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WARD KLEIN:
HE JUST KEEPS GOING
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By Christine Imbs
Ward Klein and the Energizer Bunny® have a lot in common.
For one thing, neither shows any signs of slowing down. And
when it comes to Energizer, both love to beat the drum.
“Energizer has always kept me on the steep side of the learning
curve,” Klein says. “That really appeals to me. So I guess you
could say what’s kept me going is the frequent opportunities
and challenges.”
Today, Klein is CEO of Energizer Holdings Inc. But he began
his career with Ralston Purina back in 1979 as a marketing assistant
for Meow Mix cat food.
“My interests leaned toward marketing and branding pretty early
in my career,” he says. “I thought it would be a way to get
some great general management experience early on. And that’s
pretty much what happened.”
In 1986, Ralston acquired Eveready Battery Company, the holding
company for Energizer, from Union Carbide. Klein moved into
a marketing position with Eveready and three years later not
only became Director of Marketing for Energizer, but helped
give birth to the Energizer Bunny®, one of the top five advertising
icons of the 20th century.
“Actually, I was kind of in the middle on the business side,”
he says. “I certainly wasn’t the genius creative that came up
with it. I was, however, responsible for finding the genius
creatives to come up with it.”
After launching the Energizer Bunny® campaign, Klein was asked
to set up a trade marketing department which not only thrives
today, but is one of the company’s competitive strengths. But
it was perhaps the next phase of his career that led Klein to
what he considers one of the best jobs of his career.
“I was asked to set up a global business unit behind our flashlight
business,” he explains. “The flashlight business is pretty mundane,
but for us it was about $150 million in sales. The problem was
that it just wasn’t operating very well. By setting up a global
business unit it helped turn that business around. After that,
I was invited to take over our operation in Latin America.”
He became Area Chairman for Latin America in 1996. But by 1998
Klein was asked to oversee the operations in Asia, Africa and
the Middle East. So he packed up his family and moved to Hong
Kong.
“It was a very deep learning experience for me and my family,”
he says. “We got to appreciate new points of view. Basically
I oversaw business operations that stretched from Morocco to
New Zealand to South Africa and to Japan. And being on the other
side of the clock in terms of the time zone, you really had
a lot of independence. It was just an incredible experience.”
In 2000, Energizer spun off from Ralston Purina and Klein was
named Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
He returned to St. Louis to run the operations from the Energizer
headquarters. He was named President, International in 2002
and in 2004 became President and Chief Operating Officer with
responsibility over both the company’s Energizer Battery operating
division and its Schick-Wilkinson Sword operating division.
He took over as CEO in 2005.
“It’s ironic. I’ve spent most of my career doing international
work and foreign language is my big weakness,” he says laughing.
“I guess if I had it all to do all over again I’d take a foreign
language in school. But I’ve been blessed in that I’ve been
able to see and do a lot in my career. So really, if I had to
do it all over again, I think I’d do it exactly the same way.
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TalkingPOINTS
BORN: Des Moines, Iowa
FAMILY: Married with
two children, a daughter at Vassar College and a son at
Clayton High School
EDUCATION: Bachelor
of Liberal Arts from St. Olaf College in Minnesota; Masters
in Management from Kellogg College in Chicago
KEY TO SUCCESS: “My
upbringing and just being well-balanced.”
FAVORITE BOOKS: “The
World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman and J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord
of the Rings Trilogy”
FAVORITE SAYING: “Do
the right thing.”
ST. LOUIS IMPRESSIONS:
“It’s a real crossroads. Go to South County and people speak
with a southern drawl. Go to West County and there’s a bit
of a cowboy out there. Go to the West End and you might
as well be in New York City. Then go to Kirkwood or Webster
Groves and you’re in a good old Midwestern town.” |
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