Google Cloud Hires Amway Exec As VP Of Consumer Packaged Goods

‘I’m thrilled to join Google Cloud during this transformational period for the broader CPG industry,’ Giusy Buonfantino said in a statement. ‘Now more than ever, it is crucial for organizations to innovate and modernize their businesses to remain resilient.’

A former Amway and Kimberly-Clark executive is taking over Google Cloud’s consumer packaged goods (CPG) segment as part of the No. 3 cloud provider’s focus on providing industry-specific solutions for enterprise customers.

Giusy Buonfantino, a 30-year veteran of the CPG industry, has been named senior vice president of CPG, a newly created role. She will lead Google Cloud’s CPG go-to-market solutions team and help develop the company’s roadmap and strategy for the industry, which includes the likes of the Coca-Cola Co., Procter & Gamble and Unilever.

“I’m thrilled to join Google Cloud during this transformational period for the broader CPG industry,” Buonfantino, whose first name is pronounced as JOO-zee, said in a statement. “Now more than ever, it is crucial for organizations to innovate and modernize their businesses to remain resilient. I look forward to working closely with our customers to help them further accelerate their digital transformation journeys.”

Buonfantino previously served for a year as chief digital and marketing officer at direct-selling giant Amway, the Ada, Mich.-based company that sells nutrition, beauty, personal care and home products through agents under a multi-level marketing business model. Prior to that, Buonfantino worked for eight-plus years at Kimberly-Clark, whose personal care brands include Cottonelle, Depend, Huggies and Kleenex, most recently as chief marketing officer. She spent 18 years in global marketing and general management roles at Johnson & Johnson in the United States and Europe.

Retail and CPG is one of six industries that Google Cloud has been targeting for industry-specific vertical solutions under CEO Thomas Kurian. The other markets are financial services, health care, manufacturing and industrial, the public sector, and media, telecommunications and entertainment.

Carrie Tharp had been overseeing the CPG market for Google Cloud as vice president of retail and consumer since August 2019. She will continue in her role.

Tharp and Buonfantino both report to Lori Mitchell-Keller, the former SAP veteran who’s been Google Cloud’s global leader of industry solutions since last May.

“Giusy is highly respected in the CPG market and an incredible leader,” Mitchell-Keller said in a statement. “Her wealth of industry experience and expertise will make her an impactful industry leader at Google Cloud. She will help us to partner with more CPG organizations around the world to modernize their businesses and take advantage of the latest cloud technologies.”