For Amanda Coussoule, leadership isn’t a title or a step on the corporate ladder. It’s a mindset — one shaped at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and honed over her 20 years in the consumer packaged goods industry. Now, as U.S. chief customer officer at Kenvue, the world’s largest pure-play consumer health company by revenue, Coussoule is applying that mindset to shape what she calls “the future of wellness,” centered on purpose, partnership and speed.
“I always say every American should visit West Point,” she says. “From the very first day you are taught to choose the harder right over the easier wrong. That’s not just a motto — it’s a lived experience. Leadership there is a laboratory where trust is earned in moments big and small.”
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That ethos — discipline, selfless service and a relentless drive toward impact — has guided Coussoule across a career that spans stints at Kraft Heinz, Kimberly-Clark and now Kenvue. At Kimberly-Clark, she led the Walmart and Sam’s Club business, where her team earned Sam’s Club’s prestigious Supplier of the Year award. Earlier, at Kraft Heinz, she joined just months before the company’s transformative merger, an experience she describes as a “front-row seat to change management on a global scale.”
She sees her current role as the defining moment of her professional journey. As chief customer officer, Coussoule leads Kenvue’s commercial strategy across all U.S. customer-facing channels.
“My mission is to serve our consumers through best-in-class ideas and partnership with our customers,” she explains. “That’s it. That’s my North Star.”
Her focus on empowerment, adaptability and agility reflects a commercial environment that’s evolving faster than ever. “The only day faster than today is tomorrow,” she notes. “Our job is to be clear in our goals but flexible in how we reach them.”
That blend of precision and flexibility has translated into tangible results. A recent example: a supply-chain partnership with Publix that dramatically improved Kenvue’s reliability as a supplier. “We have made tremendous progress in a matter of months and have elevated our performance well above the previous bottom tier ranking,” she says. “That success wasn’t about grand strategy — it was about making a decision, executing it with urgency, and delivering for the retailer and the consumer.”
Coussoule sees collaboration with retail partners not as a transaction but as a shared mission. “Working with each retailer within their strategy — understanding their customer, their shopper — that’s the unlock.”
The team’s partnership with Meijer offers a case in point. By providing insights tailored to Meijer’s unique shopper base and macro trends, Kenvue has strengthened its category leadership there. “The outcome has been new category captaincies and deeper collaboration,” she says proudly.
For Coussoule, innovation starts with listening — to both consumers and retail partners. “If we listen to our customers and our consumers and align around solving the consumer’s problem, we all win,” she says.
That can mean simple, practical solutions — like a new twin pack of Listerine launched to fit the stock-up trip mission of Walmart shoppers. “There’s nothing revolutionary about it, but it met a very specific need,” she says. “That’s the kind of insight-driven execution that drives growth.”
The same philosophy shaped a recent Zyrtec program that met allergy sufferers “where they are” in the store, rather than expecting them to seek out the category aisle. “We flipped the script,” Coussoule says. “By combining the right value, visibility and placement, we grew share — but more importantly, we helped retailers see what the allergy category could do for their overall business.”
These examples illustrate what she calls her “fundamentals-first” belief. “As sophisticated as we’ve all become, the fundamentals still matter. If you get promotion right, if you get pricing right, if you get your assortment right — you get the business.”
Coussoule spends much of her time thinking about what’s next for the consumer. Today’s shoppers, she observes, are not just younger or more digitally savvy — they’re more discerning, more curious and more self-directed.
“Consumers are increasingly viewing health and wellness holistically — physical, emotional and social well-being,” she explains. “Our brands — from Tylenol to Neutrogena to Listerine — play a powerful role in helping people care for themselves every day,” she says. “The opportunity now is to deepen that connection.”
Coussoule describes Kenvue as “a company in motion — with momentum.” Under the leadership of interim chief executive officer Kirk Perry and chief financial officer Amit Banati, she says, the organization has embraced a mindset of transformation.
“There’s a lot of noise in the world, but we are focused. We’re challenging ourselves to think differently and move more quickly. Our obligation and our desire are the same — to put the consumer at the center of everything we do. And if we can do that with speed and precision, we can help change this industry for the better.”
Recently named to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ Retail Advisory Board, Coussoule sees her role as both an opportunity and a responsibility. “It’s an honor to represent Kenvue at the highest levels of the industry,” she says. “We have the privilege — and the duty — to help shape the future of health and wellness.”
