Juan De Paoli
Vice President of Our Brands
The Kroger Co.
Juan De Paoli is Vice President of Our Brands, The Kroger Co. As Vice President of Our Brands, De Paoli is responsible for driving Kroger’s private label vision, strategy and program development to deliver long-term growth and enhance the company’s brand equity, strategic positioning, revenue, profit and market value. In his leadership position he oversees product de-velopment, testing, sourcing, vendor selection and private label marketing programs to minimize cost and maximize sales revenues related to private label products.
De Paoli joined Kroger in 2021 with more than 20 years’ experience in building and growing world-class brands from product development through launch, crafting marketing strategies and merchandising for national brand and private label products across all food, household, pet and personal care categories. His most recent experience comes from Ahold Delhaize USA, where he served as Senior Vice President of Private Brands. De Paoli spent 12 years at H-E-B in their Own Brand organization where he led strategy, brand management, growth, product development and packaging for their Own Brands. He also has experience as Vice President of Grocery, Frozen, Health and Beauty Care and General Merchandising with Topco Associates, LLC. and has worked for Oscar Mayer Food Corporation and Procter & Gamble in Venezuela and Mexico.
Kevin Ryan
Founder/CEO
Malachite Strategy and Research
Kevin Ryan is Founder and CEO of Malachite Strategy and Research, a CPG, retail and foodservice-focused insights and innovation agency. Ryan previously served as Global Strategic Planner at Amazon, overseeing the corporate brand and advertising strategies for Global Prime and Non-Prime. Before Amazon, he was Director of Strategy and Innovation at General Mills.
For 15 years, Ryan has led corporate and brand initiatives to discover new opportunities globally. His experiences include early exploration, brand innovation and go-to-market strategies for the launch of the Yoplait brand in greater China, redesigning the retail and in-shop experience for Haagen Dazs across Europe and Asia and leading U.S. new product development innovation efforts on the Pillsbury, Cheerios and Annie’s brands. Ryan is an expert in the front end of innovation, specializing in deep ethnography, strategic mapping, consumer jobs-to-be-done development, design thinking, agile methodologies and new product ideation.
Jim E. Dillard III
Executive Vice President and President Consumer Health Care Americas
Perrigo Company plc
Jim E. Dillard III is Executive Vice President and President Consumer Healthcare Americas of Perrigo Company plc. Dillard was previously Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Perrigo from 2019 to 2021. He joined Perrigo from Altria Group, Inc., where he served as Senior Vice President, Research, Development and Sciences and Chief Innovation Officer.
Roger Davidson
CEO
Oakton Advisory Group
Roger Davidson is a leading consultant in the food retail industry. With over 30 years of experience in merchandising, marketing, operations and global sourcing, Davidson is one of the industry’s foremost experts on what’s trending in food retail. He has held senior-level executive roles at many of the nation's largest supermarket chains including: Senior Vice President of Global Food Procurement for Walmart Inc.; Senior Vice President of Marketing and Merchandising with Wild Oats (acquired by Whole Foods); Chief Operating Officer of Retail for SUPERVALU; Senior Vice President of Non-Perishables, Corporate Brands and Global Sourcing for Ahold USA.
His career was built at HEB Food/Drug in San Antonio, where he spent 30 years before departing as Senior VP of Grocery Merchandising, Procurement and Own Brand.
Davidson has extensive knowledge of acquisitions and mergers, private label development, or-ganic and specialty food markets, as well as sustainable sourcing and production across supply chains. travels nationally and internationally to lead industry-based roundtable discussions and conducts store tours for investors and other interested parties on an as-needed basis. While maintaining his own independent consulting practice through Oakton Advisory Group, he’s ac-tively engaged as; Owner & Chief Operating Officer at MaGi Foods, an innovative food-proces-sor focused on bringing affordable, all-natural shelf-stable products to market on an international scale.
Julien LeBlanc
Co-founder and President
Blueprint North America
Julien LeBlanc is the Co-founder and President of Blueprint North America. His global consultancy firm offers training, coaching, consultancy and keynote addresses to help build confidence in individuals, teams and organizations in four areas: personal confidence, sales and negotiation confidence, strategic confidence and leadership confidence.
Tim Pollard
Founder and CEO
Oratium
Tim Pollard is Founder and CEO of Oratium where he has been the leader of the ongoing development of Oratium’s intellectual property and client relations for more than a decade. Over his long career in sales at various companies including Unilever, Barclays, and the Corporate Executive Board, Pollard has developed remarkable insights into the science of designing and delivering extraordinary sales messaging.
Michael Sansolo
President
Sansolo Solutions LLC
Michael Sansolo is a consultant, speaker, author, and blogger with a unique and diverse view of the changing nature of trends impacting shoppers, employees, competition, economics, supply chains and management. He currently serves as the research director of the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Councils for both supermarkets and convenience stores.
Brooke Rice
Senior Director Own Brands
Southeastern Grocers
Brooke Rice is Senior Director of Own Brands at Southeastern Grocers. In her current position Rice is responsible for product development, quality, merchandising and marketing of all private label products for Winn-Dixie, Harvey’s and Fresco Y Mas stores. She also oversees the devel-opment and maintenance of strong supplier partnerships with current own brand suppliers as well as developing opportunities with new suppliers.
Caroline Davidson
Director of Channel Partnership
SPINS
Caroline Davidson is the Director of Channel Partnership for SPINS where she works with national and global partners on custom data insights and solutions. She has vertically integrated SPINS data into new sectors of the industry through partnerships with brokers, distributors, ingredient suppliers, co-manufacturers, biotechnology firms, associations, research firms, and consultants.
Tom Becker
Director, Proprietary Brands - US
Circle K
Tom Becker is currently the Director of Proprietary Brands at Circle K where he is responsible for marketing, merchandising, product development, and brand management for the US business.
Prior to joining the company, he served as the first Director of Private Brand Marketing and Brand Management at both OfficeMax and Ahold-Delhaize. Earlier in his career Becker held positions at Colgate, Heinz and Ocean Spray in marketing and market research and was also head of marketing at The Wall Street Journal.com.