16 INTERVIEW Tim Probert – Editor, Personal Care Global
Jim Minicucci is the senior vice president and general manager of Ashland’s personal care division. In conversation with editor Tim Probert, Jim discusses the US firm’s global strategy and wider personal care industry trends
Tim Probert (TP): You have got an Italian-sounding name. Do you have Italian heritage? Jim Minicucci (JM): I do! My father was born in 1935 moved to the US in the 1960s. He went back to Italy, met my mother, and then both of them came to the US, just north of Boston. I was born and grew up in the
Boston area, but all my family is in Italy. In Naples. My mother is one of seven children, and my father is one of six. I have over 50 first cousins and a very, very large family!
TP: And so you must speak Italian? JM: Yes. I’ve always had an interest in languages. I also speak Spanish, Portuguese, and a bit of Arabic. I also have what I call ‘survival Korean’. I lived in Asia for almost ten years, in Taiwan and Korea. I enjoy languages a lot.
TP: Where are you based now, personally? JM: I’m based in Philadelphia, not far from Ashland’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. About 30 minutes south. I’m also only an hour north to Ashland’s personal care US headquarters in New Jersey.
TP: How long have you been at Ashland? JM: I joined Ashland in May 2023, originally to run our corporate development group strategy, M&A and portfolio management. I ran that group for roughly a year, and then, in April 2024, I took over responsibilities for the personal care division.
TP: What is your background? JM: General management and I have been running speciality materials businesses across the globe. I have a Master’s degree in chemical engineering. Early in my career, I worked in the lab as
PERSONAL CARE September 2025
a scale-up engineer and process engineer, both in personal care and semiconductors. Then I spent a bit of time as a strategy consultant in the speciality chemicals space, focused on ‘top of the house’ strategy work for major, diversified chemical companies. After that I joined Air Products to
run their corporate strategy group. Being in a corporate strategy role really helps to get a view of an enterprise. Especially when you’re joining an organization, it’s a nice way to learn all the parts of an organisation.
TP: How is your senior vice- president & general manager of personal care at Ashland different from, say, a divisional President role as at other major speciality chemical manufacturers? JM: It’s a very similar role. Ashland has four divisions, and I’m the head of personal care division. A unique thing about Ashland - compared to some of the other companies is when running a division, especially when it’s a reporting segment, you have a lot more exposure externally with our investors and shareholders, as well as analysts.
TP: Who is your line manager? JM: Our CEO, Guillermo Novo.
INTERVIEW
Changing the industry
TP: Tell me about the scale of Ashland’s personal care division, the global footprint, the number of employees, sales revenue and so on. JM: We run an SBU [strategic business unit] model: sales, marketing, R&D, operations, supply chain and other supporting the personal care business. In total, it’s around 800 people across those functions. Fifty percent of Ashland’s
entire R&D spend is in personal care. We have over 100 people in R&D supporting personal care. Sales in 2024 were
around $600 million on an adjusted basis because we divested one of our business lines, Avoca, and also shut down a couple other production assets.
TP: And the global footprint? JM: I’ve structured our personal
care division across three segments. We have our care ingredients, which are functional polymers; biofunctional actives; and then microbial protection, like preservatives. The footprint is well distributed
geographically (see image). For functional polymers, we have assets in the US, in Europe and in China. We’re very much aligned regionally to serve customers from one of those three assets in those regions. Other key products and
care ingredients like acetylenic materials, our film formers, our PvP (polyvinylpyrrolidone) products, guar, have very much a US-based production footprint. We have four different production plants in the US serving our global customers. For our biofunctional actives
business, we have production in France. That’s really our centre of excellence. We also have a plant in Nanjing, China. We also have a microbial protection business there.
www.personalcaremagazine.com
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