Linda J. Rendle has served as chief executive officer and director of The Clorox Company since September 2020. She stepped into the role after nearly 20 years with the company, having previously held the position of president, where she led all of Clorox’s businesses and operations.
A native of Massachusetts, Rendle holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University and is a former collegiate volleyball player. Before joining Clorox, Rendle worked for Procter & Gamble, where she held several positions in sales management in the Boston, Massachusetts and Charlotte, North Carolina markets.
Rendle took over as CEO of Clorox in September 2020 while the company was struggling with meeting a surge in demand for its disinfectant products amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A self-described introvert and bookworm, she admitted to being wary of stepping into a leadership role of such capacity.
“We have to change the narrative of what a CEO is. I didn’t see myself as a CEO earlier in my career because I looked at what that was, or what I thought it was required to be, and I didn't see myself,” Rendle said at the Bay Area Council 2021 Pacific Summit. “I thankfully had a lot of mentors and bosses along the way who helped me see that actually, I could make a good CEO even though I didn’t see a lot of people who look like me.”
Now, Rendle has an informal advisory group of family friends and a former assistant she relies on to provide her with advice. Currently leading the Oakland-based consumer products behemoth through an uncertain post-pandemic environment, she has helped the company leverage the Clorox brand and its products by partnering with United Airlines, the Golden State Warriors, and others to reassure people that a plane, sports arena, or other venue is clean and disinfected.
Prior to her role as president and CEO, Rendle was executive vice president of Cleaning, International, Strategy, and Operations. Before that, she held numerous leadership roles at Clorox involving strategy and operations, including oversight of the Cleaning Division and key roles within the sales and product supply functions. Her career at Clorox began as a senior sales analyst on the company’s charcoal and insecticides businesses.