After 40 years with Colgate-Palmolive , the company ’ s Chief Supply Chain Officer Mike Corbo drew on his deep knowledge to face global disruption and uncertainty
“We ' ve dramatically increased female representation in manufacturing operations ”
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE
After 40 years with Colgate-Palmolive , the company ’ s Chief Supply Chain Officer Mike Corbo drew on his deep knowledge to face global disruption and uncertainty
When Colgate-Palmolive Chief Supply Chain Officer Mike Corbo first joined the company , the world was a very different place . If you wanted to fill your car , a gallon of petrol cost 34 pence in the UK and $ 1.31 in the US . Still in the US , Ronald Reagan had been in the Oval Office for just a year , and Michael Jackson ’ s Thriller was fresh off the press .
We ’ re talking 1982 . This was the year Corbo left Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and - with the ink on his chemical engineering degree barely dry - secured himself a job with Colgate- Palmolive ( Colgate ).
In the intervening four decades , Corbo has worked his way around the world , excelling in a host of manufacturing and supply chain roles .
“ One of the things that attracted me to Colgate is that it was hiring people to work in plant operations , and operations really interested me ,” says Corbo . “ I never really intended to follow chemical engineering .”
After a six-month training programme , Corbo was sent out onto the factory floor as a foreman . For the first 14 years of his career , he “ worked in locations around the US ”, before he finally got the opportunity to fulfil his ambition to travel , taking up a position as Manufacturing Director in the Philippines .
“ I always wanted to work outside of the US ,” he says . “ I just had that desire to learn .”
“We ' ve dramatically increased female representation in manufacturing operations ”
MIKE CORBO CHIEF SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER , COLGATE-PALMOLIVE
70 October 2022