More than 100 brand and retailer executives are represented in this year’s list of noteworthy merchandising professionals who are developing in-store solutions that stand up to the challenges of today’s dynamic retail environment.
A
Ace Hardware
Lorne Cohen
Chief Retail Advisor – Ace Global Solutions
Cohen partners with Ace International retailers around the globe to identify, analyze and implement business-building solutions to improve the retail model. Key areas of focus include assortment optimization, retail pricing strategies, inventory best practices and e-commerce development.
ACH Food Cos.
Theodore Kulas
National Retail Execution
Kulas has experience in U.S. domestic and international CPG sales, brand marketing and trade strategy, with a shopper conversion focus. He is driven by the opportunity to contribute to ACH’s cross-functional “Perfect Store,” which aims to benefit shoppers, retailers and the company’s shareholders.
Paul Rearick
Research Development Packaging Engineer
Adidas
Matt Kelly
North America Director of Marketing Procurement
Kelly ensures that the company has the right marketing supplier partners at the right time for the right price. This contributes toward the goal of having Adidas seen as the premium athletic apparel company in the U.S. and Canada.
Ahold Delhaize
The Giant Co.
Steve Allison
Director, Merchandising Planning & Strategy
Allison is responsible for the development and implementation of the chain’s omnichannel commercial calendar, e-commerce merchandising, visual store displays and circular and promotion execution.
Bryan Beck
Category Manager
Beck leads his team to source and merchandise fresh and sustainable seafood to provide shoppers with healthy meals. Through customer insights, the team makes assortment and promotional decisions to make purchasing seafood convenient and affordable.
Taneya Clark
Bakery Category Manager
Clark and her team review availability of new products on a weekly basis in order to bring different items and flavor profiles to shoppers. The team strives to meet all consumer needs through assortment planning.
Kristin Frantz
Category Manager
Frantz is responsible for developing the merchandising strategy for the beauty and baby categories. This includes leading her team to make assortment, price and promotion decisions utilizing data-driven insights.
Josh Geyer
Category Manager
Geyer is responsible for managing pricing, promotion and assortment in produce vegetables, leading his team in providing shoppers fresh product at the highest quality and value.
Chad Kyllonen
Category Manager
Kyllonen oversees all aspects of merchandising for the frozen department and is responsible for meeting shopper needs through strategic planning and vendor collaboration.
Eugene Peters
Center Store Sales Manager
Peters oversees the implementation of in-store merchandising strategies and initiatives. He works with national and local vendors to achieve operational excellence.
Darla Rieg
Director, Category Management
Rieg and her team provide simplified and inspired shopping solutions for various categories including beverage, commercial bread, beer/wine and ethnic/kosher.
Morgan Shreiber
Director, Fresh Field Staff
Shreiber’s team is responsible for sales and merchandising in all of the fresh departments. The team works daily with the chain’s operations arm to provide support to the stores and shoppers.
Crystal Smith
Manager, Promotional Execution
Smith’s role includes the development, execution and validation of the circular, tag and signage creation. She uses analytical data to ensure the circular will deliver on financial metrics and promises made to shoppers.
Giant Food
Cipriano Andrade
Director of Center Store Field Merchandising
Andrade works closely with the operations team to ensure agreed-upon execution of strategy. He also provides leadership to district specialists and managers on specific product areas.
Bill Campbell
Director, Meat/Seafood
Campbell is responsible for long-term planning to move the meat and seafood category forward and ahead of the retailer’s competition. He ensures the field team is executing merchandising plans to hit sales, gross profit and shrink budgets while driving a great experience for Giant’s shoppers.
David Grove
Category Director of Deli/Bakery
Grove leads a team whose responsibilities include assortment assessment and void identification, procurement, promotion and execution. He has been with Giant Food for more than 43 years.
Tonya Herring
Senior Vice President of Merchandising
Herring has been with Giant Food for roughly three years. She oversees how all products are priced, promoted and placed on shelves with a team of 200-plus employees.
Monica Simmons-Dolce
Director, Edible Grocery, Dairy & Frozen
Simmons-Dolce focuses on insights and trends to ensure shoppers have quality, value and products that work with their lifestyle. She has been with Ahold–Delhaize for 17 years and is a 2020 Griffin Report “Women of Influence” honoree.
Cynthia Volk
Director, Fresh Field Merchandising
Volk’s role connects the chain’s operations and fresh merchandising teams. With a focus on people development, relationships and program execution, Volk fosters alignment and a culture of selling.
Daniel Wiggington
Director, Nonfood
Wiggington and his team develop strategies to provide shoppers with value on products they need every day to care for themselves and their families. The team brings local suppliers into the stores and helps them develop price and promotion strategies to grow their businesses and the communities in which they operate.
Stop & Shop
Farrah Acerno
District Pharmacy Manager
The stores in Acerno’s New York districts were among some of the first in the company to carry a COVID-19 vaccine. Her team is focused on patient adherences, customer care and growing the pharmacy business.
Sam Andrade
Category Manager
Andrade has led the Stop & Shop beer and wine business, including licensing and merchandising duties, since the product line’s infancy. In 2020, the commercial bakery business was added to his responsibilities.
Lucreta Bolding
Produce Buyer
Bolding is responsible for all procurement activities across three distribution facilities for packaged salads, salad toppings and healthy alternatives.
Juan Braun
Director, Pricing Strategy
Braun is responsible for the development and execution of Stop & Shop’s pricing strategy. He plays a key role in building a high-quality pricing and promotion capability while leading a team that partners closely with category teams.
Amy Costa
Shopper Marketing Manager
Costa is responsible for developing, refining and driving the retailer’s overall shopper program while integrating it with omnichannel commercial plans.
Wilson Dos Santos
Category Manager
Dos Santos is responsible for the assortment, pricing, promotion and merchandising of packaged deli and frozen meat.
Melissa Hughes
Director, Merchandising Services
Hughes ensures the retailer has the right item in the right location at the right time. She manages the company’s macro and micro space, multicultural and local assortment.
Jason Lachewiecz
Category Manager
Lachewiecz manages items in the service deli, including specialty cheese and dips, from production to shelf.
Clifton Lawrence
Assistant Category Merchant
Lawrence focuses on service deli assortment, awareness programs, finances and acquisition.
Matt Phillips
Category Manager
Phillips manages prepared foods and home meal replacement from production to shelf.
Natalia Torres Furtado
VP, Category Management
Torres Furtado handles DSD merchandising for beverage, snacks, bakery and multicultural. She works in tandem with the field leaders to ensure proper service at each store.
Leonard Tramonte
Field Merchandising Specialist
Tramonte ensures new programs and merchandising plans are executed at store level. His role also includes coaching and training retail associates.
Bacardi U.S.A.
Eddie Pineiro
Director, Marketing Materials
Bayer Healthcare
Michele Smith,
Senior Manager, Visual Merchandising
Smith leads the design and development of in-store solutions and secondary display vehicles across food, drug, mass and club for the Bayer portfolio of brands. Initiatives include prepacked displays for national and customer-specific programs, consumer promotion support and new item launch displays.
Beiersdorf
Sheila Stroh
Senior Manager, In-Store Excellence
Stroh leads and develops brand merchandising strategies while aligning with customer strategies and insuring premium placement at the point of sale. She enjoys bringing to life solutions that dynamically change the shopper experience. She is most proud of her work balancing the complexities of COVID-19 as it relates to in-store shopping and pivoting to add digital messaging on displays, which allows shoppers to learn quickly about the company’s brands.
Bimbo Bakeries USA
Maureen Sticco
Senior Director, Marketing Center of Excellence
Read extended profile
Blue Buffalo
Craig Stankevich
Vice President, Shopper Marketing & Consumer Activation
Boar’s Head
Kristina Calvin
Brand Manager, Shopper Marketing
Calvin creates strategic solutions to drive sales in grocery stores across the country based on trends and shopper data. She develops, designs, tests and launches programs that bring value to the shopper’s overall brand experience.
Boston Beer
Scott Watters
Senior Director, Creative Services
Brown-Forman
Debbie Brooks,
Associate Sales Promotion Manager
Read extended profile
Burt’s Bees
Jeff Ceccarelli
Retail Engagement Team Leader
Ceccarelli leads category management, training/education and international sales planning. He’s proudest of the work his team has done around refreshing its category vision for personal care amidst the rapidly changing consumer and retail landscape. The team conducted extensive research to identify what matters most to consumers today and then partnered with key retailers to identify areas for driving future growth.
Theresa Champaigne,
Merchandising Manager
Campbell Soup
Justin Cerritelli
Director, Sales Operations & Execution
Barry Fowler
Merchandising Strategies Lead
Fowler is the retail activation lead for Campbell’s Snacks, focusing on corrugated and permanent display solutions for the company’s expanded snack and bakery portfolio.
Central Garden & Pet
Roger Mosshart
Vice President, Retail Sales & Service
Coca-Cola
Susan Agro Lanier
Commercial Merchandising
Lanier leads design, development and production for national pillar programs and brand initiatives across the water and coffee categories. She has extensive experience within the Coca-Cola system, including global marketing, promotions, print production and packaging.
Susan Lazaro
Director, North America Merchandising
Lazaro drives commercial in-outlet execution through design and implementation of next-generation solutions in support of national pillar, innovations and brand programming.
Renee Sorrells
Shopper Marketing Merchandising Manager
Sorrells is responsible for planning and developing in-store tools for a portfolio of tea brands, Powerade and sports assets. The tools are used to enliven the consumer shopping experiences and drive transactions at retail.
Brad Williams
Senior Manager, Merchandising Excellence
Working across all retail channels, Williams has led the development and commercialization of many innovations for more than 11 years. He came to Coca-Cola from The Home Depot, where he led visual merchandising.
Conagra Brands
Ari Fernandez
Retail Innovation Manager, Merchandising
With several years of domestic and international experience, Fernandez develops in-store vehicles across all retailers and the Conagra portfolio. She leads new vendor/partner relationships and innovative programs to accelerate new product launches, and increase basket size. She also determines optimal use of promotion, funding focusing on maximizing ROI.
Crayola
Beth Ondush
Leader, Merchandising
Ondush is responsible for research and insights, strategy planning and the development of all merchandising efforts for the organization. She collaborates with key accounts and sales teams across all channels, and internally leads a cross-functional team that includes members from engineering, creative, operations and distribution for execution, as well as the external supplier base.
DAS Cos.
Derek Lehman
Director, Channel & Shopper Marketing
Lehman develops strategic and insight-driven shopper solutions for the convenience and travel center channels. He focuses on creating engaging consumer experiences to ultimately drive conversion on the path to purchase. He’s most proud of partnering with Love’s Travel Centers to reimagine the shopping experience for professional drivers and complement the Mobile to Go Zone sets on the diesel side of its stores.
D.G. Yuengling & Son
Chris Seigh
Trade Marketing Manager
Seigh leads shopper efforts with large- and small-format national accounts, driving activation and customization. He’s focused on utilizing actionable insights to drive merchandising that influences behavior and demand across multiple touchpoints at retail. He created two scale, solution-based partnership programs for key retailers to help drive not only Yuengling’s business but also total baskets around key food-shopping occasions. He also created a new item launch program that drove the company’s new Flight brand to its strongest repeat rates in recent history.
Edgewell Personal Care
Natalie Mallone
Senior Merchandising & Display Manager, Hair/Skin
Mallone oversees all merchandising and display strategy initiatives for the hair/skincare businesses. With more than 20 years of experience in the CPG space, her focus is to bring to life brand and customer priorities in the in-store environment while focusing on margin-enhancing opportunities and display compliance. She is most proud of achieving sell-through of 92% nationally for holiday gift packs during the pandemic.
Davi Tash
Senior Merchandising & Licensing Manager
General Mills
Jennifer Freed
North American Display Planning Manager
Lizzie Johnson
Strategic Events Manager
Heather Oppel
Senior Operations Manager – In-Store Design Team
Oppel leads the end-to-end display operations for General Mills’ North American region. The team develops ideas and solutions that connect with the needs and strategies of the company’s marketing and sales teams to deliver capabilities tied to how both can win in-store.
GlaxoSmithKline
Margherita Farrell
Manager, Displays/Special Packs
Farrell manages the development, production and execution of GSK’s OTC promotional displays/shelf merchandising for day-to-day business and launches (Rx to OTC switches). She has more than 30 years’ experience at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis and GSK. She works closely with supply planning, demand planning, customer service, brand, marketing, customer strategy and planning, sales, master data, finance and suppliers, specializing in on-time delivery to retail.
Hallmark Cards
David MacConnie
Vice President, Creative Visual Merchandising
MacConnie leads the creative visual merchandising organization, driving the strategic creative development of in-store consumer experiences within both the mass channel and Hallmark Gold Crown stores. This includes the development and implementation of visual creative for shopper experiences in the full portfolio of Hallmark destinations and extended support across international partnerships.
Hershey
Scott Dunkley
Director, Merchandising Center of Excellence
Dunkley has been with the company for nearly 15 years in a variety of strategy and sales positions. His team defines and executes Hershey’s merchandising strategy across permanent secondary displays, pre-packed units and retail carry-in P-O-P. Using data-driven analytics, shopper insights and impactful experiences, the team drives space expansion and retail conversion for Hershey’s iconic brands. Dunkley’s favorite part of the job is being able to see team initiatives come to life in stores and drive a measurable impact to Hershey’s business.
Michael Kautz
Merchandising Manager, Small Format, Permanent Secondary Display
Kautz is responsible for the development and implementation of aggressive in-store merchandising tactics to gain permanent, incremental, high-quality, secondary space that results in increased sales, profits and market share for Hershey’s candy, mint and gum and snacks businesses. Space creation is a critical strategic pillar for Hershey as shopping behaviors and retail formats evolve.
Tiffany Pieja
Merchandising Manager, Walmart
As a member of Hershey’s Merchandising Center of Excellence team, Pieja leads the design and development of innovative solutions for Walmart.
The Home Depot
David Passafiume
Merchandising Vice President – Tools
Passafiume is responsible for merchandising aspects of the tools business. He previously oversaw the appliances and lighting departments. After joining The Home Depot in 2005, Passafiume held divisional merchandising manager and merchant roles before becoming a vice president in 2010. Prior to his retail career, Passafiume worked in sales and marketing at GE for 10 years.
Jennifer Wagner
Director, Visual Merchandising for Operations and Strategic Initiatives
Read extended profile
Jockey International
Robert Styles
Head of Materials
Johnson & Johnson
Steven Hecht
Senior Manager, Retail Merchandising
Kellogg Co.
Kurt Deck
Senior Creative Design Manager
Deck is involved in the design process for corrugated displays, which include promotional, snacks-stock knock-down and pre-packed units for the snacks and morning foods business units. He also oversees the design and purchase of permanent display fixtures for these business units that support display opportunities, along with shelving-system initiatives and in-aisle reinvention projects.
Megan Phelan
Director, Design Operations
Phelan has oversight of display development, production and logistics, packaging prepress, color management and commercialization, and off-pack print production (including POS, signage and coupons). She also provides strategy and direction for technology solutions supporting design operations and is a regional liaison for global design execution.
Keurig Dr Pepper
Don Collins
Director, Merchandising and Retail Innovation
Collins leads the company’s merchandising strategy. He is driven by taking on new challenges and finding creative solutions that drive incremental display activation. His team is responsible for developing solutions that get executed across all channels.
LG Electronics
Jeff Gaydos
Account Manager – Shopper Marketing
Gaydos is the key company contact for all P-O-P materials and execution at all national and regional retail locations. He leads the team supporting various product lines through numerous channels.
Colleen Hardie
Shopper Marketing Manager, Home Entertainment
Hardie continues to convert shoppers to purchasers by creating best-in-class displays at the largest U.S. retailers. She manages the home entertainment and emerging categories business for shopper marketing and is most proud of the development and launch of the LG Vendor Pad into select Best Buy stores.
Stewart Henderson
Senior Shopper Marketing Manager
Henderson leads the shopper marketing team for LG’s home appliance business units and is tasked with developing and executing omnichannel experiences for the shopper.
Rachel Olson
Director of Shopper Marketing
Olson leads a team of six for the U.S. market. She specializes in bringing high-end home electronics and appliances to market.
Lowe’s
Margi Vagell
Senior Vice President and General Merchandising Manager, Home Decor
Vagell is responsible for advancing the company›s merchandising strategy for paint, flooring, decor, kitchen and bath, and appliances.
Lowes Foods
Jason Ramsey
Executive Vice President of Merchandising
Mars Wrigley
Ruonan Cheng
Director, Merchandising & In-Store Strategy
MASCO
Mark Germain
Director, Retail Experience
Germain has worked in the retail experience arena for more than 20 years. He has been with Masco’s Behr brand for eight years.
McCormick & Co.
Brian Eslinger
Merchandising Development Manager
Meijer
Shelly Huisken
Director of Presentation & Category Management
Delivering a great customer experience is one of the highest priorities for Huisken’s team, so the layout of the department has to be intuitive and meet the needs of the customer. Her process for category management combines customer shopping behavior with space availability to influence assortment decisions and improve on-shelf availability.
Microsoft Corp.
Jake Olsen-Jacobsen
Senior Retail Demo Manager
A 29-year retail veteran, Olsen-Jacobsen previously managed the Xbox and Xbox 360 global video game retail kiosk programs. He is proud of his team’s work adding retailer-supported digital fact tags onto Microsoft Windows demo devices at multiple retailers globally. The tags reveal key device details to shoppers, simplifying and supporting purchase decisions while providing attachment opportunities.
Molson Coors
Meghan Means
Shopper Marketing Manager – Brand Solutions
Read extended profile
Mondelez International
Matthew Jordan
Merchandising Solutions Manager
Jordan is currently responsible for managing the design, development and production of prefilled custom biscuit displays, prefilled chocolate displays and unfilled temporary displays for c-stores.
Steve McGowan
Head of Shopper Activation & Strategic Partnerships
McGowan has 25 years of experience in brand management, sales strategy, category development, category management, shopper insights and shopper marketing at HJ Heinz, Cadbury, Kraft Foods and Mondelez International. He currently leads the shopper marketing team at Mondelez, which has secured 13 Effies and 16 Reggies over the past five years.
Kelly O’Brien
Merchandising Manager
O’Brien manages the creation and production of P-O-P displays for Mondelez’s popular brands. Her career has balanced pragmatism with passion to be relevant and innovative, working alongside admirable and diverse partners to deliver the company’s goals.
Chris Panaccione
Associate Merchandise Manager
Robyn Petroski
Senior Merchandising Manager
Bruce Pye
Manager, Graphic Design
Maria Ruvolo
Merchandising Manager
Ruvolo manages the end-to-end execution of both national and custom biscuit pre-packed displays.
Steve Zoellner
Director, Shopper Merchandising Solutions U.S.
Zoellner has led the POS Center of Excellence for 15 years. His experience includes account management, strategy, analytics and retail management. He has focused his experience and leadership on creating incremental, profitable programs for brands and retailers while driving efficiency through the supply chain. As business project owner/lead, he developed and launched a proprietary IT system linking P-O-P project management and planning, financial planning, commercialization and execution.
Nestle Coffee Partners
Jennifer Quotson
Vice President, Global Creative Studios
Nestle Purina Petcare
Bill Kambol
Principal, Merchandising and Display
Kambol is responsible for structural design and shopper marketing efforts for multiple brands including Friskies, Fancy Feast, Pro Plan, Purina One and Tidy Cats. He is most proud of the design and production of the inaugural Fancy Feast Advent calendar in 2020.
Pam Mashman Venn
Senior Merchandising
Venn started her 30-year career working at display manufacturer companies creating temporary and semi-permanent displays. On the CPG side, she has worked for Kraft, Sara Lee, Nestle Waters and now Nestle Purina. Throughout the pandemic, the demand for products through mass, club and e-commerce have grown exponentially. Even through the work-from-home paradigms, her team thrived in the midst of numerous last-minute customer requests.
PepsiCo
Karl Flowers
Senior Merchandising Manager
Flowers is responsible for the design, development and execution of small-format permanent merchandising solutions for Frito-Lay.
Denis Gibney
Director, Merchandising Design & Development
Pharmavite LLC
Tonia Entous
Visual Merchandising Team Lead
Entous and her team are responsible for in-store displays and signage across all accounts including Walgreens, Kroger, Albertsons, Target, Meijer and Walmart. She has worked in retail strategies for more than 15 years, overseeing national marketing programs across top CPG brands.
Sargento Foods
Michael Vaszily
Director of Sales Planning & Execution
Vaszily leverages more than 20 years of CPG marketing and sales experience to lead the company’s sales planning and execution efforts as well as the broker agency relationship.
Sherwin-Williams Co.
Paul Cobb
Director, In-Store Experience
Cobb has 38 years of experience with the company, primarily in marketing and marketing communications. He is most proud of developing and implementing a Covid-19 plan to keep the company’s stores open in 2020.
Sony Electronics North America
Anthony Shinker
Manager, Retail Merchandising & Strategy, HES Sound
Shinker leads all retail merchandising strategy and product display activation for Sony’s mobile and home audio categories, and was part of the core team that launched the company’s top-rated noise-canceling headphones in 2020.
Spin Master
Connie Buffone
Senior Director, Shopper and Trade Marketing
Buffone’s responsibilities include shopper marketing, trade marketing and trade shows. She creates best-in-class customer experiences for the company’s retail partners.
Tor Sirset
Vice President, Omnichannel Marketing & Partnerships
Sirset joined the company in 2014 and works with its general business units to drive innovation and shopper opportunities with some of the world’s leading toy brands such as Paw Patrol, Kinetic Sand, Monster Jam and Hatchimals. He is driven by the dynamic nature of the toy industry, launching lines of toy brands and products every six months and orchestrating successful omnichannel programs.
Timberland (VF Corp.)
Jacqueline LaLime
Senior Director, Integrated Merchandising, Americas
As the leader of a talented merchant team, LaLime is proud to serve the Americas region and the Timberland brand with purpose-led and performance-driven assortments and product initiatives across footwear, apparel and accessories.
Walmart
Paul Kilsch
Distinguished Product Manager
Kilsch partners with merchants and operators to find ways to implement technology that improves the customer’s shopping experience. He most recently supported program management and process for digital services offered within the Walmart app. He is driven by being a part of a talented team of individuals that is vested in finding ways to help customers and associates overcome everyday pain points using technology.
Steve Rogers
Senior Director, Marketing
Rogers is a retail marketer with a focus on improving the customer experience throughout the shopping journey. He has extensive experience in retail graphics, store design and retailtainment events for big-box retailers. He is most proud of getting the retailer’s in-store marketing materials consolidated monthly for its stores to improve field execution.
Wonderful Co.
David Churchill
Vice President of Merchandising, Wonderful Sales
Churchill is responsible for the day-to-day operations and strategic planning of the entire merchandising team for North America. This includes conventional grocery in the U.S. and Canada and the merchandising activity for Walmart and Sam’s Club.