Mainstage Speakers

Trevor Noah 
Comedian & Bestselling Author

Trevor Noah is the most successful comedian in Africa and was the host of the Emmy® Award-winning The Daily Show on Comedy Central for seven years. Under Trevor, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah broke free from the restraints of a 30-minute linear show, producing engaging social content, award-winning digital series, podcasts and more for its global audience. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah received numerous Emmy Award nominations in a very competitive and increasingly crowded field. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah landed a record number of Emmy Award nominations with seven and picked up its most nominations since Trevor became host of the Comedy Central show in 2015. Trevor originally joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2014 as a contributor. Additionally, Trevor Noah and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah have received other awards and nominations including NAACP, Critic’s Choice, MTV, GLAAD, Webby, and People’s Choice. * 

Trevor served as the Grammy Awards host for three years in a row, with the 2023 show garnering the highest viewership numbers since 2020. Noah is a Grammy nominee himself. His standup special “Trevor Noah: Son of Patricia” was nominated for best comedy album at the 2020 Grammys.  

Trevor’s success has also spanned to sold out stand-up comedy shows over 5 continents. His recently announced “Off The Record” World Tour stops in 28 cities across the US, before heading for international destinations. Trevor’s “Back To Abnormal Tour” saw him sell out multiple nights at the O2 Arena in London, perform across Europe including selling the most tickets ever by a non-German in Frankfurt, Germany, as well as Madison Square Garden, The LA Forum, two shows at the Chase Center in San Francisco and ended his run with two sold out shows at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.  

Trevor has written, produced, and starred in 12 comedy specials, including “I Wish You Would,” his third for Netflix, which premiered globally in November 2023. True to form, Trevor hilariously shares revelations about learning to speak German, modern communication, and his love for curry. His previous special, “Trevor Noah: Son Of Patricia” received a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Variety Show, as well as a Grammy Award nomination. Other recent stand-up specials include “Trevor Noah: Afraid of the Dark” on Netflix and “Trevor Noah: Lost in Translation” on Comedy Central. Noah was the subject of David Paul Meyer’s award-winning documentary film “You Laugh But It’s True” which tells the story of his remarkable career in post-apartheid South Africa. His Showtime comedy special, “Trevor Noah: African American” premiered in 2013. He was nominated for “Personality of the Year” at the 2014 and 2015 MTV Africa Music Awards and won the award in 2015.  

Trevor is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood and its young readers adaptation, It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, which also debuted as a New York Times bestseller. The book not only provides a fascinating and honest perspective on South Africa’s racial history, but it will inspire young readers looking to improve their own lives. The book received the Thurber Prize for American Humor and two NAACP Image Awards, one for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author and another for Outstanding Literary Work in the Biography/Auto-Biography category. The paperback version of Born a Crime came out in February 2019. To date, Born a Crime has sold over 3 million copies across all formats.  

The audiobook edition of Born a Crime, performed by Trevor, was produced by Audible and remains one of the top-selling, highest-rated, and most-commented-on Audible performances of all time. Born a Crime won the Audie Award for “Best Male Narrator,” and was also nominated in the “Autobiography/Memoir,” “Best Narration by the Author” and “Audiobook of the Year” categories.  

Born a Crime is a collection of personal stories about growing up in South Africa during the last gasps of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that came with its demise. Already known for his incisive social and political commentary, here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers an intimate look at the world that shaped him. These are true stories, sometimes dark, occasionally bizarre, frequently tender, and always hilarious. Whether subsisting on caterpillars during months of extreme poverty or making comically hapless attempts at teenage romance, from the time he was thrown in jail to the time he was thrown from a speeding car driven by murderous gangsters, the experiences covered in this book will shock and amaze, even as they leave you rolling on the floor with laughter.  

Day Zero Productions, a joint venture between Paramount Global and Trevor Noah, develops and produces diverse, high-quality creative content for a global audience. With projects set up both within the Paramount Global family, as well as at other studios, streamers, and live platforms, Day Zero focuses on entertaining and impactful content, with an eye toward authentic stories from diverse points of view. The company just announced it is developing a series based on Kiese Laymon’s coming-of-age novel Long Division which explores family, hope, grief, love, and race through poetic language and satire. Other current projects include an adaptation of Noah’s best-selling and award-winning autobiography Born a Crime with Lupita Nyong’o starring and a reimagining of the classic Paramount feature President’s Analyst. Additional features include a biopic centered on 8-year-old Nigerian chess champion Tanitoluwa Adewumi and an untitled animated feature with Paramount Animation and Mainstay Entertainment, based on an original idea from Noah. On the television side, Day Zero is producing several scripted and documentary series including partnering with Time Studios and Sugar23 on MSNBC/Peacock’s The Turning Point, which examines urgent issues around the world like climate change, voting rights, and the global refugee crisis. They also produced For All Humankind, a documentary for Discovery+/HBOMax which premiered in February. Day Zero also produced two seasons of Nickelodeon’s annual Kid of the Year TV special alongside TIME Studios. Born in South Africa to a black South African mother and a white European father, Noah has hosted numerous television shows including South Africa’s music, television, and film awards, and two seasons of his own late-night talk show, Tonight with Trevor Noah. 

Noah launched the Trevor Noah Foundation to improve equitable access to quality education for underserved youth in South Africa. Noah’s vision is a world where education enables youth to dream, see and build the impossible. In collaboration with the government, the private sector, philanthropists, community leaders and members, TNF implements dynamic programs that catalyze improved education outcomes for teachers, schools and their communities. In a few short years, TNF has renovated schools, trained young teachers in leadership, increased access to computers and digital skills and provided much-needed career guidance. The Foundation currently impacts over 600 teachers, 7500 youth, and countless families within the communities.

Katie Beal Brow
Founder & CEO, Lone River Beverage Company

Katie Beal Brown is a fourth-generation West Texan, born and raised in Midland, TX. Growing up, some of her fondest memories were from the time spent with her grandparents out on their family’s ranch in Far West Texas near Fort Davis. Katie attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, where she met her future husband, Tyler Brown, a Houston native and seventh- generation Texan. Katie and Tyler Brown married in her hometown of Midland in 2013 and immediately moved to New York, NY where he had an opportunity in private equity real estate, and she continued to grow her career in advertising. With years of experience at industry- leading agencies, she set out on a new venture to build her own brand, Lone River Beverage Company, celebrating her roots in West Texas. Lone River Beverage company pioneered the tequila-style hard seltzer category with its introduction of Lone River Ranch Water. After less than a year of record sales, Lone River Beverage Company was purchased by Diageo, one of the world’s largest producers of spirits and beers including world class brands like Casamigos, Crown Royal, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Guinness and more. Lone River now leads the tequila-style seltzer category as the #1 Ranch Water in the U.S. Katie continues to lead the business on a day-to-day basis, as CEO of the brand and works closely with Diageo leadership to build further on Lone River’s success. 

Mauricio Bermudez​
Vice President Data & Analytics, Bacardi

Mauricio Bermudez is a result-oriented leader with 25 years of progressive experience, skilled in strategic planning, consumer insights, and marketing, with a passion for leveraging data to drive strategic decision-making.  

Mauricio possesses hands-on knowledge in multiple environments, including start-ups and large corporations, developing and developed markets, manufacturers and distributors, and niche and general market products/services across multiple industries, having worked in companies such as P&G, Starbucks, and Burger King. 

Mauricio returned this year to C360 as speaker to share his experience in the emerging world of Omnishopper for the Spirits industry. As the North America Bacardi VP of Data and Analytics, he is leading the transformation of foundational capabilities in the company to drive their Best10 and Beyond Corporate strategy. 

Mauricio holds a Bachelor from the Universidad Metropolitana and a Leadership Specialization from Harvard University. 

Katherine Black
Partner, Consumer & Retail practice
Kearney 

Katherine Black is a Partner in Kearney’s Consumer and Retail practice. She joined Kearney in 2020 to lead efforts in developing and deploying growth strategies to retailers based on unique consumer insights, tools and solutions.  
Katherine is well-versed in analytics and the power of data to drive results. Prior to joining Kearney, she was a Partner at KPMG and spent 9 years at dunnhumby, the well-known retail advisor for customer analytics, personalization and loyalty, in executive leadership roles including Head of the UK and Ireland, General Manager for Apparel and Beauty sectors and Head of Solutions for Kroger.  

Her earlier career was focused on analytics, loyalty and customer experience in financial services having spent time with Fifth Third Bank, Capital One and Wachovia.  

Katherine has been recognized as a “Woman to Watch” by Retail Leader, 40 under 40 by DM News and a Customer Champion by Peppers and Rogers. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Goodwill NY/NJ and The Lion Tales Foundation. She is a frequent speaker and media contributor to outlets such as GroceryShop, NRF, GMA, Winsight Grocery, Forbes, Supermarket News, Footwear News and Women’s Wear Daily.  

Katherine is originally from North Carolina and holds a BS in Business from Wake Forest. She now lives in New York. 

Jill Blanchard
President of Client Solutions, Advantage Solutions 

Jill Blanchard currently serves as the President of Client Solutions at Advantage Solutions, a sales and marketing agency providing business process outsourcing services.  Prior to this, Jill serviced President of BrandLoyalty USA, a company that builds consumer engagement for the world’s leading retailers.  Previously and beginning in 2013, Jill served as the Chief Executive Officer of SPAR Group, Inc., a publicly-held international merchandising and marketing services company.  For seven years prior to that, Jill served as the Senior Vice President of Client Services and Business Development for HAVI, a global supply chain services company to the food service industry.   

Jill began her career as a statistician at Monsanto, utilizing her undergraduate degrees in mathematics and statistics.  She later spent 14 years at Nielsen in various analytics, client services, marketing, and business development positions. 

Jill’s career has centered around two passions:  building and service.  She’s got a knack for understanding people’s goals, connecting dots and building strategies to help them accomplish their goals.  She has been fortunate to work closely with some of the most admired brands in the world including Kraft, P&G, Apple, McDonald’s, Smucker’s, and Kroger, to name a few. 

Amy Luke Busker 
Senior Vice President, Branded Sales, Mizkan 
Amy Luke Busker currently serves as Senior Vice President, Branded Sales, and is a member of Mizkan America’s Executive Team. Mizkan America leads the U.S. pasta-sauce category and manufactures the iconic RAGÚ® and BERTOLLI® sauce brands. As head of U.S. and export sales, Amy focuses on driving customer and channel growth, while leading the sales’ organization to continuously look for opportunities to unlock shared value with business partners.  

Amy brings over 20 years of experience building winning sales organizations in the consumer-packaged-goods industry. Before joining Mizkan America, Amy held sales and commercial leadership roles at Kraft Foods, Catalina Marketing, Conagra and TreeHouse Foods. She is also an active member of NextUp/Network Of Executive Women. 

Her career has spanned the CPG industry, growing both billion-dollar brands and private-label offerings, working in true partnership with world-class retailers. Amy does her best work in fast-paced environments, always putting her team and partners first. 

In her free time, Amy is passionate about the culinary experience and bringing family meals to life. She is the proud mother of teenage triplets (fast paced, indeed!), finds adventure in travel and faced her fear of sharks with paddleboard yoga in Aruba. 

Like any great salesperson, Amy loves to network and encourages all conference participants to send her an invitation to connect on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amylukebusker/

Kyle Cook
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Loverboy

Kyle Cooke – entrepreneur and cast member of Bravo’s hit reality series Summer House & Winter House – is the founder of Loverboy, the premium beverage brand reinventing the traditional ready-to-drink category with high-quality, low calorie sparkling hard teas and canned cocktails. Since getting his MBA from Babson College, Cooke has founded a number of startups across industry sectors, all designed to complement a wellness-focused lifestyle, including Loverboy, which he founded in 2018. 

Sheryl Daija
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, BRIDGE

“Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization”
~Mahatma Gandhi

Sheryl Daija is a business, marketing and creative leader committed to tearing down the current structures that lead to inequities in the workplace and marketplace. She is purpose-driven, biased to action and fiercely focused on social justice to make the world a better place now and for future generations.

Sheryl recently launched BRIDGE, the first-ever independent DEI trade group for the global media, marketing & advertising industry. With an impressive board that brings together CDOs, CMOs & business leaders, BRIDGE’s mission is to move the narrative from DEI as a philosophy to inclusion as a business practice. Specifically, BRIDGE helps companies identify their own unique gaps in belonging, representation, inclusion, diversity and equity and helps them build the capabilities to bridge those gaps to drive systemic change.

Sheryl has held multiple executive industry positions that galvanize communities to build platforms and drive transformation. Prior to founding BRIDGE, she was the Chief Strategy Officer at the MMA where she created impactful programs to solidify mobile as integral to marketing and before that she was SVP/GM at the IAB which placed her at the forefront of innovation and development across the Interactive media industry.

Sheryl started her career in brand marketing and product management in the CPG and technology industries and held executive positions at Epilady, Fred Hayman, Kensington, CMGI and more. Sheryl is on the boards of Carry117 and Bright Future Athletes Foundation both dedicated to lifting up at-risk women and children. She is a passionate “soccer mom” and lives in San Diego’s North County with her teenage son and dog.

Craig Dubitsky
Friendly Founder, hello products & former Chief Innovation Strategist, Colgate-Palmolive 

Craig is the friendly founder of hello products and former Chief Innovation Strategist of Colgate-Palmolive.  hello, the world’s first naturally friendly™ oral care brand, was acquired by Colgate in January of 2020. hello became the fastest-growing oral care brand in the US, with products now available in over 45,000 food, drug, and mass retailers.  hello was named by Inc Magazine as one of the Best Places to Work, as well as “One of the 25 Companies That Are Changing the World”. Dubitsky himself was named to Advertising Age’s Creativity 50, the publication’s annual list of the most influential and innovative creative thinkers, and one of the 100 Most Inspirational Marketers in the World by The Internationalist.  
Prior to hello, Craig was a co-founder and creative lead at eos products, a founding board member at Method Products, and a strategic advisor to Seventh Generation, Boots, and various private equity funds.  
Craig is an inductee in the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO) Hall of Fame, an Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson, and serves as an Advisory Council Member at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship at The Simon School of Business at The University of Rochester. Craig loves people, design, brand, packaging and people. Yes, he said people twice. 

Jeremy Gutsche 
Chief Executive Officer, Trend Hunter

Everything is changing so quickly—how do we find the opportunity in the disruption we face every day? Jeremy Gutsche’s latest talk explores how we can take advantage of this unique moment, rising from the chaos to come back better than before. Since the release of his award-winning first book Exploiting Chaos, Jeremy has become a world-class expert on innovating through times of uncertainty. 

When he’s not touring the globe as a futurist and sought-after innovation speaker, Jeremy is the CEO of Trend Hunter—the world’s #1 largest trendspotting platform driven by artificial intelligence. Imagine the insight from a focus group made up of 100 million people—that’s Trend Hunter.  He’s been delivering AI workshops, advisory services, and 10,000 trend reports based on Trend Hunter’s AI platform for the better part of the past decade. Jeremy has been incorporating AI into his innovation since before almost anyone else, and he can show you how to do it too. 

With Jeremy at the helm, Trend Hunter has grown into a powerful innovation engine and global showcase for what’s next—attracting three billion views in the process. The site’s been featured or cited in over 40,000 articles, and Jeremy is routinely sourced by the media, where his broad appeal ranges from The Economist and CNN to WIRED and The New York Times. He has been described as “a new breed of trend spotter” by The Guardian, an “Oracle” by the Globe and Mail, an “intellectual can of Red Bull” by Association Week, and “the rockstar of keynote speakers” by Meetings Professional International. Jeremy’s latest book, Create the Future, features a foreword by Malcolm Gladwell, and won a 2021 Axiom Business Book Award in the category of business disruption and reinvention. In it, Jeremy teaches readers how to think disruptively and implement real change when we need it most. As exciting as it is actionable, the handbook features strategies that Jeremy has personally used in projects with the world’s most powerful brands, who have each relied on him to lead them through rapid change. As companies and leaders scramble to pivot their business in the wake of the pandemic, there is no timelier or more urgent read—nor a more trusted, sought-after guide: Jeremy’s talks regularly go viral, and his landmark innovation keynote has surpassed 10 million views—making it the most-watched in history. 

In his previous book, the New York Times bestseller Better and Faster, Jeremy reveals six patterns of opportunity that help smart people and teams lead through change, destroy complacency, and realize their potential. The book reached #1 on Amazon and was chosen as a CEO Read “Select” book for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and managers. Jeremy even used insights from the book to lead a workshop for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, helping them integrate AI, become “lean, agile, responsive, and adaptive to change”—and, one day, get human beings to Mars.  

Jeremy is the winner of The Cisco Innovation Excellence Award and the BDC’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Before founding Trend Hunter, he was one of Capital One’s youngest Business Directors, where he grew a billion dollar portfolio of market leading products at the age of 28. Previously, he was a Management Consultant for the Monitor Group, advising Fortune 500 clients on top level strategy. He holds an MBA from Queen’s, is a CFA, and studied innovation at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. 

Vincent Hann
Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder, Brother’s Bond Distilling Company, LLC 

About Vincent Hanna | Co-founder of Brother’s Bond Distilling Company, LLC. Vincent is a global entrepreneur in the wine and spirits segment for nearly 20 years. Having started as a strategic negotiator and supplier of millions of liters of bulk wine and spirits to brands all over the world which led him to where he is today. His exceptional expertise to find the right individuals that contribute diverse skills and talents provide a sense of wholeness and strength has made Brother’s Bond Bourbon a real success and a household name. He is a strong leader who inspires and builds an inclusive culture that brings out people’s strengths to build a cohesive and energized team. Business is people, and this is Vincent’s motto and one he believes in very strongly. 

Diane Letson
Vice President, Food Industry Partnerships, Feeding America

Diane has spent more than 25 years at Feeding America in various supply chain and product sourcing roles as well as a two-year opportunity serving the Feeding America network as a member engagement director responsible for food bank compliance. Her work has involved securing donations from manufacturers, co-packers, wholesalers, foodservice companies, and retailers for day-to-day network needs and operations as well as during disaster response. She co-directed a two-year project devoted to local product sourcing which led to the development of a food resources curriculum for the network. One of her favorite quotes is, “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.” 

In addition to being passionate about rescuing food and other grocery items to feed neighbors and strengthen communities, Diane is also invested in recycling, composting, collecting rainwater, honoring Meatless Mondays, baking bread, gardening, and ensuring her 12,000 steps a day are recorded. 

Diane received her BA in communications from Michigan State University, and a Master’s in sociology from DePaul University. She spent a summer as a Field Mom with Illinois Farm Families and is ServSafe certified. She resides on the north side of Chicago (Go Cubs!) with her husband, daughter, and an English Springer Spaniel. 

Cristina Marinucci
Global Head of Shopper Insights & Analytics, Mondelēz

Cristina currently leads Global Shopper Excellence for Mondelēz International with a focus on driving a more holistic view of omni shopper behavior and revenue growth management capabilities. She is focused on elevating the role of Shopper Insights in the Commercial organization and bolstering Mondelēz as a world-class Shopper organization. She is building Global Category Growth Territories, leading Best-in-class snacking mission research, evolving proprietary tools and frameworks to be inclusive of the omni shopper journey and driving new Digital Shopper organizational capabilities. Before this role, Cristina led eCommerce Insights and Analytics for Johnson & Johnson North America where she led all aspects of the NA eCommerce Analytics including pure play, DTC and omnichannel. She also previously led Shopper Insights and CRM analytics at J&J. Cristina’s contributions to J&J include development of an eCategory Leadership Model and a scalable diagnostic search optimization tool as well as championing groundbreaking Trip Mission research.  

Cristina specializes in developing actionable insights and leveraging advanced analytics to grow categories/brands across channels aligned to the category growth vision, providing thought leadership on new capability implementation and pioneering shopper and digital organizational transformations.  

Cristina has previously held roles in Brand Marketing, Category Management, and Shopper/Consumer Insights across many large FMCG companies including: PepsiCo, Pernod Ricard, Reckitt Benckiser, M&M Mars, and GlaxoSmithKline.  

Cristina is a frequent speaker at various industry events such as CMA, GroceryShop, Shoptalk and GDS.  

She holds a B.S. in Marketing and International Business from Manhattan College as well as an MBA from NYU Stern. 

Pamela Mittoo
Group Director, Technical Consumer Research, The Coca-Cola Company 

Pam leads Technical Consumer Research team at The Coca-Cola Company is an enthusiastic and innovative Sensory & Consumer Insight champion with a passion leveraging the voice of the consumer to drive growth. Pam drives excellence and delivers critical insights to enable innovation by elevating sensory & consumer science to the next level and integrating data science in the approach. 

Pam joined TCCC in 2006 and has over 25 years of consumer-packaged goods experience that includes Research & Development, Market Research and Brand Development in a range of categories: Food & Beverage (retail and Food Service), Personal Care, Child Care, Business-to-Business Marketing. 

Pam is an engineer by training but an artist at heart. She has Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Go Jackets!). In her spare time, she is an avid amateur ballroom dancer and formal national champion. She also loves true crime documentaries and has a passion for understanding the ‘why’ people do the things they do and say the things they say. 

Michael Movitz
Co-founder, Brandjectory

Michael Movitz is a 32-year natural products CPG industry veteran.  

Michael is the co-founder of Brandjectory, an innovative platform dedicated to connecting early-stage CPG founders with CPG investors, nurturing those relationships, and helping founders prepare for, and navigate, the capital raise process. Michael is also Managing Partner of The Movitz Group, an advisory group of industry experts helping early-stage conscious brands raise capital and build go-to-market strategies. 

Michael’s tenure over the last 32 years includes 7 years as an advisor and consultant to early-stage CPG founders, 16 years with SPINS in various senior level positions, sales for the natural products division of the JM Smucker Company, and a natural products broker. Michael began his career at an independent natural products retailer in 1990. 

Michael serves as an advisor to Rule Breaker Snacks, 12 Tides Seaweed Snacks, Just Date, and others. Michael is a selection committee member of the Nutrition Capital Network, a mentor to brands in the Emerge Network, an industry thought leader, and a proud member of Naturally Chicago, among other organizations supporting the industry.

Yashica Olde
Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Condé Nast
 
Yashica Olden has 25 years of experience as a global D&I leader, building people-focused workplaces and developing award-winning D&I practices in large organizations across a number of sectors including financial services, pharmaceutical, technology, advertising and humanitarian. 
Yashica currently serves as Condé Nast’s first Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer. She joined in October 2020 and is responsible for setting strategic D&I priorities, embedding D&I into all people processes and enabling the development of inclusive content across all brands, events and platforms globally. 

Prior to Condé Nast, she was Executive Director on WPP’s Global Culture team where she partnered with CEOs across the WPP brands to strengthen their inclusion strategies and support client teams. 
Yashica has paved the way for D&I leaders while serving as a ‘first’ in a variety of roles including the first global head of D&I at Sandoz, she focused on developing inclusive leaders and creating D&I marketing plans. 

As the first head of D&I for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), an agency that feeds 90 million people each year, Yashica created and implemented initiatives to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals for zero hunger, gender equality and reduced inequalities including a leadership program to expand the pipeline for women leaders. Yashica has also worked on D&I teams for Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse. 

Yashica is a change agent who works to align D&I practices to business strategies and integrate it into people and talent processes while leveraging differences to enrich culture and drive business growth. 

Whilst Yashica has had a truly global career having lived and worked outside of the US for more than 20 years in London, Munich, Rome and briefly in Khartoum, she proudly hails from Nashville, Tennessee.

Tony Pupillo
Senior Director, Food Industry Partnerships – Retail, Feeding America 

Tony has led retail food donation initiatives at Feeding America over the last 7 ½ years. He and his team support Feeding America’s largest and highest-growing donation stream, Retail. In 2022, the Retail Channel sourced over 2 billion pounds of food across a network of 200 partner food banks and thousands of agency partners. Currently, Tony is leading a multi-million-dollar strategic investment designed to maximize food donations across the retail sector, where billions of pounds of food can be recovered from the waste stream and donated to local community organizations. Tony says he is privileged to work where his passion for the food industry can help to promote, develop, and innovate around equitable and nutritious food access for hungry neighbors across the country. 

Tony received both his bachelor’s degree and M.B.A. at Roosevelt University located in Chicago, IL. He lives in the Chicagoland area with his wife, 4th-grade son, and kindergartener daughter. 

Erik Qualman
5x Bestselling Author and former sitting professor, Harvard & MIT’s edX labs

#1 Best Selling Author and Keynote Speaker Erik Qualman has performed in 55 countries and reached 50 million people. His Socialnomics work has been on 60 Minutes to the Wall Street Journal and used by the National Guard to NASA. His book Digital Leader propelled him to be voted the 2nd Most Likeable Author in the World behind Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling. What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube helped Qualman be listed by Forbes and Fortune as a Top 100 Digital Influencer. His business books are used in over 200 universities and he has received an honorary doctorate for his groundbreaking work. His latest book, The Focus Project, is a guide to pursuing less in order to achieve more. Qualman was formerly a sitting professor at Harvard & MIT’s edX labs. 

Brad Schultz 
Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer, BeatBox Beverages

Brad Schultz is a Co-Founder and CMO at Future/Proof, creators of BeatBox Beverages – the World’s Tastiest Portable Party Punch one of the best-selling US RTD cocktails. Future/Proof, recently awarded one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 Fast-Growing Privately Owned Companies in America, is a disruptor in the beverage alcohol market that provides innovative solutions that drive incremental profit in high-growth categories. 
He got his start in the entertainment industry working for a Comcast-backed kid’s entertainment company called Kabillion.  He later helped launch new original shows on popular networks like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.  Brad graduated from the University of Pacific with a degree in marketing and was a division 1 baseball player. 

Brad is always up for a challenge, and he brings that same intensity to his work at BeatBox. 

Laura Schwartz 
Professional Emcee and Keynote Speaker, Author of Eat, Drink & Succeed and Television Commentator

Named one of The 100 Most Influential People in the Global Event Industry in 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019 and one of the top 7 speakers in the United States, Laura Schwartz has been a Professional Emcee and Keynote Speaker since 2001. Laura began her professional career in 1993 as the youngest female presidential appointee in history serving as the White House Director of Events for the Clinton Administration. After which, in addition to speaking, published her first book “Eat, Drink and Succeed” and currently appears on television as the American contributor on Australia’s #1 Today Show. Laura has been featured by and is a published writer in Fast Company, Elle Magazine, Marie Claire and other periodicals. In 2021, along with her cast from ITV News, was awarded the International Drum Award for Podcast of the Year.  

Laura and her wife reside in Chicago where they are involved in civic and philanthropic endeavors with the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab and the Economic Club of Chicago. Globally, Laura serves as an active board member of the Clean the World Foundation, the United Nation’s WASH Cluster and the American Heart Association. For more information, please visit www.LauraSchwartzLive.com. 

Daniel Silva 

Strategic Initiatives Sales Executive, Google Cloud 

Daniel started his career as a startup founder in the beverage space in Brazil. After founding, building and selling a bottled water business that scaled to be a top 10 player in its industry, he attended Stanford Business School where he focused his MBA on the intersection of marketing and technology transformation.   After Stanford, he joined ABInbev where he worked on their media practice and advanced consumer connections office in Palo Alto – aptly named the Beer Garage. He was a founding member of ABInbev’s disruptive growth organization – ZX Ventures – from which the company drew a lot of its growth in the past decade. There they created a billion USD corporate spin off from scratch by focusing on consumer driven trends impacting the beverage industry such as ecomm, experiential marketing, digital and innovative brands that complemented the portfolio.  After managing media and the growth brands within ABInbev, he joined Google Cloud during the pandemic to once again be at the forefront of marketing and technology. At Google Cloud, his team worked with large retail and consumer goods companies on their transformation journeys. They work with IT and businesses to drive a clear understanding of the problem and scalable solutions that actually drive business results. 

Ian Somerhalde
Co-founder & Brand Guardian, Brother’s Bond Distilling Company, LLC 

Co-founder and Brand Guardian, Brother’s Bond Distilling Company, LLC, Ian Somerhalder is an American actor, producer, director entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is best known for playing lead roles “Boone Carlyle” in the TV drama Lost and “Damon Salvatore” in the supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries. In addition to being the founder, and president of the Ian Somerhalder foundation, Ian’s latest film as an Executive Producer is the environmental documentary KISS THE GROUND that can be seen on Netflix. The film shows how regenerative farming can restore healthy soil to our farmlands and balance our climate by sequestering carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. 

Brian Van Cleave 
Vice President, Commercial Strategy & Operations, Bayer

Brian Van Cleave is the Vice President, Commercial Strategy & Operations, for Bayer Consumer Health, North America, and a member of the Sales Leadership Team. In this role, Brian is responsible for aligning strategy between Sales and Marketing to ensure top tier business results for the Consumer Health Division. 

Bayer Consumer Health, North America, headquartered in Whippany, New Jersey, is among the largest marketers of over-the-counter (OTC) medications in the world. Bayer’s current portfolio of OTC products includes some of the most trusted and recognizable brands in the world, such as Bayer Aspirin, Afrin, Aleve, Alka-Seltzer, Claritin, Lotrimin, Midol, MiraLAX, One-A-Day, and Phillips’.  

Brian joined Bayer in 2003 and progressed through various sales roles across all classes of trade in Category Management, Account Management, Customer Development and Customer Marketing before being named the Director of Sales for the Value, Specialty & Emerging Channels in 2015. From 2015 – 2020, Brian led sales teams across the Value, Club, E-commerce, Drug and Specialty Channels until his promotion to Vice President, Commercial Strategy & Operations in January 2021. Brian has an impressive track-record of bringing together both his cross-functional and cross-channel backgrounds to negotiate and maximize growth opportunities for both Bayer and its customers. In September 2022, the Consumer Health Sales Commercial Strategy and Operations teams were combined into one internal commercial organization that better connects Strategy to Operational functions under Brian. He began his career with General Mills on the Walmart Team in Bentonville, AR.  

Brian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Corporate Communications, Business Concentration from the University of Texas at Austin, graduating Magna cum laude. He currently resides in Prosper, Texas with his wife, Christina, and their three sons. 

Alyssa Vescio
Senior Vice President of Merchandising, Center Store, Whole Foods

As the Senior Vice President of Merchandising, Center Store, Alyssa has responsibility for Grocery, Wellness, Beauty, Local Merchandising, Merchandise Presentation, and Merchandise Execution. Alyssa celebrates what makes Whole Foods Market so special — unique products, industry leading quality standards, incredible supplier partners, and talented team members — and pushes our growth by continuing to advance our Merchandising capabilities and deliver operationally-sound programs. 

Alyssa is known as an all-in, purpose drive leader who values authenticity, connectivity, and collective strength. She aims to create a culture that inspires individuals to be their best in service of the greater good. 

Alyssa became SVP in November of 2020, after 3 years leading Wellness and Beauty and almost 20 years in Merchandising. Her experience spans product categories and merchandising disciplines including product selection, supplier partnership, promotional planning, pricing, presentation, and exclusive brands. Her passions for purpose, people, and product drive her forward in this role. 

Sandra Villarreal
Senior Vice President, Consumer Functions, L’Oreal

Sandra joined L’Oreal in 2007 in Mexico City as a Marketing Pepiniere for CPD where she held roles of increasing responsibility across Skincare and Cosmetics. Having develop a robust expertise on both categories and on the Mexican market, Sandra became the Head of Marketing for all CPD Cosmetics brands in Mexico L’Oreal Paris, Maybelline, Vogue and NYX where she successfully accelerated market share gain of legacy brands, established a new business model focused on deep trade for Vogue Cosmetics and initiated the Direct-to-Consumer plan for the launch of NYX in Mexico.  

After this successful experience, Sandra began her international career and joined the Latin American Zone based in Paris where she expanded her category expertise on Haircare and Haircolor.  

During her time on this role, Sandra led the regional product development and marketing strategies of several L’Oreal Paris initiatives such as Elvive Kera-Liso, specifically developed for Latin hair achieving record double digit growth for Elvive across the region. Furthermore, Sandra leveraged her skin expertise to develop Hydra-Total 5, which gain new consumers Skincare in LATAM and remains part of the portfolio.   

In 2015, Sandra joined L’Oreal USA to lead Garnier Fructis Haircare in the Operational Marketing Team with the task to relaunch Fructis and establish a new brand strategy that took Fructis back to growth. 

During those three years, Sandra fully immersed herself into the US and became passionate of the American consumer, the Retail market and a richer, more diverse culture. Today, the US  has become her home country.  

During the past five years, Sandra has been part of the L’Oreal Paris US Operational Marketing team, first as Vice-President of Haircolor where she led the category to accelerated growth and a stellar performance during the Covid pandemic with the launch of personalized services.  

Most recently, Sandra has served as Vice-President of L’Oreal Paris Skincare. During her tenure, Sandra and the team, in partnership with the DMI, have turned the Skincare business around to regain consumer relevancy, modernized & customized the marketing mix, and developed a more consumer centric innovation plan for the years to come.  
Beyond her international cross-category expertise, marketing & business acumen, and proven ability to take on new challenges.  Sandra’s outstanding resilience, drive, leadership, collaborative spirit and commitment to people development have made her a key contributor to the success of L’Oreal Paris. 

Leslie Waller
VP Marketing Innovation & Enterprise Marketing Excellence, Campbell Soup Company 

Leslie Waller was named Vice President of Marketing Innovation & Enterprise Marketing Excellence, in November 2022. 

She holds the strategic responsibility for building and executing Campbell Soup Company’s multi-year innovation pipeline. In her Enterprise Marketing Excellence capacity, Leslie will create a framework to elevate and codify Marketing capabilities across the enterprise. 

Leslie joined Campbell in 2018 as Vice President of Marketing, Chips, Nuts, and Popcorn categories and later Vice President of Marketing for the Beverages division. 

Previously, she led global snacking brands at Kraft/Mondelēz, in roles including Global Head of Trident Gum, where she was responsible for brand strategy, communications, and breakthrough innovation in more than 70 countries. She also served as Asia Pacific Category Marketing Director, North American Confectionary Communications Lead, and marketing roles on some of the world’s most best-known brands including Chips Ahoy!, Ritz, Planters, Wheat Thins, and Triscuit.  

Before that, Leslie developed marketing strategies at Ford Motor Company, leading Ford and Lincoln Mercury advertising across several southern states. Additionally, through her own marketing and strategy consultancy firm, Fire Opal Communications. 

In 2023 she was recognized as one of Diversity Woman Magazine in their ‘ELITE 100’ ISSUE, honoring extraordinary black women leaders changing the face of Corporate America. In 2021, she was honored as one of the Network Journal’s 25 Influential Black Women in Business. She is a Board of Director for BRIDGE, a DEI organization, and a U.S. Small Business Administration mentor with SCORE Philadelphia.  
Leslie earned both her B.S. degree in business administration and her M.B.A. degree from Florida A&M University. 

Paul Wesley
Co-founder, Brother’s Bond Distilling Company, LLC

About Paul Wesley | Co-founder of Brother’s Bond Distilling Company, LLC, Paul Wesley is an actor, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his leading role in the worldwide hit supernatural series ‘The Vampire Diaries’ as well as the iconic role of ‘James T. Kirk’ in the Paramount Plus series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Throughout his career, Paul has been in dozens of films and TV series both in front of and behind the camera. 

Additionally, he has a score of projects in development at various networks and studios through his production company Citizen Media including the upcoming series ‘Confessions’ which he stars in and executive produces.

David Zucker
Chief Marketing Officer & Senior Vice President, Ecommerce, Perdue Farms

David Zucker, Chief Marketing Officer & SVP Ecommerce joined Perdue in January 2019 to develop and oversee all aspects of Perdue’s ecommerce strategy.  

David has more than 25 years of general management, e-commerce, marketing, branding merchandising, product development, analytics and call center management experience. He was most recently General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer of Omaha Steaks International, a multi-channel retailer of premium single and multi-ingredient food. Prior to joining Omaha Steaks, Zucker was CMO for both Vitacost.com, a public online retailer of vitamin, nutritional supplements and shelf stable foods, and Gilt Groupe, an online flash sale retailer of high-end fashion for women, men, children and home products. He has also held progressively more senior roles at Dell Inc., the Home Shopping Network (HSN), Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Priceline.com.  Concurrently to several of these roles David taught at Rutgers University and the University of South Florida courses on basic and advanced economic theory, pricing, environmental economics and statistics. 

David holds a doctorate in environmental economics from the University of Rhode Island, and a master’s degree in applied economics and a bachelor’s degree in biology both from West Virginia University. 

Jim Peck 
Chief Executive Officer 

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James ‘Jim’ Peck, currently serves as the Executive Chairman and CEO of NIQ. Jim, in partnership with Advent International, acquired the business from Nielsen in March 2021.  

Previously, Jim served as the CEO of TransUnion. He joined TransUnion in 2012 when it was owned by Advent International and Goldman Sachs. As CEO, he led the company’s transformation into a market leader in innovation, driven by organic growth programs, tech re-platforming and strategic transactions. Prior to TransUnion, Jim oversaw growth at LexisNexis, spearheading the $4 billion acquisition and integration of ChoicePoint into LexisNexis and the acquisition of Seisint while serving as CEO of Risk Solutions from 2004 to 2012. Jim also served as SVP and Chief Product Officer of LexisNexis from 2001 to 2004.  
Jim serves on the Board of Directors of CCC Information Services, an Advent portfolio company, Neoway, and Combate A Fraude. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton and an M.B.A. from The Ohio State University. Additionally, Jim received a CERT Certificate in Cybersecurity Oversight, issued by the CERT Division of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. 

Elizabeth Buchanan
Managing Director – Customer Success and Global Platform Transformation

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Liz Buchanan is the Managing Director of Customer Success and also leads Global Platform Transformation for NIQ. In these roles, she oversees NIQ’s customer-facing servicing teams as well as the roll-out of the NIQ self-serve analytics platform, Connect, to over 8,000 customers across 85 countries.  

During her 15 years at Nielsen, Liz has held various leadership roles in customer success, sales, product development and technology deployment. She has worked extensively across the U.S. and global markets. She has specific expertise in data governance and stewardship, data management processes, technologies and analytics. She regularly consults with customers to help them achieve their transformation goals in this rapidly evolving space.  
Liz currently serves as an Executive Sponsor for the NIQ Women in Nielsen (WIN) employee resource group. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Chicago chapter of Cradles to Crayons, a non-profit organization focused on providing essentials to children facing clothing insecurity. She is also an active champion for civic causes, regularly dedicating her time advocating for diverse political representation through fundraising, organizing and policy work on local and national political campaigns. Liz is a member of the Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC) Signature Fellows Program Class of 2022. She resides in Chicago.

Jamie Clarke
North America Retail Head 

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Jamie Clarke is North America Head of Retail and leads all of NIQ’s North American retailer engagements and the strategic growth of the retail business. 

Prior to joining NIQ, Jamie led retail partnerships for Quotient Technology and was responsible for 20+ retailer partnerships covering both retail media, digital coupons and data management and developing new retailer partnerships across the grocery, dollar, drug, club, auto, and other retail verticals. 

Earlier in his career, Jamie held a number of roles in merchandising, pricing strategy, strategic development and loyalty strategy in Australia and the U.S., with PwC, Coles Supermarkets, Coles Loyalty and Financial Services and Southeastern Grocers. Jamie’s vast experience in retail and as a senior merchant brings with it the ability to think like the retailer and understand their priorities. 

Kim Cox
Managing Director, US Lrg & Med Clients

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Andrew Criezis 
SVP and General Manager, NIQ Global SMB 

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Andrew Criezis is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of NIQ global SMB business. He is a subject matter expert in CPG, go-to-market strategy (GTM), retail and brand analytics, emerging brands, and revenue generation. Andrew spent 10 years at NIQ in senior leadership roles including SVP of Global Sales Operations and Sales Enablement before helping launch Byzzer, an award-winning CPG data and analytics platform, as its Chief Product Officer in 2020. His long and varied experience qualifies Andrew to speak authoritatively on topics ranging from global product and integrated marketing to sales enablement to retail industry forecasting.   

Marta Cyhan-Bowles
Head of Marketing, North America

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Jeanne Danubio 
President, North America 

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Jeanne Danubio is President of North America and Global Clients and works to bring to life the next generation of global consumer measurement through NIQ’s unrivaled solutions that provide CPG manufacturers and retailers with a comprehensive understanding of consumption behavior to enable them to make smarter, faster, precision decisions. In her 30+ year career at Nielsen (now NIQ), Jeanne has led the North American business, the marketing and sales effectiveness practices for developed markets, the Nielsen Canada business, Consumer Insights North America, Global Shopper Analytics and the Global Consumer Intelligence business.  

Kris Ewing
Chief Product Officer

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Kristofer Ewing is the Chief Product Officer at NIQ. In this role, Kris is responsible for understanding market demands, technology trends, and the competitive field, overseeing all aspects of NIQ suite of products life cycle management that meet market and customers’ requirements and facilitate rapid development and implementation of new products and enhancements. 

With more than 17 years of experience in the analytics and consumer packaged goods industries, Kris has held various senior leadership positions in both Nielsen and NIQ, including Vice President of Global Advanced Analytics, Global Account Lead for top manufacturers such as Kimberly Clark, Mondelez and Kraft Foods and most recently leading the commercial strategy for NIQ’s North America Business. 

Kris graduated Cum Laude from Miami University and holds an MBA with distinction from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. 

Sherry Frey
VP, Total Wellness

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Sherry Frey brings more than two decades of industry experience to her role as VP of Total Wellness at NielsenIQ. With a background in market research, innovation and consulting, she has elevated clients across the fresh, CPG and wellness industries, providing forward-thinking insights, combined with practical strategies. In addition to leading NielsenIQ’s Total Wellness team and industry engagement, Frey has been a featured speaker at many national and international industry events, and is often sought as a media and analyst resource on topics related to consumer health, wellness and environmental issues. Her view of health and wellness spans beyond personal health and wellness, encompassing how we collectively think about the health of the planet. 

Ben Macedo
Senior Vice President, BASES

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Ben Macedo, Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer of NIQ BASES, has been consulting on new product innovation with both Fortune 500 companies and start-ups for over 20 years. His areas of expertise include identifying “white space” opportunities, ideation, sales forecasting, and honing launch activation with pack design and other marketing levers. In his tenure with BASES, Ben has seen thousands of new product ideas and launches and is adept at understanding the factors that differentiate the winners from the rest of the pack.

Tracey Massey 
Chief Operating Officer

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 Tracey Massey currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of NIQ. As COO, Tracey is responsible for all commercial and product aspects, including revenue, product development plans, business units’ strategies, and all market-facing aspects of NIQ.  
 
Tracey is an accomplished global executive with over 30 years of experience and a successful track record in enhancing and expanding global businesses. Her philosophy of winning with clearly articulated strategies coupled with the infusion of trust and resources allows Tracey to empower people and nurture highly engaged teams.  
 
Prior to joining NIQ, Tracey served as Global President and Chief Executive Officer of Mars Pet Nutrition, where she led the world’s largest pet food business, revamping its product portfolios for continuous growth. Prior to that role, she was Regional President Mars Confectionary Americas, where she successfully led her team through the integration of Mars Chocolate Americas with the Wrigley Co. Americas.  
 
Tracey has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University in England, and is a published thought-leader and speaker on topics such as women’s success in STEM and embracing the power of diversity. 

Laura McCullough
Managing Director, Global G13 Clients

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Marsha McGraw
Managing Director, Specialty Sales 

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Chris Sinclair
Global Head, Sensory Testing, BASES

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