04.15.22
Durk Imke Jager, former chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer at Procter & Gamble, has died on April 3. He was 78.
The first CEO of P&G born outside the United States (a Netherlands native who settled in Kiawah, SC), Jager led the company during what P&G officials called a “volatile transition” from the 20th to the 21st centuries.
Jager began his tenure with the company in 1970 working as a brand assistant in P&G Holland. Driven by a passion for innovation and a proponent of democracy, he later led the business in Japan and Asia before the US. He used his zest for globe-trotting and emotional intelligence to understand the consumers, customers, culture and competitive environment to achieve success. As a result of such gumption, P&G’s business in Japan grew from seven brands to 25 national or test-market products in the years that followed.
According to the company, Jager once remarked, “Thinking globally will make us better professionally, but if we learn to understand and appreciate other people's cultures, their thoughts, it will make each of us better, richer people.”
With that attitude, spirit and sense of leadership, the exemplary Jager, who the company said derived zeal from his colleagues and clients from dynamic backgrounds, was appointed chief operating officer in 1995 and CEO in 1999.
A self-professed proud Friesian, Jager was born on April 30, 1943 in Haskerland, the Netherlands. He was the son of the late Oene Jager and Meintje Jager, and preceded in death by his brother, Jolle. He is survived by his wife, Ingrid Jager-Baart; brother, Jan-Hessel; two sons, Maarten and Menno and their spouses, Alessandra and Heather; several nieces and nephews and six grandchildren.