succeed. Fast forward, I have three incredible grown daughters, each successful in their own right, and sit alongside several brilliant women both on the Kenvue Leadership Team and the Operations Leadership Team. Nurturing female professionals in a field where they are historically underrepresented is deeply personal to me.
Aside from my responsibilities as COO, I’m proud to serve as an executive sponsor of our Women at Kenvue impact network – a group of more than 2,500 members that champions women and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion – and to champion our Equity in STEM program, which identifies opportunities to support students, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, ability and socio-economic status and help them access resources throughout their educational journey.
Amid turbulent times, how are you and Kenvue preparing for future supply chain crises?
Our operations strategy focuses on key elements of what Gartner is calling anti-fragility and driving agility using AI, Gen AI and large language models to forecast. These capabilities are continually improving due to our investment both in our infrastructure (the digital stack) and our growing digital twins and control towers. We learned many lessons during the pandemic and ongoing volatility that we have incorporated into our network plans, such as creating surge capacity and a rapid response capability.
Looking ahead, we’re constantly monitoring the external landscape and gathering market intelligence to proactively identify potential risks and disruptions. Our team assesses the information to determine the level of risk and a course of action. As we continue to improve, we’re increasing the end-to-end capability of our network through closer collaboration with our customers and suppliers to serve our consumers.
To what extent are you and Kenvue prioritising sustainability across your operations?
As part of our Healthy Lives Mission, we’re advancing sustainability across our operations – from product and packaging design to material sourcing, manufacturing and transportation.
Sustainability is a strategic priority for us. So far, our investments in energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects have resulted in a 26% reduction in operational emissions since 2020. We’ve also increased our use of renewable electricity to approximately 65% through onsite solar-powered electricity systems and offsite renewable electricity purchase agreements. In 2024, for example, we completed new on-site solar installations at four sites to further advance progress toward our goal of 100% renewable electricity for our operations by 2030 and build climate resiliency. We’re also engaging suppliers through our Supplier Climate Action Program to help them advance their decarbonisation efforts.
I’m particularly proud that the World Economic Forum recognised Kenvue with two Global Lighthouse Network designations in 2023. Our Shanghai Value Chain was named a Global Lighthouse for implementing more than 25 Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) innovations that reduced new product introduction lead times, improved production forecast accuracy and on-time-in-full deliveries, while our Bangkok site achieved the status of Global Sustainability Lighthouse for its use of 4IR technologies toward more sustainable resource management.
What are your goals, personal and professional, for the next 12-18 months?
My goals professionally for the next 12-18 months are simple: continue our journey to make Kenvue the shining diamond we set out to be when we became an independent company by responding to the demand of our consumers and unlocking the trapped value in our company by unleashing the power of our tremendous Kenvuers every day.
Personally, my goal is to be the best leader, mother, partner and friend to allow everyone to be their best selves. To do that I know I have to take care of myself with exercise, nutrition and time to reflect and rejuvenate.
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