FOOD'NBEV - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Managing Director / Pondview Consulting, LLC
Anna has over 25 years of experience in CPG supply chain management and improvement, working with small and large brands in the CPG space including health and beauty, food and beverage, and personal care spaces. Anna was at Unilever for over 20 years where she spent time working on ice cream, spread and sauce brands before serving as VP of Supply Chain and Procurement for Arcade Beauty, then forming Pondview Consulting. She has extensive supply chain and business process improvement experience and helps brands maximize profits by solving supply chain and ingredient issues and solving tough capacity and operations issues.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / Boulder Food Group
- Vice President of Boulder Food Group
Ben is a Vice President of Boulder Food Group (BFG) and is a food & beverage guru. He currently represents BFG on the Boards at MALK, Quinn Snacks and OHi Food Company. His background includes stints in investment areas at The Yucaipa Companies, Hutchin Hill Capital and Oak Hill Advisors. He began his career in investment banking at UBS focusing on mergers and acquisitions. He is involved with the Naturally Boulder initiative in Colorado and is an active, competitive triathlete.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner / Fairfield Partners Executive Search
Brian co-founded Fairfield Partners in June 2008 after spending 20 years in the software and technology space as SVP of Sales and a GM for Transcentive, the leading provider of performance-based compensation solutions. He has also been an executive with Hyperion in the sales area, where he had domestic and international responsibilities. He has worked with many growth firms helping to envision and staff their leadership teams and has focused on food & beverage as a major area for Fairfield Partners.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder & Chief Idea Guy / Growth Engine Innovation Agency
Bryan specializes in ideation and innovation process, front-end marketing research, branding, creating and developing new products and services, and innovation strategic planning. He is co-founder and "Chief Idea Guy" of the Growth Engine Company, a sixteen-year-old innovation agency based in Norwalk, Connecticut. Prior to cofounding Growth Engine, he was president of the Mattimore Group, a twenty-year-old ideation facilitation and creativity consulting company. Bryan is a well-known Fairfield County based expert on ideation and innovation. He has written a number of books on this important subject and has led over 100 successful innovation projects in a wide variety of food and beverage categories.
Job Titles:
- CEO / Rebel Interactive Group
Job Titles:
- CEO / GoldnFish Marketing Group, LLC
Caren has been a marketing and promotions expert for over 30 years, having started her career at General Foods prior to turning to the agency side. She has led several agencies, including Clarion Marketing and Fresh Perspectives, and has worked with a large number of established brands. Over the past several years, GNF Marketing has specialized in helping young beverage and spirits brands and other simple ingredient consumer brands launch and expand. GNF focuses on assessing the marketing challenges for a brand, applying their deep talent and creativity, to uncover innovative solutions that meet the client need. GNF is a full service, fully integrated agency that can help with branding, promotion, digital and distribution issues and programs.
Chris has held numerous positions in the grocery and media industries, providing experience in consumer and trade marketing, promotions and media. He founded Streetmarc in 2005 to focus on food advertising, supermarket retail and a niche in commodity associations (such as USDA). Streetmarc has strengths in in-store POS< sales promotion programs, shopper marketing, digital, website development and social media marketing. Through various strategies and tactics, Chris and his team focus on connecting brands to customers across the complex spectrum of channels and media.
Cindy is an industry expert in paper and plastic packaging and works as a consultant to a number of growth firms and established brands on their packaging needs. She has been heavily involved in product development and concepts and works extensively with packaging and materials, as well as design across the consumer and food service channels.
Job Titles:
- Principal / C & S Advisors, LLC
Conrad specializes in product strategy, innovation and commercialization. He is currently a principal at C&S Advisors, LLC, an advisory firm committed to enabling food and beverage companies identify and commercialize novel products with speed and agility. Prior to his current role, Conrad led the design, development, and commercialization of multiple products and technologies at Campbell's, Pepperidge Farm, and PepsiCo. He orchestrated efficiency enhancing business processes that drove tighter synchronization among cross-disciplinary teams. Conrad has also helped framed global product roadmaps, resource allocation, and roll-out strategies that maximized the impact of research and innovation portfolios.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner / Boulder Food Group
- Managing Partner of Boulder Food Group
Dayton is Managing Partner of Boulder Food Group and currently represents the firm on the Boards of Barnana, Cauliower, Fourth and Heart and MALK Organics. Prior to his investment career, Dayton was CEO of Function Drinks, a venture-backed health and wellness company, which he co-founded and built from idea conception to $ 20 million in annual retail sales before it being acquired by Sunsweet. He has also served as an executive in Strategic Planning at The Walt Disney Company and was an analyst prior to that in investment banking, after starting his career as a management consultant with Bain & Co.
Don Zinn serves as Senior Vice President - Executive Search at StevenDouglas, based out of the firm's Westchester County (NY) office. He is a member of the firm's Operations (Sales & Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance and HR) practice, and is focused on middle market and fast-growing early stage companies where his prior operating experience can add significant value. A CEO and entrepreneur with over 30 years of leadership, sales, management and hiring experience, Don is focused on helping organizations grow through people-focused management.
Job Titles:
- Founder / LD Communications, LLC
Liz is an accomplished PR professional with extensive experience across the food, beverage and wellness industries. She has worked with clients of every type and size, gaining each one success and additional exposure for their brand, products and team members. She has specific experience tying and integrating PR into the overall marketing plan to reduce overall spend while adding effectiveness and expanding reach.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Managing Director - Food'NBev Connect / President - PCF Consulting Group
Gary has been an advisor to many emerging growth firms in Connecticut over the past five years through his involvement with the state's CT Next initiative. He is a "growth guy" and enjoys working with young companies on strategy, marketing, digital and business development efforts. He has helped CT based companies raise over $ 50 million in new debt and equity capital and worked hard to raise the visibility of the CT entrepreneurial ecosystem. Gary also works with The Business Council of Fairfield County and leads the statewide CT Supplier Connection program that links small and diverse firms with large procurement buyers. As a consultant, he leads PCF Consulting Group and focuses on helping many retail and B2B clients with the omni-channel and marketing strategy efforts. Prior to starting PCF Consulting in 2004, Gary served as an executive at various firms including Prudential Financial, NatWest Banks, Aon, Daffy's and AT&T.
Job Titles:
- President
- General Manager and Innovation Growth Executive
Katherine Skinner is a general manager and innovation growth executive with over 20 years in the global consumer industry, with a unique combination of leadership experience drawn from CPG, Strategic Consulting, and Data Technology. Katherine knows how to accelerate innovation to meet emerging consumer, portfolio, go-to-market and business transformation needs. She is a forward thinker with a GM mindset and the expertise to leverage and build data technology capabilities who has led marketing, commercial and transformation strategies that drove growth for leading companies such as PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Moet Hennessy, Coca-Cola Company, Nestle, Kimberly-Clark, Wendy's, Walgreens, Playtex and IRI. She holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Steven Institute of Technology and a Master's in Business Administration from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Katherine and her family reside in Westport, CT.
Katie is a passionate, creative communications expert with nearly 20 years of experience in the food and beverage, travel, hospitality and entertainment industries. Katie's strategic campaigns have garnered targeted results and award-winning media coverage for her clients. She has experience with start-ups, established brands, small agencies and major corporations. Her primary focus is public relations, focused on brand building, and integrated with other social and promotional marketing campaigns.
Job Titles:
- President, Peiser Marketing LLC
Mark has expertise in packaged goods consumer insights having worked at General Mills and Georgia Pacific in research roles. Mark led the consumer insights department at News America Marketing, a leading provider of consumer promotion and advertising services to consumer packaged goods and other national advertisers. His category experience includes foods and household products. Mark has worked with a wide range of research techniques including segmentation and market structure, concept and product testing, ad testing and controlled store testing. Mark also has extensive experience with both primary research and syndicated data sources (IRI, Nielsen, others). Mark holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and an SB from the University of Chicago in Statistics.
Matt has helped lead Revelry Group in developing and executing outcome driven marketing communications campaigns for a variety of brands and companies, including S. Pellegrino, Hershey Foodservice, French's, Starwood, Tyson, Burger King and many others. Before co-founding Revelry, he helped establish the NY office of Lewis and Partners, where he focused on creating strategic and innovative marketing initiatives. He also opened the NYC office of Strategic Foodservice Partners where his work won many awards. Matt's experience with marketing communications and branding, across foodservice, grocery and brand direct efforts is highly valuable to clients working to scale in these areas.
Job Titles:
- Director, Center for Food Equity & Economic Development
Michelle leads a non-profit based in Bridgeport, CT that focuses on training workers for careers in the food and beverage industries, while also providing use of a shared commercial kitchen where entrepreneurs can test their recipes and undertake initial production of new to market products. She has worked with Food'NBev Connect since mid-2019 and collaborates on curriculum development and delivery for start-up brand members.
Mike is a serial entrepreneur with three successful exits in the technology space. For seven years, he's served as Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Danbury Hackerspace @ The Innovation Center on Main Street. Mike has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, craftspeople, artists, and inventors to help them realize their vision. The Hackerspace has a wood shop, CNC router, two industrial lasers, and a wide variety of 3D printers. Mike is also the co-founder and CIO of ReadyElement, a startup cloud-computing consulting company that enables companies to build web and mobile applications on the Amazon AWS platform.
Nancy has worked with major brands in the food industry for over 20 years. She has supported brands by developing processes to ensure product consistency across large chains, both domestically and globally. She specializes in helping emerging brands with formulation issues, ingredient selection and helping to engage manufacturers in meeting specifications.
Job Titles:
- Certified Public Accountant and a Partner
- Partner, Marcum LLP
Randy Harrison is a Certified Public Accountant and a partner in Marcum LLP's Tax & Business Services group where he serves as the New England Regional Food & Beverage Industry Group Leader. Prior to his career at Marcum, Mr. Harrison was a partner in Meyers Harrison & Pia LLC. Mr. Harrison has more than 30 years of diverse tax, financial, and business consulting experience. He assists small to medium-sized food and beverage businesses (as well as other industries) with managing all aspects of their operations, including growth, succession, cash flow, information technology, and taxation matters. He also focuses his practice on high net worth individual income taxation.
Randy earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University. He is currently based in New Haven, CT and serves as an officer of The Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. He lives in Woodbridge, Connecticut with his wife, Bonnie, and his three sons.
Job Titles:
- Director of Fulfillment Services
Robyn has over 10 years of management experience in the B2B food service and hospitality industries. She is experienced in marketing strategy and execution across a wide variety of media platforms, and is a producer of engaging content. She has developed exceptional marketing collateral and direct response programs for print and digital media, and truly knows how to gain traction in the food service industry in particular.
Job Titles:
- General Manager - Crowne Plaza Stamford / Investor Panel
Job Titles:
- Founder / Playbook Coaching, LLC
Job Titles:
- Partner, Food & Beverage Practice Group / Robinson
Stephen is chair of Robinson + Cole's Emerging Companies and Venture Capital team. He also leads the firm's Food, Beverage and Consumer Products industry group. He represents clients in all aspects of corporate and transactional law, including venture capital and private equity financings, debt financings, recapitalizations, M&A, and other corporate matters. Stephen is actively involved in the Connecticut Innovation ecosystem and has an extensive network of entrepreneurs, executives, investors and professional service firms to help provide meaningful and focused advice to food & beverage clients.
Ted Miller - Founder, President
Ted is best known for his work helping small and mid-market businesses scale and grow. His passion in this area led him to found DataKey Consulting, where he and his colleagues focus on five key valuation areas: Growth, Superb Leadership, Building Scalable Business Processes, Profitability, and ensuring Product Uniqueness. Ted credits the company's bold and strategic thinking along with precise execution for its 500+ engagements and a 90% client re-engagement rate. Prior to founding Datakey, Ted held Executive positions at international high tech firms Axcelis and Teradyne, where he held instrumental roles in accelerating growth, strategic planning, and building world-class customer service. Ted holds multiple degrees from Tufts University, Boston University School of Management, and a management program affiliated with MIT Sloan. Ted is a Board member of Business Council of Westchester and sits on the Board of Trustees for The College of Westchester Charitable Foundation.
Job Titles:
- President & CEO Americas
- President & CEO, Americas, Upfield
Tim Brown, President & CEO, Americas, Upfield, oversees Upfield's business in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and joins the company as it seeks to expand its leadership in delicious, all-natural plant-based nutrition products that are good for you and better for the planet. Tim reports to David Haines, Group Chief Executive Officer, Upfield BV, and is a member of the Upfield Executive Committee.
Prior to joining Upfield Tim served as President and Chief Operating Officer with Chobani. He brings more than 30 years of experience in the food business. Prior to Chobani, Brown had a long career at Nestle as CEO of the North American water business and before that as CEO of all Canada operations. Brown and his team, pioneered the bottle water business, creating a portfolio of brands that became the recognized market leaders. Brown started his career at Proctor & Gamble. He has also been on the board of directors for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Grocery Foundation of Canada, Food Marketing Institute and the Food and Consumer Products of Canada.
Tim serves on the boards of the Connecticut Council for Education Reform (CCER), The Business Council of Fairfield County, the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI).