Kruger’s chief marketing officer Nancy Marcus is set to retire on March 1, with the household paper company tapping Susan Irving as her replacement in its top marketing role, the company announced Tuesday.

Irving will lead Kruger’s marketing team and be responsible for the vision, strategic direction and performance of all Kruger brands – which include Cashmere and Purex bathroom tissue, SpongeTowels paper towels, Scotties facial tissues and White Swan napkins – and their marketing activities. Irving’s purview also includes the company’s White Cloud family of paper products, sold in the U.S., where it also manufactures several private label products.

Irving joined Kruger earlier this month, and is currently working with Marcus to ensure a smooth transition as a member of the company’s executive team.

Marcus was hired by Kruger as VP of marketing in 2001. She joined shortly after it acquired the Scott Paper business, and her first task was to phase out the Cottonelle and Scott Towels brands in favour of new ones. During her tenure, she helped grow the Cashmere and SpongeTowels brands significantly and evolved the company’s multicultural marketing strategy. In 2018, she was named Kruger’s CMO, expanding her purview across North America and developing a brand-centric marketing plan for White Cloud south of the border.

“Nancy has achieved many accomplishments and received numerous accolades throughout her career, and will be best remembered for her leadership and strategic brand transition resulting in the launch and significant growth of Cashmere and SpongeTowels, two of Canada’s most loved tissue brands,” said Dino Bianco, Kruger’s CEO. “On behalf of the company and of all its employees, I would like to sincerely thank Nancy for her exceptional contributions to our success and recognize her career as one of Canada’s top marketers.”

Before landing at Kruger, Irving was a senior director of marketing at PepsiCo, where she has taken progressively more senior roles within the company’s Canadian marketing team and worked on most of its major food and snack brands since 2005. Some of her notable work includes the Lay’s “Do Us A Flavour” platform, numerous promotions for Doritos Ketchup and leading the Quaker portfolio. In 2016, she took on a global role with the company, leading marketing for a group of snack brands that included Doritos and Cheetos.

Bianco cited Irving’s CPG experience across brand strategy, advertising, P&L management, media planning, digital, innovation, consumer insights and sports and event marketing as assets that would help Kruger’s “further growth and connection to our consumers.”