William S. Shanahan

William S. Shanahan is the retired President and Chief Operating Officer of Colgate-Palmolive. He retired in 2005. Mr. Shanahan has been associated with Colgate since 1965, when he joined the Company as a Sales Assistant for the International Sales Department.

In 1972, after progressing through various positions in North and South America, he was promoted to General Manager of Colgate’s Brazilian subsidiary, a post he held until 1977, when he was named Vice President of Marketing Services for the U.S. Company.

In 1979, Mr. Shanahan was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Helena Rubenstein, Inc. then a Colgate subsidiary. In 1980, he became Vice President and General Manager – Western Hemisphere for Colgate and then in 1981 he was promoted to Group Vice President responsible for Europe/Africa, as well as the U.S. Domestic Company and Colgate subsidiaries in Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. He was also named to the Company’s Corporate Operating Committee.

Mr. Shanahan was elected an Officer of the Corporation in 1983. In 1984 he was promoted to Senior Executive Vice President, Chief of Colgate Operations with responsibility for Colgate’s worldwide and domestic businesses. In 1989, he was named Chief Operating Officer and in 1992 became President of Colgate.

Mr. Shanahan has served on the Boards of Directors of Molson, Mead, Inc. and Duracell (then owned by KKR), Diago PLC, MSD Performance Group, a privately held company, Life Technologies, Inc. and Visa, Inc. He serves as a Management Advisor to ValueAct Capital, a San Francisco-based hedge fund. Mr. Shanahan joined the Board of Directors of CTD Holdings, Inc. in June 2016.

Mr. Shanahan received his BA from Dartmouth College and attended the University of California, International Christian University in Tokyo, and the University of the Philippines.