Kimberly-Clark names long-time marketer Rahul Asthana MD of Malaysia office

Kimberly-Clark has appointed Rahul Asthana as its managing director for Malaysia. Asthana (pictured) previously helmed the Asia Pacific transformation officer role for nine months. In his role, Asthana told A+M that he will be responsible for leading the charge on driving and accelerating top-tier growth across Kimberly-Clark’s portfolio of brands. These brands include Kotex, Huggies, Kleenex, and Scott. Asthana has been with  Kimberly-Clark for over eight years

With more than 20 years of work experience under his belt, Asthana is an experienced brand and business builder. Asthana was also previously with Procter and Gamble in October 2003 as its Asia Pacific regional brand manager for Head and Shoulders. He helmed the role for more than three years before taking up the position of regional brand manager in haircare new business development for a year.

In April 2008, Asthana continued to helm the regional brand manager role, but for Olay Asia. As Olay Asia's regional brand manager, Asthana led a team of eight in Singapore to deliver communications and brand management strategy and executions for the region on skincare. According to his LinkedIn, Asthana was also responsible for the operational delivery for the Malaysia skincare markets. 

After Procter and Gamble, Asthana helmed the regional marketing director role in Kimberly-Clark. In 2014, Asthana moved on to take on the Asia Pacific senior regional marketing director role for baby and child care, eCommerce, and digital for close to four years. Asthana subsequently relocated to Sydney in March 2017 and was responsible for sector business planning and execution to deliver net sales, operating profit and market share growth across the brand's consumers said his LinkedIn. 

When asked what a marketer could potentially bring to the managing director role, Asthana told A+M, "Having accumulated 20 years of experience in marketing, I have learnt how important it is to keep the consumer at the center of any decision that is being made."

"In Kimberly-Clark, we believe that by keeping the consumers at the heart of our decision making, it will enable the company to be successful in its business," said Asthana. 

Meanwhile, in August last year, Kimberly-Clark's CMO, Zena Arnold was one of the individuals who was featured in Spotify Advertising's campaign, "A Song for every CMO". The campaign paid homage to CMOs from recognisable brands. The songs covered a range of styles, ranging from rap and 90s synth-pop to alternate rock. According to Spotify, this was the first album drop with more CMO songs rolled out in the following months. For Kimberly-Clark's Arnold, the song sang about how the brand is "in our bathrooms and in our hearts". 

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