Jeffrey Whitford

Jeffrey Whitford is Vice President of the award-winning Sustainability & Social Business Innovation function at the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates in the U.S. and Canada as MilliporeSigma. In his role, Jeffrey leads with purpose and imagination, embedding sustainability across every part of the global Life Science business. From product design and packaging to supply chain, manufacturing, and social impact, his work helps drive new business models, operational resiliency, margin expansion and cost efficiency. Jeffrey has been the driving force behind several industry-first innovations, including the award-winning DOZN™ tool for quantifying the ‘greenness’ of a chemical product, a Biopharma Recycling Program for single-use and disposable plastics, and the new bio-based solvent line Cyrene™. He also spearheaded the SCALE, SHAPE, SMASH and SHIFT frameworks to embed sustainability throughout the product lifecycle, operationalize circular packaging and close the loop on lab plastics.

Jeffrey serves on the boards of the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute and My Green Lab, and is a member of the Economist Impact CSO Leaders Club and Fast Company Executive Board. His accolades include being named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business and a Sustainability Hero of the Year by the Business Intelligence Group. Jeffrey holds a bachelor’s in journalism and strategic communications from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.