Killefer Elected To Avon Board

Nancy Killefer has been elected to the Avon Products Board of Directors, effective September 1, 2013. Killefer, age 59, is currently senior partner at McKinsey & Company, an international management consulting firm. She will be retiring from McKinsey later this month. During her 32-year career with McKinsey, Ms. Killefer has focused on strategy, marketing, and organizational effectiveness and efficiency issues. Her emphasis had been on consumer-based and retail industries prior to her work in the public sector and her subsequent founding of McKinsey's Public Sector Practice.

“We are so pleased to welcome Nancy to Avon's Board. Her proven leadership in strategy development and execution, brand-building, and organizational efficiencies across sectors will contribute greatly as Avon progresses through its turnaround,” said Doug Conant, chairman, Avon Products, Inc. 

“I look forward to joining Avon's Board and bringing my experience cutting through complexity and driving change to the company that is known and loved around the world for both its outstanding beauty products and its efforts to empower women,” Ms. Killefer said.

“Nancy is a terrific addition to Avon's Board of Directors, and I look forward to working with her,” said Sheri McCoy, chief executive officer, Avon Products, Inc. and a Board director. “She will provide valuable insights and guidance as we execute Avon's priorities of building growth platforms, driving simplification and efficiency, and improving organizational effectiveness.”

Killefer has held many leadership positions at McKinsey, including currently as head of the firm's People Committee, in addition to serving as a member of the firm's governing board, leading the firm's recruiting, and chairing several of the firm's personnel committees. She also led the Washington, D.C. office from 2000 to 2007 and the global Public Sector practice from 2005 to 2011. She also has experience in the public sector, serving as Assistant Secretary for Management, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Department of Treasury from 1997 to 2000, and as a member of the IRS Oversight Board from 2000 to 2005.

Ms. Killefer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College and a Master in Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Also effective September 1, 2013, Kimberly Ross will step down from the Board. This is in line with Avon's previous announcement that Ms. Ross, the company's Chief Financial Officer, would serve as a Director on an interim basis while the Board conducted the search for a new independent Director.