Kimberly-Clark Names R. Gordon Knapp President of Its North Atlantic Family Care Business

DALLAS, March 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kimberly-Clark Corporation announced today that R. Gordon Knapp will join the company as president of its North Atlantic Family Care business. In this role, Mr. Knapp will be responsible for identifying and pursuing strategic growth opportunities for K-C's North American and European Family Care businesses, which include such well-known and trusted brands as Kleenex, Scott, Andrex, Cottonelle, Scottex and Viva.

Reporting to Steven R. Kalmanson, group president of North Atlantic Consumer Products, Mr. Knapp will succeed Dan M. Smith, who is retiring at the end of May after 27 years with K-C. Mr. Knapp will lead K-C's North Atlantic Family Care team in building and executing a strategy to accelerate top- and bottom-line growth, identify new innovation opportunities and help establish new business capabilities and processes.

Mr. Knapp joins K-C from Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, where he served as president of its North American consumer healthcare division with responsibility for retail and professional sales and marketing, finance, human resources and market operations. Before that, Mr. Knapp oversaw the company's consumer healthcare operations in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Australia. He began his career at Warner-Lambert, where he held a series of positions of increasing management responsibility for its consumer brands in North America and abroad.

"Gordon brings global experience in leading large, complex consumer organizations and in growing well-established businesses," said Mr. Kalmanson. "That expertise will be invaluable in helping lead our multi-functional team as we continue to drive our North Atlantic Family Care business to the next level of performance.

"As for Dan, we want to express our sincere appreciation for his nearly three decades of outstanding service at K-C," said Mr. Kalmanson. "During this time, he held various operations and management positions from mill manager of multiple K-C manufacturing facilities, to Managing Director of the company's Middle East joint venture, Olayan Kimberly-Clark Arabia, to President of the overall Family Care business in North America and Europe. Among his many accomplishments, Dan led the successful integration of Kimberly-Clark and Scott Paper's tissue manufacturing operations following the merger of the two companies in 1995. He also deserves tremendous credit for subsequently developing and implementing a strategy to standardize all of K-C's manufacturing and supply chain operations worldwide, delivering substantial cost savings and significant productivity gains."

Mr. Knapp earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario in 1983 and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario in 1985.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 150 countries. Every day, 1.3 billion people -- nearly a quarter of the world's population -- trust K-C brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly- Clark holds the No. 1 or No. 2 share position in more than 80 countries. To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the company's 135-year history of innovation, visit http://www.kimberly-clark.com/ .