John Cocco

Corporate Vice President, Innovation

Henkel Corporation, General Industrial Division

John Cocco is currently senior vice president of product development, technical service and innovation globally for Henkel Corporation’s General Industrial Division. The General Industrial division provides the business to business market with adhesives, sealants and coatings and its brand “Loctite” is known to end users everywhere. In this role, he is a member of Henkel’s innovation executive committee and also the executive committee that oversees the General industrial business. He leads strategic innovation efforts and is also responsible for global product development and technical customer service operations that span 50 sites around the world. In addition, Cocco oversees the digital transformation effort aimed at enhancing Henkel’s innovation activity across its Adhesives Technology divisions.

Throughout his 30-plus year career, Cocco has held successive roles of increasing responsibility at Henkel and from 2011 to 2016 worked from Henkel’s Shanghai China operation to help build the innovation footprint and technical team in Asia.

Cocco received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University, MS in Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and more recently, in 2012, received his PhD in the area of Innovation Strategy from Rensselaer. His dissertation involved evaluating the performance of cross functional team leaders, working virtually on innovation projects of varying risk profiles. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of CT and member of the Academy of Management. He has authored various technical and management papers.