Daniel de Rooij
SVP and Chief Digital and Information Officer
Essential Home
As Chief Digital & Information Officer at Reckitt's Essential Home division, Daniel de Rooij is leading a transformative journey for iconic brands like Air Wick, Calgon, Cillit Bang and Woolite. Among his values are having a healthy life balance and the curiosity and humility to learn something new every day.
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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
I was born in a working-class family in a rural area of The Netherlands. I worked my way into university where I obtained my master's in mechanical engineering. Then, in 1998, I started my career in Procter & Gamble where I worked and lived around the world for 14 years in different jobs, only realizing afterwards how great a foundational education this was.
After P&G, I moved to Heineken to lead commercial tech globally and then to Whirlpool where I held various positions including EMEA CIO, ERP Program Director and Group IT Director for Sales and Marketing. Then, in February 2020, I spent a sabbatical year in Lisbon with my wife and our then three-year-old twins, which was a fantastic experience, despite the fact that COVID broke out 3 days after we moved!
We returned in 2021, and I started at Reckitt as Chief Information Officer of the Hygiene division, followed by increasing responsibilities of Chief Data & Analytics Officer and GBS Leader.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Be crystal clear about your values and stick to them. Especially when it is difficult to do so.
What is the greatest challenge CIOs face today, and how are you addressing it?
There is a lot of hype around Generative AI. Our job as C-level technology executives is to keep perspective. The shiny toys are very shiny indeed, but more important than ever is to do the hard work to get the underlying foundations (data governance, ML ops, etc.) right. And the space is moving so fast that you have to watch out how much money you spend on experimentation: reality may overtake your results faster than you can present them in the board room.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CIO?
Be inclusive. Listen to people inside and outside your organization. Bring the outside in.
How do you measure success as a leader?
The measure of success of a leader is not leadership, it’s followership.
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