University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business

University of Pittsburgh

Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University

Vice President of Marketing - Pet Division at The J.M. Smucker Company

Boulder, Colorado, United States

Head of Marketing for a $3.5B Pet Portfolio. Responsible for creating strategy, driving net sales and profit growth, and managing full P&L. Growth goals across business built on a strategic road map of innovation, customer partnerships, and breakthrough marketing communication on portfolio of iconic Brands such as Meow Mix, Nutrish, Nature’s Recipe, Milk-Bone, Kibbles N Bits and Pup-Peroni.

The J.M. Smucker Co.

Vice President of Marketing- Pet

Responsible for leading all innovation efforts on an +$8B portfolio of iconic consumer brands such as Folgers, Dunkin Donuts, JIF, and Milk-Bone as well as emerging brands such as Sahale Snacks, Cafe Bustelo, and Nature's Recipe. Over 2 years our team collaboratively built from the ground up an innovation capability that is now a sustaining enterprise muscle with a pipeline value of $2.3B.

Vice President of Innovation

Vice President of Marketing and Growth for the Pet Specialty Division responsible for driving growth on a portfolio of Pet brands traded in the Pet Specialty channel. Led a large portfolio of brands including Natural Balance and Nature's Recipe. Team of 29 employees including Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Innovation, Customer Care, and external product development.

Big Heart Pet Brands

Vice President of Marketing and Growth

Built and managed the Pet Specialty Division Innovation Team. Created the enterprise Fast to Market new products capability leveraging industry benchmarks as well as learning from technology lean start-ups. The custom team was designed to increase innovation strength to effectively compete with smaller, more nimble brands and improve the Pet Specialty portfolio’s ability to outpace channel growth.

Director of Innovation - Pet Specialty

Managed the Campbell Arnotts Beverage Portfolio in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Led a team tasked with driving growth of global brands in local markets with secondary objective of establishing global trademark equities and best practices. Relaunched the beverage portfolio using market specific positioning, new packaging structure & design, new products and consumer communication.

Campbell Arnotts

Brand Director- Beverages in Australia, New Zealand

Designed and executed a V8 V-Fusion growth strategy based on the three pillars of flavor renovation, channel expansion, and adjacent product benefit migration. Led portfolio advertising, launched 3 new product platforms, and double digit EBIT growth through increased investment ROI, new revenue management strategy, and SKU optimization.

Campbell Soup Company

Senior Brand Manager - V8 V-Fusion

First employee hired to assist in building a dedicated enterprise innovation capability. Built and managed the innovation team for the $900MM V8 beverage business. Transformed innovation from low priority, brand specific effort to a consolidated discipline based on strategic framework and internal skill set development.

Ryan Thomas