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Bob McDonald, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Procter & Gamble, will speak at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Jan. 14.

The 5:30 p.m. talk at Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Koury Auditorium is part of the Dean’s Speaker Series. The event is free and open to the public, but those who plan to attend are asked to call (919) 843-7787 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Free parking will be available only in the business school parking deck.

The talk will include a discussion of P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, a water purifying technology developed by P&G and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One small P&G packet quickly turns 10 liters of dirty, potentially deadly water into clean, drinkable water. The packets can be used anywhere in the world, including areas affected by natural disaster.

McDonald’s talk is part of “Water In Our World” at UNC, a two-year pan-campus academic theme that calls for the University and all of its members and resources to mobilize around water issues.

McDonald, who became CEO in July 2009, will also talk about his company’s growth strategy, which is focused on its 40 largest and most profitable businesses, its 20 largest and most promising innovations and its 10 most important developing markets, where growth potential is highest.

Under McDonald’s leadership, P&G has grown sales by an average of about 4 percent per year during the past three years; earnings per share an average of about 4 percent; and adjusted free cash flow of about 90 percent.

McDonald graduated from West Point in the top 2 percent of his class with a bachelor of science degree in engineering. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Army as an infantry captain and an Airborne Ranger in the 82nd Airborne Division. While serving in the Army, McDonald received a master of business administration degree from the University of Utah in 1978. He was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, a business school honor society. He joined P&G in 1980.

McDonald is chair of the U.S.-China Business Council. He is vice chair of the Business Roundtable and chair of the Business Roundtable Fiscal Policy Initiative. He is vice co-chair of the Consumer Goods Forum. He serves on the Foreign Investment Advisory Council in Russia and the Singapore International Advisory Council of the Economic Development Board. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of the Xerox Corporation.

Kenan-Flagler Business School contact: Heather Harreld, (919) 962-8951, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it