Ron Coughlin has more than 30 years of experience growing iconic brands across Consumer Products, Technology and Retail.

Today, Ron has a portfolio of roles including Chairman of Bil-Jac Pet Foods, Operating Partner for Alliance Consumer Growth Private Equity firm, Advisor for the start-ups HNY+ and Tatsu tea, and founder/Executive Chairman of Pad Home Pet Services in New York City. He is an Advisory Board member for UCSD’s Rady School of Business and serves on the board of Rancho Coastal Humane pet shelter.

Ron served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Petco until he stepped down in March of 2024. He led a turnaround of the declining revenue company as CEO, starting in June 2018. Ron repositioned Petco into a Health and Wellness provider of premium products and services. During his tenure, the company added roughly 7 million customers, expanded revenues by over 40%, with digital and services revenues more than doubling. Additionally, the company’s Veterinary hospital footprint increased from single-digits to over 280. Petco successfully IPO’d in 2021, reducing the company’s debt by over $1.5B. During his tenure, the company helped save over 3 million pet lives and was ranked as one of America’s most responsible companies.

Prior to Petco, Ron was with HP for 11 years, serving as President of HP's $33B Personal Computing business. During Ron’s tenure, the business went from declining revenues, share and margins to delivering double-digit revenue and profit growth enabling the company to eclipse Lenovo as the #1 World-wide PC maker. Previously, he led a turnaround of the $14B LaserJet printing business as SVP/GM. Prior to that, he was SVP of Sales and Marketing for the printing division.

Prior to joining HP, Ron spent 13 years at PepsiCo in a range of senior roles, including Chief Marketing Officer of PepsiCo International Beverages. In that capacity, he was responsible for all marketing activities across Pepsi, 7 Up, Gatorade, Tropicana, Starbucks and Aquafina in all markets outside of the US. During his tenure, Pepsi consistently gained share vs Coca-Cola and the company’s non-carbonated portfolio expanded across the globe. He was also Chief Marketing Officer of Tropicana U.S. and began his Pepsi career as one of the architects of the successful Mountain Dew youth oriented positioning that continues today.

Ron earned his bachelor’s degree in international marketing from Lehigh University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He loves skiing.