Exactly one year after leaving her post as head of marketing for LG to join Lixil Canada as VP of marketing, Valerie Malone has been promoted to president and general manager. In her new role, she is given reins of the water and housing products company, which operates brands like American Standard.

As president and GM, Malone will oversee all aspects of the brand in Canada, including sales, marketing, customer relationships, product availability and human resources.

The appointment makes her the first female president and general manager in the Lixil Americas region.

A marketer by trade, Malone has held various roles at PepsiCo Canada and Whirlpool. When she arrived at Lixil in May 2017, she transformed the marketing department to be more function-oriented, creating verticals for product marketing, channel marketing, brand and corporate communications.

But she isn’t planning to bring the same large-scale change to other aspects of the business, as operations are currently running smoothly, she says. Instead, she’ll be focused on ensuring her team has the skills and readiness to adapt to changing market dynamics, which she identifies as both her biggest challenge as general manager and her biggest opportunity for personal growth as an employee.

As a female executive, she believes more organizations should focus on the individual skills and experiences of their employees when making high-profile appointments. Throughout her career, Malone has found support working alongside other female executives, including Maha El Kharbotly, CMO at Lixil. As a former vice-president at PepsiCo Canada, she says her own career path has also been inspired by the leadership of women like Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s CEO.