James Michael Lafferty

James Michael Lafferty (born 1963) is an American business executive and athletics coach. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Fine Hygienic Holding from 2018 to 2025 and previously held regional CEO positions at Procter & Gamble, The Coca-Cola Company and British American Tobacco.^[1]

He was included in Forbes Middle East's Top 100 CEOs four times, most recently in 2023 and 2024.^[2][3]

Lafferty serves on the board and faculty of the Medical Wellness Association, a U.S.-based professional organization for wellness and preventive health.^[4]

Lafferty has served as a part-time journalist. He has written over 100 opinion and lifestyle columns for The Philippine Star, one of the Philippines' leading national newspapers.^[5]

Finally, Lafferty has had a life-long engagement in the sports world, both as a competitive athlete and as a coach of Olympic-level athletes, detailed below.

James Michael Lafferty is married to Carol Lafferty^[6] and has seven children - Michael, Morgan, Kristen, John-Patrick, Kenji, Mikayla, and James Jr. Kenji is Lafferty's only adopted child. Kenji was an abandoned Filipino orphan, and after a period of foster care with the Lafferty family, was officially adopted by them.^[7][8]

Lafferty was the subject of a feature profile in *The Philippine Star* titled "Being a man for others," which described his philanthropic outlook, coaching philosophy, and personal journey as a mentor and father figure in both business and athletics.^[9]

Lafferty graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati in 1981.^[10] He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor's degree in psychology and physiology (1985).^[11][12]

Lafferty began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he rose from being a corporate fitness instructor, through marketing management roles before moving into senior regional CEO positions at P&G, and subsequently The Coca-Cola Company and British American Tobacco.^[13]

In 2018 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Fine Hygienic Holding (FHH), a Dubai-based hygiene and wellness company.^[14] The company expanded its operations under his leadership and received industry recognition.^[15]

Media coverage notes Lafferty's involvement in preparing Filipino long jumper Marestella Torres for the 2016 Rio Olympics.^[16][17]

Lafferty has served as a long-time mentor and conditioning coach to Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena, working alongside Obiena’s primary coach Vitaly Petrov since 2017. His involvement extends to training oversight, including physical conditioning and mental preparation. In 2022, Obiena formally introduced “Team EJ,” a professional support group structured under Lafferty’s guidance to strengthen the athlete’s performance and commercial organization.^[18]

Lafferty also publicly defended Obiena during allegations of doping, stating Obiena had never tested positive and dismissing such claims as baseless.^[19]

During the 2021–2022 dispute between Obiena and the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) over allegations of mis-liquidated coaching fees, Lafferty publicly supported Obiena's position. He highlighted that the issue stemmed from systemic problems in PATAFA's payment processes and advocated for direct payment to the coach instead of placing administrative burdens on the athlete.^[20] Lafferty also revealed that several other countries offered Obiena citizenship in response to the controversy, with offers made even before the dispute became public.^[21] Later, he publicly challenged PATAFA's claims by stating that Obiena had overpaid his coach—by more than €2,800—due to delays and inefficiencies in federation disbursements.^[22]

He has also coached Nigerian marathon runner Esther Obiekwe, Nigeria's representative at the 2012 Boston and London Olympic marathons.^[23][24]

In addition to elite athletes, Lafferty has worked with amateur marathoners such as Kristy Abello, who has written publicly about training under him.^[25]

In 2006 Lafferty performed CPR on a Filipino man suffering cardiac arrest at Nagoya airport, an incident later reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.^[26]

He has also been involved in the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association's "Adopt an Olympian" program, as the program originator, which provided private sector backing to athletes.^[27]

James Michael Lafferty has appeared on The Chrissy B Show, SKY 203, sharing his thoughts about the qualities needed to succeed.^[28]

He has also been interviewed by Barbara Be about how he started his career and reached the position he is in today. The interview was titled "Climbing the Ladder".^[29] He also appeared on Expat Insights with Raju Mandhyan where he talked about winners and champions.^[30] He was a speaker at AESC and Tissue World 2005.^[31][32]

Lafferty has been profiled by international outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The National (UAE).^[33][34]

Lafferty has competed across a wide range of sports as a high school and collegiate athlete, including track and field, volleyball, wrestling, basketball, and American football. In later years, he shifted to distance running, completing over 30 full marathons, and more recently transitioned to competitive powerlifting. He won the 2017 Philippines national title in raw bench press, and later won back-to-back world championships in bench press and strict arm curl in 2023 and 2024, setting United Arab Emirates national records in both events.^[35][36]. In the 2025 World Raw Championships in November 2025, Lafferty won gold for his third consecutive world title in strict arm curl, and silver in bench press.

Lafferty has been awarded CEO of the year 21 separate times in his career by various organisations and government-affiliated associations, as of 2025. Lafferty is the winner of the 2019 Burj CEO Of the year Middle East Award as well as GCC 2019 CEO of the year,^[37] and Daman Corporate Health and Wellness Visionary 2019 Award.^[38] He has been listed 4 times, most recently in 2024, as among top 100 CEOs by Forbes Middle East,^[39] and Best CEO of the Year 2022 in the Wellness and Hygienic Products sector.^[40][41]

The following table lists the awards Lafferty obtained: