Food Executive ProgramImmersion Experience

Sara Wheeler is the Head of Sales for Nestlé Nutrition, an operating company within Nestlé Zone North America. In this role, she leads the US retail sales team and is responsible for category and channel development.

Sara has a 25+ year career at Nestlé holding numerous sales roles across several businesses within Nestlé including PetCare, PowerBar, Nutrition, Confections, and Beverages. Sara also spent a year working on the PetCare business for Nestlé Korea.Her most previous role was Vice President/General Manager for Sweet Earth, a business within Nestlé USA. In this role, she worked to bring this recent Nestlé acquisition to scale and capture the opportunity in the dynamic space of plant-based foods to drive long-term, profitable growth for the category. Sara’s focus is working with customers to drive long-term category growth and helping us better serve consumers in their lives. Within Nestlé, Sara is passionate about strength in culture to help achieve our best performance as an organization. Sara is originally from Central New York and ‘home’ is Seneca Lake. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication from Cornell University, 1995. While at Cornell, Sara was the Captain of the Alpine Ski Team for three of her four years. She was a USCSA All-American ski racer.

Sara and her family currently live in McLean, VA. She’s married with three awesome kids: Neve and Flora, 11, and Ben, 14. They love to ski, ride bikes, and spend as much time outdoors as possible. Sara’s mid-life crisis is cross-country mountain bike racing in classic weekend warrior style.

Ed McLaughlin is the emeritus Robert G. Tobin Professor of Marketing, the Director of the Food Industry Management Program, and current interim Dean of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. Dr. McLaughlin has numerous teaching and research awards in the areas of marketing, retailing, and international marketing, including the Best Article of the Year (2008) in the Cornell Hotel Quarterly and the Stephen Weiss Presidential Award, Cornell’s most prestigious honor for distinguished teaching. He is also Director of the Cornell Food Executive Program, widely regarded as the premier executive training program in the food industry. Dr. McLaughlin’s international experience includes work with the U.S. State Department, the United Nations, and the World Bank. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

Miguel I. Gómez is the Robert G. Tobin Associate Professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University. He is Director of the Food Industry Management Program, globally recognized as the premier food industry education and research program. Professor Gómez has an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Illinois.

Professor Gómez concentrates his research program on two interrelated areas under the umbrella of food marketing and distribution. The first is Food Value Chain Competitiveness and Sustainability. His work in this area involves multidisciplinary collaborations for the development models to assess supply chain performance in multiple dimensions, including economic, social, and environmental. The second is Food Value Chain Negotiation. Here Professor Gómez combines theory and outreach methods to analyze food markets from farm to table, emphasizing key concepts such as demand response, consumer behavior, buyer/seller negotiations, market power, and retail performance. In addition, his research extends to economic development and environmental economics, examining incentives and barriers of smallholder farmer participation in food value chains and sustainability of food systems, with emphasis in Latin America. Professor Gómez’s applied research efforts aim at enhancing market opportunities for fruit and vegetable products, benefiting producers, food processors/distributors, and consumers worldwide.

Professor Gómez’s work has been published in top journals, including Science, Management Science, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, World Development, and Food Policy. His research program has been funded with over 100 research grants, including the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Professor Gómez has won several prestigious teaching and research awards, including the Rising Star Faculty Award of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. He has consulted for multilateral development institutions such as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the Interamerican Development Bank.

Ken Blanchard, one of the most influential leadership experts in the world, is the co-author of the iconic best sellers “The One Minute Manager” and “The New One Minute Manager,” as well as 65 other books whose combined sales total more than 23 million copies. His groundbreaking works have been translated into more than 47 languages. In 2005 he was inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 best-selling authors of all time.
He is the co-founder, with his wife, Margie, of The Ken Blanchard Companies®, an international management training and consulting firm in San Diego, California. He also co-founded Lead Like Jesus, a worldwide organization committed to helping people become servant leaders.

Ken has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions in the fields of management, leadership, and speaking. The National Speakers Association awarded him its highest honor, the Council of Peers Award of Excellence. He was inducted into the HRD Hall of Fame by Training magazine and he received the Golden Gavel Award from Toastmasters International. Ken also received the Thought Leadership Award from ISA – The Association of Learning Providers.
When he’s not writing or speaking, Ken teaches students in the Master of Science in Executive Leadership Program at the University of San Diego. Born in New Jersey and raised in New York, Ken received an M.A. degree from Colgate University and a B.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Dr. Ana C. Krieger is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Departments of Medicine, Neurology, and Genetic Medicine. She holds board certifications in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, and Sleep Medicine, and is a faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, at Weill Cornell Medical College as well as an Associate Attending at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and at Rockefeller University Hospital.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Krieger has been actively involved in patient care, training of sleep specialists, and sleep medicine education. Besides her clinical activities, Dr. Krieger works in research projects as a clinician scientist, investigating the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and thrombosis in sleep apnea, and helping with the development of new technologies for sleep monitoring and education.

Devry Boughner Vorwerk is Founder and CEO of DevryBV Sustainable Strategies, a company whose purpose is to inspire business to courageously serve humanity.

Ms. Vorwerk believes that in a world where geopolitical volatility, climate change, population growth, inequality, and societal expectations are placing immense pressure on traditional business models, companies can succeed in balancing shareholder and stakeholder expectations. At her core, Ms. Vorwerk supports open markets as a means for creating economic opportunity for all.

In the first part of 2021, Ms. Vorwerk served as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Grubhub. She also had a nearly 15-year career at Cargill, a Fortune 50 global food company, where she served as Chief Communications Officer and Corporate VP of Global Corporate Affairs. Ms. Vorwerk spent time as a senior policy advisor at Akin Gump and worked as Chief Economist for the Chairwoman of the USITC and as a Senior Economist in ag affairs at USTR.

Adam Brumberg splits his time between consumer behavior research and the food industry management program. He runs student programs, co-teaches “Supply Chain Strategy,” and is an active leader in executive education programs.

Throughout his career, Steven Golus held senior positions at pioneering digital advertising organizations. Before starting his training business, he served as General Manager, Go-to-Market, for DataXu. Before DataXu, Mr. Golus served as VP of Sales Strategy at DoubleClick, where he focused on bringing advertiser and publisher tools to market, created a strategic consulting practice, and was part of the team that developed and launched DoubleClick’s optimization technology. Upon DoubleClick’s acquisition by Google in 2007, he led sales integration activities between the two organizations.

Having noticed a gap in recent years across large media companies and ad agencies transitioning from linear to digital, Mr. Golus shifted his focus from operator to trainer and consultant. With an interactive and conversational style that participants truly enjoy, he now trains ad technology firms, publishers, ad agencies, and advertisers on all facets of digital advertising. Thousands of sales and marketing professionals and executives and non-sales leaders from A&E, AMC, NBC, ViacomCBS, Discovery, Fox Corp, Facebook, GroupM, Omnicom, IPG, Havas, Dentsu, and Horizon Media have benefited from Mr. Golus’s tailored content and distinctive delivery.

Mr. Golus also runs The Boyd Initiative, which provides digital advertising industry training to young Black professionals. Since the summer of 2020, over 500 students have completed the course. Over 150 of these graduates now work for partners of The Boyd Initiative.

Mr. Golus graduated from Cornell University and received his MBA from New York University.

Louis Hyman is the Neufeld Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, where he teaches the history of retail.. An historian of work and business, Professor Hyman is currently working on a history of e-commerce entitled “Add To Cart.”

A world-renowned expert in retail insight, Bryan Gildenberg is the SVP of Commerce at Omnicom Commerce Group and a member of the company’s executive leadership team. As the SVP of Commerce, he is responsible for strengthening OCG’s retailer intelligence and partnerships and helping the OCG agencies (TracyLocke, Integer, TPN, Haygarth) be better, more strategic, and more vital partners to their clients.

Bryan joined OCG from Kantar’s retail consulting practice, where he was responsible for the company’s analysis and insight as Chief Knowledge Officer, Retail, as well as a member of the practice’s executive committee.

An established writer, speaker, and media commentator, Bryan provides a clear, dynamic, and always-topical focus on a variety of channels and retailers around the world. His perspective has been featured on broadcast media such as CNBC, Fox Business, and the BBC, and he is frequently cited in a range of U.S. and global business publications. An award-winning writer, Bryan has authored numerous articles for Kantar Retail publications and third-party periodicals such as The Hub and GMA Forum. An engaging speaker, Bryan has addressed numerous Kantar Retail forums and industry conferences.

Bryan earned an M.B.A. summa cum laude from Babson College and an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University in Cambridge, England.

Bill Mayo is the Chief Administrative Officer of Wakefern Food Corporation, the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States.
Mr. Mayo joined Wakefern in 1995 after five years working in logistics for energy and oil corporation Hess. He started his Wakefern career as a member of the company’s Leaders in Training program. He worked in the Meat and Frozen Food divisions before being named a Senior Category Manager in Grocery Marketing.
Mr. Mayo has led numerous divisions during his two decades at Wakefern. He has served as Procurement Manager of General Merchandise, Procurement Manager of Produce, Vice President of Health and Beauty Care (HBC) and Pharmacy, and Vice President of Dairy and Frozen Foods. In 2011, Mr. Mayo was promoted to Senior Vice President of Fresh Foods as well as to Wakefern’s Executive Staff.
In 2014, Mr. Mayo was named Senior Vice President of Wakefern’s Logistics, Technology, Engineering, Indirect Procurement, Product Integrity/Replenishment, and Wholesale divisions. He moved into his current role of Chief Administrative Officer in 2018.
While working at Wakefern, Mr. Mayo earned a Master’s degree in marketing from Saint Joseph’s University. He also completed Cornell University’s Food Executive Program – the food industry’s premier training program. Mr. Mayo received his Bachelor’s degree in business marketing from William Paterson University.
In the past, Mr. Mayo has served as a member of the board of directors of the Eastern Produce Council, a produce trade association; the board of the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association; and the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean counties. He currently serves on the Saint Joseph’s Academy of Food Marketing Board, the William Paterson University Business School advisory board, and the Northwestern University Retail Analytics Council. Mr. Mayo lives in Ocean, NJ, with his wife, Judi, and two sons.

As President of Food Lion, Meg Ham leads a team of more than 82,000 associates dedicated to providing fresh, healthy and affordable food. Under her leadership, the company serves nearly 10 million customers each week across its 10-state operating footprint.

During her 30-year tenure at Ahold Delhaize USA, the parent company of Food Lion, Ham has served at the helm of Bottom Dollar Food, the company’s former discount banner, as well as in executive leadership roles in both retail operations and merchandising functions at Food Lion and its sister banner, Hannaford. She has built a distinguished career and strong reputation for her focus on the value of service to customers and ensuring great associate experiences.

Ham is preserving the company’s heritage of low prices and convenient locations, both hallmarks of Food Lion since its founding in 1957. Under her leadership at Food Lion, she has been instrumental in helping reposition the Food Lion brand through its strategy: “Easy, Fresh & Affordable…You Can Count on Food Lion Every Day!”

She is making a number of strides to win new customers and grow loyalty with existing customers with a focus on enhancing the store format by making shopping and the check-out process easier, expanding product assortment based on customer feedback, offering fresher products throughout the store and transforming customer and associate experiences through the company’s ‘Count on me’ culture. She also has a strong passion for serving the community through the company’s hunger-relief platform, Food Lion Feeds, and is one of the driving forces behind the company’s achievement of donating 500 million meals by 2020 and its new goal to donate 1.5 billion meals by 2025.

Ham previously served as a member of the Network of Executive Women (NEW) national board, Easter Seals national board and sat on the board of governors for Saint Joseph’s University’s Food Marketing Education Foundation.

A native of central New York, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in business management and marketing from Cornell University. She currently resides in Huntersville, NC, with her husband and two sons.

William Drake recently retired From Cornell, where he was Senior Extension Associate, faculty member, and Director of Executive Education of the Food Industry Management Program (FIMP) in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

Bill developed and continues to direct the National Association of Convenience Stores Executive Leadership Program and the National Grocers Association Executive Leadership Program. In addition, he teaches in the Food Executive Program, United Fresh Produce Executive Development Program, and FIMP’s various international food executive programs. Bill has conducted programs for food industry executives from over 30 countries.

Before joining Cornell, Bill was an executive at SuperValu, one of the nation’s largest food retailers and wholesalers. His positions included Vice President of Marketing and Real Estate (Cub Foods); Vice President of Strategic Planning, Key Wholesale Customers (SuperValu corporate); and Vice President of Strategic Planning, Marketing, and Real Estate (Save-A-Lot).

Bill is a founding member of the National Grocers Association University Coalition and also serves on the Boards of Directors of LEADNY; Coborn’s, a large regional multi-format food retailer in the Upper Midwest; and Vantage Foods, a Canadian supplier of case-ready meat to North American retailers.

Dan Hooker is a global retail and consumer packaged goods executive with broad experience across diverse business environments and formats, leading traditional food retail operations and merchandising, as well as product development, consumer and category analytics, sourcing and procurement, global trading, national sales, and ecommerce. An outstanding strategist and general manager, he has led the successful startup of multiple diverse businesses. Known for and recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on retailers’ proprietary brands, Mr. Hooker has shaped clients’ programs across four continents and eight classes of trade. His passion is in helping companies recognize their unique DNA and positioning then creating actionable marketing and sales strategies essential for their success.

Michael J. Hostetler is a faculty member of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. Mr. Hostetler’s main research and teaching interests are in strategy, decision-making, leadership, high performance teams, innovation and change management. He has taught classes in the MBA program, Executive MBA program and the Cornell-Queen’s EMBA program, as well as many non-degree executive education programs.

Mr. Hostetler also consults with private and non-profit organizations, both domestically and internationally. In particular, he works frequently in the health care, financial services, manufacturing and food industries. Recent clients include the Lehigh Valley Health Network, the Community Health Foundation of Buffalo, New York, the P2 Collaborative of Western New York, Northern Trust, Schwan’s, LG, United Technologies, Driscoll’s, Philip Morris International, Citigroup, Victaulic Co., Anthony Marano Co., Nunasi Corp., Ahold Delhaize, Sun World International, Samsung, LG, Sony, NACS, United Fresh, Vantage Foods, OSRAM, Baldor, NGA, and SG Cowen. Mr. Hostetler has also designed and taught a number of executive development programs and strategy consulting projects globally, including the U. S., Great Britain, Holland, Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Brazil, Venezuela, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, India, Dubai, and Egypt.

Most recently, Clay Ellis served as the VP of Strategy and Business Development for Trilliant Food and Nutrition, working closely with the CEO to identify and evaluate acquisition and partnership opportunities to accelerate the company’s growth plans.

Prior to Trilliant, Clay spent over eight years in various corporate leadership roles with Daymon Worldwide, Inc., a retail branding, consumer experience marketing, sourcing, and advisory services company. Clay led multiple teams and a wide range of strategic initiatives that have had a positive impact on multiple business areas, increasing revenue, improving efficiencies, and driving overall performance.

Prior to joining Daymon, Clay worked in management consulting for both Andersen and KPMG, consulting within their retail and CPG practices. In these roles, he designed and implemented several strategic initiatives, including process reengineering, customer service improvement, customer value segmentation, brand positioning, and technology and revenue growth projects. Prior to that, Clay was a customer solutions executive for Symphony/Information Resources, Inc. (IRi), responsible for the development and delivery of analytic, modeled, and technological marketing solutions for Fortune 100 CPG manufacturers.

Clay holds a Master’s from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, an M.S. in Organizational Psychology from Springfield College, and a B.A. from Macalester College. He lives in Cos Cob, CT, with his wife, two kids, and goldendoodle.