Celebrating Colgate-Palmolive’s 2024 You Can Make A Difference Global Award Winners
Recognizing Excellence: Colgate-Palmolive’s 2024 YCMAD Winners Enjoy a Week of Celebrations in New York City.
Published
June, 2025
Colgate-Palmolive is a caring, innovative growth company that is reimagining a healthier future for all people, their pets and our planet. Each year, we celebrate the very best of our Company and our people through The Chairman’s Global You Can Make a Difference (YCMAD) Program.
What is The Chairman’s You Can Make a Difference Program?
Since 1986, the Chairman’s Global You Can Make a Difference (YCMAD) Award Program has been Colgate-Palmolive’s highest recognition of individual and team excellence – giving us all something to aspire to and smile about. It is a tradition made even more special because Colgate-Palmolive People nominate their peers for this honor.
The program has recognized thousands of Colgate-Palmolive People at all levels for their outstanding achievements that contribute to the success of our business, enhance our work processes and workplace and help the communities we serve. Many of the process improvements, product innovations and creative solutions recognized with YCMAD awards have become global best practices still in place today.
2024 YCMAD Awards
In 2024, more than 2,000 project teams across all divisions and functions were nominated for their contributions to the business. Of these projects, just five teams made up of 41 people total were selected as 2024 global winners. Winners demonstrate the highest levels of innovation, collaboration and execution, while also bringing our values and leadership principles to life.
In June 2025, the five global winning teams traveled to our headquarters in New York City for a weeklong celebration.
Welcome to New York - Global Celebration Week Highlights
Rainbow Room Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony
Rainbow Room Summary: The highlight of the week was a gala dinner and awards ceremony hosted by our Chairman, President and CEO Noel Wallace. Our global winners and their guests met our Board of Directors at Rockefeller Center’s iconic Rainbow Room. Wallace presented each winner with a well-deserved medal for their caring, inclusive and courageous work achievements.
Global Technology Center Visit
Global technology summary:
Our winners visited Colgate-Palmolive’s Global Technology Center in Piscataway, New Jersey, where they were hosted by CP’s Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer and caring Colgate-Palmolive employee hosts. They explored how our Company innovates, including meeting with members of our R&D organization and learning from our scientists, including how to make Softsoap Liquid Hand Soap.
Our Purpose in Action: Clean The Word Essential Health & Hygiene Product Kit
Each team worked together to assemble three thousand essential health & hygiene kits featuring Colgate-Palmolive products to donate to communities in need around the world. The kits, which included toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, and more, are a part of Colgate-Palmolive’s ongoing work with the nonprofit organization, Clean The World. Our teams’ contributions are one more step towards fulfilling our purpose of reimagining a healthier future for all.
Bracelet Ceremony
The Bracelet Ceremony serves as a moment for reflection on the year and our values. In addition to the special awards medal conferred at the Rainbow Room, each winner receives a commemorative bracelet, this year presented by CP’s Senior Vice President Office of the Chairman, Brad Watt. The bracelet symbolizes Colgate-Palmolive’s values and can be worn every day, reminding employees to live their values.
2024 Winning Projects
Celebrating our 2024 global winners
Corporate
Driving Productivity with the AI Hub
Shane Arcaro, Robbie Dow, Meg Hicks, Steven McAteer, Anusha Nambiar, Aleks Ozerov, Theresa Rivera, Rahul Solanki, Matthew Tattoli, Rachel Wolman
When generative AI became broadly available to the public, companies were challenged to balance the opportunities and risks of generative AI tools while creating value for their business and employees. At Colgate-Palmolive, the Corporate team created AI Hub, a proprietary platform formed under enterprise agreements with OpenAI and Google, to provide CP People access to cutting-edge AI capabilities within a secure environment.
Comprehensive, inclusive learning experiences accompanied the launch, ensuring CP People have the necessary skills to leverage this technology fully. Launched in Q2 2024, AI Hub now garners over 4,000 active weekly users, has responded to over 2.5 million questions, and CP People have saved an estimated 100,000 hours by leveraging this platform.
Latin America Division
Customer Development Fundamentals Experience Series
Anycel Guzman, Pablo Mascolo, Jorge Perez
For the Latin America Division Customer Development Organization (CDO) to continue driving CP's growth sustainably, reinforcing foundational business practices was crucial. This small but mighty team conceived and launched the Virtual Experiences Series – a comprehensive digital program consisting of more than 35 learning sessions led by subject matter experts from across the Division on topics such as Go-to-Market Strategies, Investment Planning and In-Store Management.
With 2,425 participants and 86% program completion by the end of 2024, the initiative reinforces a shared understanding across the Latin America CDO team, helping to solidify the fundamentals that underpin our business success. A digital library was also established, providing 24/7 access to these valuable resources. Considering the program’s success in Latin America, the series is rolling out globally to CDO teams in other Divisions.
Hill’s Pet Nutrition
Tonganoxie Smart Factory Design and Execution
Daniel Fitzpatrick, Byron Galindo, Jakub Kogut, David Kurtz, Sarah McKinley, Adam Sajnog, Travis Schell, Chad Sharp
In early 2021 amid the global pandemic, Hill's Pet Nutrition team took on the opportunity of enhancing wet pet food capacity by creating an innovative, sustainable manufacturing facility. The goal was to support the growth of Hill’s by constructing a highly efficient and high quality facility.
By leveraging in-house knowledge, using cutting-edge technologies and partnering with new collaborators, the team established CP's first automated Smart Factory in just 23 months. This facility can produce over 200 million pounds of wet pet food annually with 15% greater efficiency and 10% fewer losses than traditional technologies – and with significant reductions to our CO2 emissions and water usage.
North America Division
Hello, Accelerated Growth
Melissa Carrion, Marcelo de la Garza Gossler, Denise Delany, Melissa Gurvitz, Malcolm Luck, Avani Madappa, Carolyn Murad, Joe Poulos, Juhi Shah Jain, Jennifer Vasold-Singh
This hello team took on the challenge of reigniting growth for the hello brand in the highly competitive U.S. toothpaste market – and achieved remarkable results. In 2024, hello became the #1 charcoal toothpaste in the U.S. and achieved double digit growth across all categories. The team’s success is grounded in our values, leadership principles and strong business fundamentals: carefully understanding the consumer, clear brand articulation, compelling brand visuals and more. By streamlining the hello SKU portfolio, enhancing advertising, ensuring availability and innovating, the hello brand has become a major growth contributor and the fastest-growing toothpaste brand in the U.S. market, according to Nielsen.
Asia Pacific Division
Scaling Up the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® Program in the Philippines
MJ Aggabao, Guillan Balmes, Lloyd Denia, Diomar Escat, Svapna Koppikar, Cata Manuel, Janine Grace Noblezada, Catherine Sy, Migs Villanueva, Nica Marquez Whang
To address the critical issue of dental cavities – a silent health crisis in the Philippines affecting three out of four Filipino children – this team from CP-Philippines significantly scaled up the country’s Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® (BSBF) program.
Through partnerships with dental associations and governmental bodies, influence on oral health curriculum and innovations like introducing a Quality of Life Measurement Framework – which quantifies the positive impact of BSBF activities to the overall quality of life of Filipino families – the program has set a new standard for oral health literacy and focus for CP. And to contribute to business growth, a comprehensive media strategy bolstered Colgate brand equity and health across the country. Over the past year, BSBF in the Philippines has doubled its reach to over 4.7 million children in schools and 1.2 million in community programs, fostering preventative care
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