Program instruction is developed and presented by faculty at St. Joseph’s University and adjunct faculty drawn from industry experts.
Dr. Stephen Porth
Professor of Management, Saint Joseph’s University
Dr. Stephen Porth is a Professor of Management in the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's University and the Senior Editor of the Journal of Jesuit Business Education. Dr. Porth has chaired three academic departments at SJU – Management, Food Marketing, and Pharmaceutical Marketing.
Amanda Lai
Director, Food Industry Practice, McMillanDoolittle
Amanda Lai leads the Food Industry Practice at McMillanDoolittle, a Chicago-based consultancy that has served the retail industry for over 35 years. As a Director, she partners with her global food and retail clients to develop comprehensive strategies and concepts that help retailers and brands succeed.
She began her career at PepsiCo, where she managed sales and beverage assortments for customers such as 7-Eleven, CVS, and Walgreens. She also has experience in promotional marketing at global advertising conglomerate WPP, where her client roster included Kellogg’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Snapchat.
Amanda is a keynote speaker and subject matter expert in trends, innovation, and grocery, and has presented insights in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Joe Puglia
Business Technology and Operations Consulting Principal,
Plante Moran, PLLC
Joe Puglia is a Business Technology and Operations Consulting Principal at Plante Moran, PLLC. He’s spent more than 35 years of manufacturing and supply chain experience in the CPG industry, with 15 of those years as an executive-level leader.
As part of the Business Technology Advisory team practice, Joe has led or been a part of more than 15 business system implementations in companies ranging from small family-owned to Fortune 500.
He has helped businesses select and implement WMS, ERP, and CRM software and, as member of the food and beverage team at Plante Moran, has advised food and beverage clients on working through operations and EBITDA improvements, process reengineering, and critical change management challenges.
Theo Schweitz
Chief Executive Officer, Drive Wheel Peer Groups
Theo Schweitz is CEO of Drive Wheel Peer Groups, where he organizes peer groups for food and consumer packaged goods leaders. He is driven to create opportunities for: collaboration, benchmarking, networking, and strategizing. These methods give leaders assurance they have the information they need to make confident business decisions.
Sara Williamson, Ph.D.
Faculty, SUNY College at Old Westbury
Dr. Sara Williamson is an Assistant Professor of Marketing with an expertise in consumer psychology. Her research investigates how choice, consumption, and disposal of packaged goods can be impacted by contextual cues related to product design, labeling, and retailing. Her research has been featured in regional and national media outlets.
Jac Ross
VP Our Brands, Sprouts Farmers Market
Jac Ross is VP Our Brands at Sprouts Farmers Market where she focuses on bringing exclusive and innovative private label products to the fast-growing grocer’s base of shoppers who are enthusiastic about health and wellness. She has extensive experience within the private label industry across product development, innovation, manufacturing and retailing in the U.S.
And, for 20 years she worked within Europe and the U.K. for retailers including Ahold Delhaize, Unilever, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s. Jac serves on the Board of Directors for Women Impacting Storebrand Excellence™ (WISE), a non-profit professional development organization that champions the power of diversity and inclusion within the store brands industry.
Sunny Yurasek
VP, Client Development, N. America, AI Think Tank, Decision Point Analytics
Sunny Yurasek is VP, Client Development, North America with AI Think Tank, Decision Point Analytics and has 17 years’ experience in the consumer package goods industry, and particularly in roles involving utilizing data to inform business decisions and drive growth. She is also an adjunct professor at Saint Joseph's University and Western Michigan University
Sunny has held positions at several well-known companies, including Diageo, Reyes Holdings, and Constellation Brands, LLC. In her prior role as senior director of data & analytics at Diageo, she was responsible for assessing analytical maturity and developing long-range business intelligence strategies across North America. Prior to Diageo, Sunny served as director, business analytics integration at Reyes Holdings, Beer Division.
Jon English
Vice President of Sales, Roehl Corporation
Jon English is Vice President of Sales at Roehl Corporation where he has focuses on establishing and maintaining long-term relationships between manufacturer and retailer. With over 30 years in the food industry, including time spent at H-E-B Grocery Co., Jon has extensive experience in procurement and private label product development to meet the growing...
...diversity of consumer demand. He has long embraced the end-to-end connections from agriculture to families in need of healthy, nutritious food.
Christopher Gardier
Chief Commercial Officer, Caro-Nut
Chris Gardier has is Chief Commercial Officer of Caro-Nut where he leads sales, marketing and consumer insights for the company. Chris has a distinguished career in the CPG space and has developed a remarkable track record for transforming organizational performance. He's held positions with Kraft Foods, Frito Lay, Pepperidge Farm, and Hain Celestial.