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Thomas J. Falk is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Kimberly-Clark Corporation.
Mr. Falk has worked for Kimberly-Clark since 1983, holding positions of increasing responsibility and authority. Under his leadership, the company successfully integrated Kimberly-Clark and Scott Paper operations following the merger of the two companies in late 1995. More recently, Mr. Falk was the architect of Kimberly-Clark’s new global organizational structure and its Go-To-Market initiatives, which have redefined the way the company manufactures, distributes, promotes and sells its products.
Before joining the internal audit staff of Kimberly-Clark in Neenah, Wis., in 1983, Mr. Falk was with the accounting firm of Alexander Grant & Co. He became Senior Auditor at Kimberly-Clark in 1984 and Senior Financial Analyst in 1986. He was promoted to Director of Corporate Strategic Analysis in 1987. In 1988, under Kimberly-Clark sponsorship, he earned a master of science degree in management as a Sloan Fellow at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Following graduation, he became Operations Manager for Infant Care at the Beech Island, S.C., diaper plant in 1989.
Mr. Falk was elected Vice President of Operations Analysis and Control in 1990. In this role, he negotiated a complex set of transactions resulting in the divestiture of Spruce Falls Power and Paper, a newsprint subsidiary jointly owned by K-C and The New York Times, by transferring ownership control to its employees. Mr. Falk was elected Senior Vice President of Analysis and Administration in 1991, reporting to Chairman and CEO Wayne R. Sanders.
In 1993, Mr. Falk was elected Group President of Infant and Child Care with responsibility for Huggies diapers, the company’s best-selling product, and for Pull-Ups training pants. He became Group President of North American Consumer Products in early 1995. In this role, he led the company’s consumer and professional tissue businesses, U.S. consumer sales and U.S. consumer business services.
In 1996, he took on additional responsibilities for the company’s then pulp and newsprint operations, its premium business and correspondence papers business, wet wipes business and two staff functions: human resources and environment and energy. He was elected Group President Global Tissue and Paper in 1998, adding global oversight for the company’s consumer and professional tissue and wet wipes businesses to his existing responsibilities. He was elected President and Chief Operating Officer and to the company's Board of Directors in 1999. Mr. Falk was elected Chief Executive Officer in 2002 and to his position as Chairman in 2003.
Mr. Falk serves as a director of Centex Corporation and on the Dallas Regional Advisory Board for JP Morgan Chase. In addition, he is a National Trustee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
He received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin in 1980.
Mr. Falk was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1958. He and his wife, Karen, have one son. | 