Kimberly-Clark has named Stacey Valy Panayiotou as its next Chief Human Resources Officer, effective September 10. She steps into the role at a time when the company is putting fresh emphasis on strengthening its people strategy and building on its long-standing “Powering Care” vision.
Panayiotou brings more than 20 years of global HR leadership to the role, offering rich experience from positions at Ball Corporation, where she pioneered the company’s first global learning university; Graphic Packaging International as EVP and CHRO; and a significant tenure at The Coca-Cola Company, serving in leadership roles across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Kimberly-Clark CEO Mike Hsu praised her appointment: “Stacey is a transformational leader with a track record of aligning people strategies with enterprise growth. Her commitment to building people-first cultures that are both high-performing and caring aligns directly with our company’s values.”
With her reputation for genuine leadership and strategic people development, Panayiotou’s arrival will resonate strongly in ANZ markets—where the blend of high performance and employee well-being is viewed not as a tradeoff, but as a competitive advantage.
Reflecting on her new role, Panayiotou said, “I’m honoured to join a company with such a rich legacy of delivering performance and care—for consumers, customers, communities and, importantly, its people. I look forward to enhancing the capabilities of our talented workforce worldwide.”
As an influential voice in global HR, her transition to Kimberly-Clark underscores a broader shift: that people-first leadership is indispensable to meeting both business ambitions and the evolving expectations of today’s workforce.
Stacey Valy Panayiotou steps into the CHRO role as Kimberly-Clark sharpens its people strategy
