Dr. Klimpel is Worldwide Director – External Innovation, Colgate Palmolive.

Ken was born and raised on Long Island, in New York, where he attended public schools. He attended Cornell University, earning a Bachelors degree in microbiology in 1982. He received his masters (1985) and PhD (1988) in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Rochester Medical School. He was appointed to the University of Rochester faculty teaching and doing funded research before joining Colgate Palmolive in 1990. In nearly 21 years at Colgate he has worked in oral care advanced technology, product development, and operations managing the plant analytical labs and technology transfer for Europe. In 1998 he returned to the US where he headed the R&D group for Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals for the next five years. He then joined the clinical group to work with marketing groups to develop the professional and consumer messaging for Colgate Total and its effect on gingival inflammation and relationship to oral and systemic health. In 2007 he was the first member of the newly created External Innovation function, where he is currently Worldwide Director.