Where Curiosity Meets Purpose: How Inventors Thrive at P&G

At P&G, we continue to raise the bar on how we innovate and deliver superior products, packaging and experiences. We start with a consumer-centric approach: deeply understanding consumer needs and getting clear on the jobs to be tackled and then leveraging our expertise to design and deliver solutions that delight the people we serve and drive market growth.

P&G is a place where inventors solve complex problems and bring big ideas to life, where teamwork is valued over individual credit, and where inventors can carve out unique career paths based on their skill sets and interests.

From Scientific Expertise to Real-World Legacy: Meet Mark Sivik

Invention starts with a problem to solve, a job to be tackled. “We're always looking at what are the opportunity spaces? What are the consumer needs that are not met? What are the emerging trends?” said Mark Sivik, Vice President, Victor Mills Society Fabric & Home Care Strategic Innovation and Technology Division.

Sivik has spent the past 33 years pioneering scientific advancements across many brands and businesses in technology development and product formulation. He was recently inducted into our Victor Mills Society, which recognizes prolific inventors and transformative work, grounded in the privilege and responsibility we have to serve consumers with superior products that improve their lives every day.

Sivik’s most notable work has left a legacy on popular household brands like Downy, Cascade Automatic Dish Action Pacs and Dawn dish soap. He has even worked on innovation to serve consumers on Earth and beyond by collaborating with NASA on detergent formulations for deep space missions under constrained-use conditions like low water, leading to learning reapplication possibilities for consumers on Earth.

Mark is one of the minds behind the next generation of laundry detergent – Tide evo, a groundbreaking innovation that leverages patented functional fiber technology to create a laundry detergent with no fillers, no extra water and no plastic bottles.

“While I’ve been recognized with more than 250 patents for innovation, what has always remained constant is P&G’s relentless focus on the consumer,” Sivik said. “I’ve met with consumers and gone into their homes to observe their cleaning and laundry habits, learned what is meaningful to them, and talked about their needs. This has led to insights that help us continue to innovate. P&G has always provided the resources, opportunity and support needed for my colleagues and me to innovate and make a meaningful difference in consumers’ lives, and that is what is the most rewarding.”

Advancing the Chemistry Behind Great Hair Care: Meet Jennifer Marsh

For Jennifer Marsh, invention begins with boundless curiosity about chemistry — and a belief that science can help improve people’s lives and help them feel better about themselves. Over a 30-year career at P&G, she has advanced the science behind hair color and hair health. Now a Vice President and member of P&G’s Victor Mills Society, Marsh holds more than 30 patents and has authored more than 50 scientific publications. Much of Marsh’s career has focused on hair color chemistry, spanning dye formulation, oxidative systems and color delivery, with an emphasis on performance and reducing damage. Her work has shaped brands, including Nice & Easy and Natural Instincts.

“Hair color is so transformational,” Marsh said. “Your whole sense of self is very closely linked to your hair color. We’d talk to consumers who’d say, ‘I feel like I’m a blonde inside, but I was born with brown hair.’ They’re transforming their whole personalities.”

With this consumer perspective, Marsh draws on expertise across P&G and beyond, looking for insights that could apply to hair care. One of her proudest innovations started with a question from P&G’s Fabric Care team: Could metals in water damage hair? The question was inspired by the team’s long-standing expertise in how trace metals affect laundering.

“We sampled 600 people across the world to see if they had copper in their hair. And the answer was yes,” Marsh explained. “It was coming from copper piping and hot water tanks — things consumers don’t usually think about, but that can affect hair.”

Those insights led Marsh to develop a chelating system, which binds metals so they can be rinsed away, helping prevent hair damage and color fading. Today, this technology is in Pantene and Herbal Essences products. It’s one of many examples where Marsh combines her research with the expertise of other P&G scientists and external academics to turn fundamental science into practical solutions.

She has also championed plant-derived materials in hair care, initiating research into natural actives. Collaborating with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, UK, and mentoring early-career scientists, she continues to push the science forward.

“Where’s the next chemistry I can really go and understand?” she said. “That’s the bit that is exciting — to go and continue to learn.”

Transformational Leader and Partner: Science-Digital/AI Innovation, Meet Faiz Sherman

Faiz Sherman, Vice President, Victor Mills Society Technology Development, believes P&G’s focus on innovation and investment in its people are keys to the Company’s success. "Innovation happens because somebody's investing in me,” he said.

A 27-year veteran of P&G with more than 140 published patents, Sherman is also a part of the Victor Mills Society, the Company’s highest technical honor. His work focuses on AI and sensor-enabled smart devices applied to drive consumer delight and value creation across multiple P&G business units. In Oral Care, Sherman’s technical thought leadership and collaborative spirit enabled Oral-B electric toothbrushes to improve consumers’ oral health by providing real-time feedback on their brushing habits.

This transformational work is changing consumer behavior and leading to better health outcomes — but Sherman doesn’t take all the credit. “The recipe that I’ve taken throughout my career is always to be humble and inclusive,” he said. “I don’t think I have a single patent where I am named as a sole inventor; there’s always somebody else somewhere that can make the invention I am part of better and stronger.”

Sherman takes pride in mentoring and helping the next generation of technologists. “One of the things I’m most proud of is the Corporate Smart Products Organization,” he said. “Building the team to get all of us to a point where we collectively have the technical mastery, the trust and the relationships to be able to drive breakthrough innovation for P&G. I get to work with amazing people on breakthrough work learning every day and each Monday when I come back to work, I'm excited because of that.”