Faculty

Programming is developed and presented by adjunct faculty drawn from industry experts.

Deborah Ginsburg

Deborah Ginsburg
Founder, Executive Marketing and Branding Consultant, Shelf to Stove, LLC

Deborah Ginsburg, is Founder, Executive Marketing and Branding Consultant at Shelf to Stove, LLC. She is an executive leader, brand strategist, and creative director known for exceeding brand growth objectives and launching thousands of CPG and private label products and brands in the market.

Her innovative thinking and strategic acumen drive accelerated revenue growth and fosters unwavering consumer loyalty. Deborah is a sought-after speaker on retail subject matter, and expert in marketing, branding, and packaging design.

Donna L. George

Donna L. George
President, DL George Consulting LLC

Donna L. George is President of DL George Consulting LLC where she works with trade associations in the area of private label and international food and is responsible for Brand Management for Vicenzi USA, Inc., a global Italian company, Vicenzi S.p.A, based in Verona, Italy.

Prior to Vicenzi USA, Inc. she opened the U.S. market for an Italian based global food company, Dr. Schär AG / SPA where she was President/COO for eight years. In that position she was responsible for the construction and opening of a manufacturing facility in the U.S. Donna has also held sales positions with Venice Maid Foods and Heritage Brands, both leading private label manufacturers, She began her career with The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) where she held several positions including Vice President of Corporate Brands and Vice President of Category Management.

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.

And has been awarded by the American Marketing Association for its societal impact. Currently a faculty member at The State University of New York (SUNY), Sara has been teaching undergraduate and MBA marketing courses for 13 years and has previously served as a faculty member for the Haub School of Business Food Marketing Department at Saint Joseph’s University. Sara also offers more than a decade of industry experience in sales and marketing within both private and public sectors, working with stakeholders along the value chain to foster successful relationships among retailers, restaurants, and food suppliers.

Theo Schweitz

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.

With 25 peer groups covering all aspects of sales, marketing, logistics, and management, Theo can offer leaders confidence that when they present a new idea, it is well vetted by the best minds in the industry. Previously, Theo was the Director of Private Brand Food at Target where he oversaw brand positioning, product development, and promotional strategy for Target’s portfolio of brands. He was the VP of Strategy at BBDO advertising agency.

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.

Jim Daley
Sales Executive, Private Brands Sales & Marketing Inc.

Jim Daley is a sales executive at Private Brands Sales & Marketing Inc., a premier brokerage firm. Jim founded the company in 1993 and has more than 35 years’ experience with the firm.

Anthony Schelich
President, Marketing Concepts Group

Anthony Schelich is President of Marketing Concepts Group, a sales development company representing manufacturers at regional and national retailers. He has been in the private label industry for over 40 years and is currently a member of PLMA’s Board of Directors.

Anthony began his career at Aldi where he spent 16 years in store management and Director of Purchasing roles. After Aldi, he was Vice President of Purchasing at both a national wholesaler and a retail startup in the Northeast.

Dr. Russell J. Zwanka

Dr. Russell J. Zwanka
Director of the Food Marketing Program and Professor of Category Management and Food Marketing, Western Michigan University

Dr. Russell J. Zwanka serves as Director of the Food Marketing Program, and Professor of Category Management and Food Marketing, at Western Michigan University, one of the top Food Marketing programs in the world. Delivering high quality curriculum and applied food marketing skills...

...Western Michigan University endeavors to work with the food industry to provide real-time solutions, while also helping educate the future leaders of the food industry.

He previously taught Marketing Research, Personal Selling, Marketing Strategy, Food Marketing, Business Strategy, Global Business, Cannabis Marketing, and Marketing Principles. Zwanka conceptualized and formed the food marketing concentration at Siena College, as well as the food marketing track at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He has also led the merchandising, marketing, advertising, procurement, and all customer engagement areas for multiple food retail companies domestically and internationally.

Jon English

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.

Mike Marzano

Mike Marzano
Assistant Professor of Food Marketing

Mike Marzano is an Assistant Professor of Food Marketing at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia where he brings over 30 years’ experience in the food and CPG industry to the classroom. Mike has had success developing creative approaches leveraging data and analytics to stimulate interest, curiosity and engagement leading to data-driven process improvement.

He has delivered improvements and efficiencies across Category Management, Shopper Insights, Retail Execution and Supply-Chain initiatives for leading CPG companies including Cadbury, Mondelēz International, Sysco, and HP Hood.

Mike is a co-founder of Branded Aware LLC, a consulting firm that leverages gamification to enhance employee engagement and performance and is currently an Advisory Board member at the Promotion Optimization Institute (POI).

Danell O’Neill

Danell O’Neill
Executive VP of Brand, Marketing, Human Resources & Corporate Communications, Topco Associates, LLC

Danell O’Neill serves as Executive Vice President of Brand, Marketing, Human Resources and Corporate Communications at Topco Associates, LLC. She is responsible for leading the development and execution of Topco’s own brand, marketing and people strategies...

...and strategic internal and external communications. Prior to joining Topco, O’Neill served as managing partner in a consulting company. She has also held communications roles at Honeywell, Accenture, and served as vice president of communications at Nielsen.

Emily Glass

Emily Glass
Director of HR and Talent Acquisition, Topco Associates LLC

Emily Glass is Director of HR and Talent Acquisition at Topco Associates and is a strategic partner and consultant to leadership on human resources, talent acquisition, diversity, equity and inclusion, and people-management practices and policies. She collaborates with various stakeholders to align talent management practices with the overall business objectives.

Since joining Topco, she has revamped and relaunched Topco’s internship program, developed an entry-level rotational program for college graduates, and created the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategy.