Andrea Jung Named CEO of Avon Products Inc.

New York-based Avon Products Inc. has announced that its president and COO, Andrea Jung, has been named president and CEO. Jung succeeds chairman and CEO Charles R. Perrin. Perrin is retiring after 16 months in the two leadership positions. Stanley C. Gault, former chairman and CEO of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., has been elected non-executive chairman of the board. Jung has been Avons president since January 1998 and its COO since July 1998. Previously, she held the companys top marketing positions since joining Avon in January 1994. We have set a bold new course for Avon, and I am confident that we can build on the wonderful traditions of the company and make Avon the most relevant beauty brand for women in the world, says Jung. In April, Avon announced a strategic plan that includes expanding consumer-marketing programs to drive growth in beauty sales, while modernizing its direct selling system through investments in new technology. More recently, the company said it intends to spend $100 million next year to fund its strategies, while targeting earnings growth in the low to mid-teens. Jung joins Jill Barad of Mattel Inc. and Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard Co. on the list of women leading major U.S. corporations.