Showcasing the 40 Under 40 Class of 2025
Kaylyn Aguilar
Associate Director, Marketing
Breaktime Media
Age: 33
Aguilar leads and shapes the development and direction of Breaktime Media's marketing department. She spearheaded creative award submissions in the industry, resulting in six wins in 2024. Her efforts also resulted in the company winning an Inspiring Workplace Award for the third consecutive year, a Built In Best Places to Work award for the second consecutive year, and Ragan Wellness Awards. She led the direction for multiple articles that were published about Breaktime Media in leading industry outlets, including MediaPost, CPGMatters, Retail Touchpoints and the Path to Purchase Institute, and she researched, developed and pitched topics that secured a speaking opportunity at P2PI LIVE.
Aguilar organized logistics and built a custom landing page for registration and promotion of Breaktime Media’s first-ever in-person event in Bentonville, Arkansas, which welcomed more than 100 attendees, as well as in-person gatherings in Minneapolis and Springdale, Arkansas. She has been instrumental in building and recruiting the company’s marketing team and advancing its output through coaching and internal training, resulting in more impactful marketing initiatives and expanded company visibility.
Further, she launched a referral program with a charitable tie-in and the “Playbooks” series, offering in-depth client content guides. She built and launched the company’s “Insights and News” blog page, overseeing project management and website design. She is most proud of the team’s growth this year. With more than a decade of experience in B2B marketing, Aguilar combines strategic vision with operational excellence to drive growth and innovation.
FUN FACT: Aguilar can recite "The Canterbury Tales" prologue in Middle English.
Tessa Allen
North America Commerce Lead
Mars United Commerce
Age: 33
At Mars United Commerce, Allen serves as the North American commerce lead for a blue-chip commerce client, overseeing a team of approximately 60 members and delivering more than $150 million in commerce media planning and activation. She was in the role for less than one month before leading the full business transition and completing it in two weeks, which is historically about six months of work.
Before this role, she was the global CEO’s chief of staff, a newly created role that required day-to-day work as well as creating the job description for the role. While in that position, Allen oversaw a complete management changeover in the company’s Australia and New Zealand market with 100% staff retention.
She has also guided the integration for the transformation of an experiential/shopper marketing agency into the full-service Mars United Commerce organization, and played a major role in developing the go-to-market strategy for the company, leading up to its acquisition by Publicis Groupe, and helping to craft the narrative that accurately reflected its value proposition and growth potential. After the acquisition, she led the integration of the organization, spanning from IT and system roadmaps to live Q&A town halls with staff to ensure 100% retention.
FUN FACT: Allen has lived in five states and has moved eight times in the past 10 years.
Erin Bailey
Partner and Chief Client Officer
Matrixx CPG
Age: 38
Bailey played a major role in the agency-wide joint business planning strategy and execution for key media partnerships, including Walmart Connect and Instacart in 2025, and championed the company-wide rollout of AI integration into its retail media optimization and reporting strategy. Additionally, she helped launch a Professional Development Roadmap, which included introducing clear growth pathways and standardized language to guide employees in skill-building and career progression.
She piloted a first-to-market retail media collaboration across produce and meat categories at Ahold Delhaize USA that included in-store digital signage, in-store radio, influencer, paid social, on-site and off-site display banners and traditional shelf blades. She further led a multi-brand Cinco de Mayo campaign at Publix, where one participating brand saw nearly 20% unit lift with a 2.59 times iROAS, and another brand had its highest week of unit sales year-to-date during the program. In the past year Bailey led company-wide workshops to upskill employees in data analysis and visualization, assisted clients with major top-to-top meeting materials, and developed templates, rules and a best-in-class database to support team members and reduce reporting turnaround time by 30%.
In mid-2024, several executive parental leaves overlapped at once, including her own. She says the team rose to the occasion, strengthened each other and created an experience that became a powerful example of true collaboration. Bailey joined Matrixx in 2009 and has held several positions of increasing responsibility before being named to her current post in January 2022.
FUN FACT: Bailey can play the flute and saxophone, and she's learning ragtime piano. Her favorite genre of music is ska, and she once appeared in a Reel Big Fish music video. She has two daughters, or three if you include Yuki, her Staffordshire Terrier.
Elisia Bielawski
Director, Commerce Experience
Arc Worldwide
Age: 30
Bielawski says her team is always pushing creative boundaries while grounding its work in shopper insights, both digitally and in-store. This past year, she and her team enjoyed exploring new platforms and content to connect brand storytelling with shoppable moments. One standout was a holiday campaign featuring talent from ABC television show "The Bachelor" that was activated across social and retail media channels to blend cultural relevance with shoppability and drive a strong sales lift.
She also led the launch of a brand-first immersive augmented reality experience in partnership with the National Park Foundation, offering a new way for consumers to engage with the brand. Bielawski played a key role in building a collaborative task force to better connect social activations across national and commerce. By breaking down silos and streamlining workflows, she continues to strengthen commerce’s role as a strategic and creative part of the brand experience.
Bielawski began her career as a video producer, but soon after started her advertising journey in shopper media as an investment associate. Since then, she’s grown within the commerce space, witnessing its rapid evolution across the CPG landscape. Today, Bielawski advocates for the vital role of commerce in brand strategies, strengthening its integration to deepen connections and drive business impact.
FUN FACT: Bielawski taught herself how to juggle in college in case she needed a plan B. She still practices here and there just to keep her options open.
Willy Blesener
Senior Vice President, Media
Mars United Commerce
Age: 37
Blesener led the commerce and retail media onboarding of a major blue chip CPG advertiser in a two-week period after assuming his current post only three months prior. He joined Mars and Publicis in January after a decade-long career dedicated to retail media, most recently within Omnicom and Flywheel, helping to architect their retail media analytics practices.
Blesener started his career as an intern at Advantage Solutions under the president of digital technology. He quickly transferred to its first e-commerce agency acquisition, SageTree, where he was a copywriter supporting e-commerce clients with PDP SEO optimizations. From there he moved to leading SageTree’s business analytics division. He and his small team also oversaw all Amazon advertising services on behalf of its clients. Blesener spearheaded the development of SageTree's and Beekeeper's retail media capabilities, extending beyond Amazon as Walmart, Kroger, Instacart and Albertsons each came to market with its own individual on-site advertising offerings.
He then created Advantage Solutions’ cross-agency media team that services all retail media capabilities in partnership with shopper marketing and in-store sales management, leading a team of more than 80 across six different agencies within Advantage.
FUN FACT: Blesener was once in a Nickelodeon commercial.
Naama Bornstein
Director of Product Management
Skai
Age: 38
Bornstein led the day-to-day development of Celeste AI, the first generative AI-powered marketing agent purpose-built for omnichannel commerce media that is helping marketers ask natural-language questions and get actionable insights instantly. More than 50 brands have adopted it, yielding 30%-50% time savings and 10%-20% campaign improvements. She is proud of successfully launching the platform, and for being able to help marketers and brands improve their performance and time efficiency. She is also a Gen AI advocate, shaping Skai’s broader AI vision and driving product managers and others to take their first innovation steps as part of the Gen AI revolution.
Bornstein has been in her position for four years and has led several product developments that combine AI and analytics capabilities to form tools that empower data-driven decisions, including Celeste AI; Skai Decision Pro; an executive-level AI suite; and Impact Navigator, the company’s incrementality testing solution. Prior to that, as part of an 11-year journey in a technological unit of the Israel Defense Forces (as Major rank), she had various product management roles. Her most recent endeavor was leading a data science research and development group, providing end-to-end AI solutions for the Israeli Ground Forces.
As part of her service, she also took an active part in the IDF’s product management training program, founded the first product management course in the IDF, and led workshops to improve reliance on outcome thinking, along with mentoring product managers in their initial roles.
FUN FACT: Bornstein has been doing reformer Pilates lessons for 14 years now — and loves it.
Eric Brackmann
Vice President, Commerce Media
Koddi
Age: 39
Brackmann has led several transformative initiatives in commerce media over the last year, including launching Grubhub Ads, which now empowers more than 375,000 merchants to reach millions of consumers. He drove the successful migration of Gopuff’s retail media program to the Koddi Ads platform, resulting in more than 40% incremental purchases per user. Brackmann also advanced Kroger’s on-site media capabilities, launched Kohl’s new off-site media network to expand reach for brand partners, and scaled Booking Holdings’ unified commerce media network, fueling rapid advertiser adoption and growth.
Beyond client impact, he has championed AI-driven innovation within Koddi Ads, rolling out tools that have delivered significant performance gains across networks. He has actively participated on IAB committees and launched Koddi Academy, which continues to educate and certify hundreds of marketers in commerce media best practices. Brackmann is most proud of the client wins the company achieved this year and the durable, high-performing team he’s helped to build in his nearly eight-year tenure.
One of Koddi’s earliest employees, he has been instrumental in the company’s growth. He assumed his current post in May 2023. Brackmann is a trusted adviser for top business leaders and brands including Booking.com, Grubhub, Cars.com, Fanatics, Kroger and Gopuff, driving performance, optimizing yield and unlocking new revenue streams. Prior to Koddi, he held roles at Criteo, HookLogic and Accenture.
FUN FACT: Brackmann’s favorite way to unwind is tackling a good renovation project. He says there’s something rewarding about building in the real world after spending his days building in the digital one. He’s currently finishing his basement with the end goal being a space that’s part retreat, part home gym and part large playroom, at least according to his kids.
Joe Conti
Managing Director
HMT Associates
Age: 34
Conti and his team lead HMT’s partnership with Mondelez International in omnichannel commerce, which includes driving planning initiatives with headquarters across more than 25 grocery brand and scale programs and 12 convenience-store programs. Beyond planning, his team serves as the omnichannel activation partner for the field sales organization, bringing programming to more than 30 regional and local grocery customers such as Hy-Vee, Giant Eagle, UNFI, Lowes Foods and Southeastern Grocers. Conti and his team onboarded two new client accounts this year, Tropicana Brands Group and Health & Happiness Group (Zesty Paws), expanding HMT into new categories, broadening the agency’s portfolio and driving bottom-line growth.
As a leader in the second-generation family business, Conti oversees the agency’s day-to-day operations. In partnership with his sister, Mandi Kleppel, he has driven strategic planning to strengthen the internal team structure, elevate key leaders and build partnerships that position HMT for future growth. He is most proud of the fact that their work has enabled founder and CEO Patti Conti to step back from daily operations.
Conti began his career in Cincinnati with News America Marketing (now Neptune Retail Solutions), where he built a strong foundation in the CPG marketing space, gaining first-hand experience in retail sales and shopper marketing. He then joined Mondelez for four years before transitioning into his family business in late 2018 to lead business development.
FUN FACT: Conti is a lifelong Cleveland sports fan, a proud Labrador dad to Paisley, and he once helped the Cleveland Bobcats win an intramural basketball championship. So, between cheering, fetch and basketball, life is never dull.
Danielle DeGrandis
Shopper Marketing Manager
Flora Food Group
Age: 39
DeGrandis was promoted in January to build a shopper role that brings all end-to-end shopper marketing responsibilities for Walmart and Sam’s Club in-house at the company. She was tasked with strategically planning and executing all shopper marketing efforts while testing new processes and ways of working with internal Flora teams, agency teams and Walmart Connect/MAP teams in an effort to build the roadmap to expand this effort to other key retailers in the future. She also collaborated with brand and agency partners to plan and execute a holistic launch program for the company’s most recent launches within the Violife brand.
The cream cheese block launch in 2024 included developing a new Flora test model for a regional, ZIP code-based test market. DeGrandis was responsible for leading retailer-specific omnichannel planning across Miami and Austin test markets at key retailers. The test resulted in increased brand awareness and a spike in units per store per week of 140%. Violife’s new category launch of coffee creamers gained distribution at Walmart in January.
DeGrandis led shopper efforts, including omnichannel shopper marketing and an out-of-store experience at the Lifetime Miami Marathon. The launch program drove up to 2 times units per store per week during key promotional weeks when compared to base units, and the learnings are paving the way for all key retailer plans this year and 2026. DeGrandis’ career has been built through strategic digital planning and execution for CPG brands through programmatic startups, social agencies and shopper marketing.
FUN FACT: Cooking is not only a stress release for DeGrandis, but she has always loved preparing a home-cooked meal for friends and family and experiencing the joy of sitting around the table together.
Sankett Deshpande
Director of Product – Off-site, AdTech and Data
CVS Media Exchange
Age: 39
Deshpande successfully led the launch of CVS Media Exchange’s programmatic self-service offering this year, partnering with The Trade Desk to enable advertisers to operate with more autonomy, transparency and data-driven insights. He also led enhancements that strengthened campaign efficiency and performance across CMX’s off-site and on-site channels. His work focused on leading data clean room initiatives with key players, including Pinterest and LiveRamp, to provide privacy-safe closed-loop reporting.
Further, he successfully led the launch of a first-of-its-kind health and wellness retail media collaboration between CMX and Reddit that will help transform how brands engage with consumers. For the first time, advertisers will be able to connect with shoppers within authentic, interest-based communities on Reddit, leveraging the power of CVS Pharmacy’s more than 90 million addressable ExtraCare members with Reddit’s 108 million daily active unique visitors.
Sankett has more than 16 years of experience successfully planning, developing and executing roles across multimillion-dollar marketing initiatives for Fortune 100 companies. He has expertise in e-commerce and cross-channel marketing strategies, leading teams of varying sizes up to 65 team members. He has successfully launched consumer experiences across web, mobile (push, SMS, MMS, in-app), email, real-time interactions, paid-media (search – SEM, SEO, display, paid social, affiliate) channels, loyalty service and other marketing communications, and has a proven track record of implementing marketing automation solutions that leverage powerful aspects of sophisticated marketing technology (martech and adtech), while delivering impactful results.
FUN FACT: Deshpande played cricket for Team USA. He is an avid runner, biker and restores cars during his free time.
Andrene Dos Anjos
Digital Commerce Manager, North America
Wonderbrands
Age: 36
Dos Anjos in her previous role helped bring a store-of-the-future concept to life with a major retail partner this year, integrating the in-store and online experience in a way that's now scaling nationally. While at Mars Petcare Canada, she also led two innovation launches across her portfolio and advanced the company’s retail media strategies, ensuring that its brand storytelling connects with measurable results at the point of conversion.
As a speaker at P2PI's Retail Media Summit Canada this year, she shared her passion for retail media on a larger stage. It was a professional milestone and a personal achievement, giving her the chance to connect with peers across the industry. Dos Anjos started her career in out-of-home advertising, where she first saw the importance of brand storytelling and how consumers connect with it in the real world. Her path then led her into e-commerce as a digital category merchandiser, a pivotal role that opened her eyes to the power of data, digital shelves and the opportunity to bring brand stories to life online.
Today she draws on her advertising, e-commerce and brand-building experiences to deliver integrated strategies that connect with consumers across channels. Her work in retail media and connected commerce reflects where the industry is heading. She says she is motivated to ensure Wonderbrands shows up meaningfully at the point of conversion.
FUN FACT: Dos Anjos was featured on a reality TV show.
Mateusz Drela
Chief Executive Officer
Retail Media IQ
Age: 39
This past year, Drela founded Retail Media IQ (RMIQ), the first agentic AI platform for retail media optimization and activation. He is proud of launching the company’s first-to-market specialist retail media platform that will make buying and optimizing retail media as easy as it is to buy search or programmatic ads. Drela has spent his career at the intersection of advertising and technology, helping build and scale companies in the digital media space.
He began his professional journey at Procter & Gamble before moving into adtech, where he joined Elephant Traffic, one of the first zero-click ad networks, as a member of the original team. In 2012, he co-founded Codewise, the parent company of Zeropark, and helped scale the business from a startup into one of Europe’s fastest-growing adtech companies. At Zeropark, he played a central role in growing the platform from the ground up to a valuation of more than $100 million, establishing it as a recognized innovator in programmatic advertising and real-time bidding (RTB) technology. Codewise itself went on to achieve significant international scale before being acquired by Team Internet, a publicly listed company.
As the founder of RMIQ, he built on more than 15 years of experience in adtech and performance marketing, and is now focused on applying AI-driven optimization and data-led strategy to one of the fastest-growing areas in digital advertising.
FUN FACT: Drela is a passionate fly fisherman and skier.
Emily Fleming
Senior Marketing Manager, Shopper and Digital Commerce
Carbone Fine Food
Age: 34
Fleming achieved Carbone's Walmart.com e-penetration goal in just over a year following distribution, underscoring her ability to drive rapid digital growth and deliver results. She has been in her current post since January, promoted from digital commerce and shopper marketing manager, the position she held since joining the company in mid-2023.
As a panel speaker for Instacart's Emerging Brand Team, she highlighted the unique challenges emerging brands face and served as a valued thought partner. Carbone Fine Food has earned a slot on Instacart's Top 75 Emerging Brand list two years in a row. Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Fleming has spent 12 years in CPG with a focus on omnichannel and shopper marketing in food and beauty. She now leads shopper and omni marketing across Carbone’s top 10 retailers, e-commerce and paid media.
Previously, she managed shopper marketing for the Clif Bar & Co. portfolio for more than five years, most recently leading and executing strategic omnichannel plans to support its North American business and working with cross-functional stakeholders to layer trade, integrated and shopper activations across key customers.
FUN FACT: Fleming was recently featured in Vogue ... in the background of a wedding photo.
Niccolo Gloazzo
Senior Director of Media and Omnichannel
Kettle & Fire
Age: 35
Gloazzo built the entire omnichannel team at the company while creating omnichannel campaigns that extend from online to offline. He also led efforts to scale retail media spend above seven figures while maintaining strong return on ad spend and new-to-brand percentages to hit velocity targets.
He is most proud of his work this past year in launching a retail media agency, QBR Media, with a former Kettle & Fire colleague and scaling in less than one year to more than 20 CPG food and beverage brands while working full time. The agency became an Instacart preferred partner with more than $6 million of Instacart advertising media managed in 14 months.
Gloazzo has spent more than six years leading omnichannel growth at Kettle & Fire, starting with direct-to-consumer and expanding into retail media networks. He effectively turned retail media from an experimental line item into a core growth lever that drives measurable in-store velocity for the company.
FUN FACT: Gloazzo likes to leave 1-star reviews on Google Maps. Radical candor.
Branden Goodman
Head of Digital Marketing, Media & E-Commerce, Beauty and Wellbeing
Unilever
Age: 34
Goodman re-architected Unilever’s U.S. Beauty & Wellbeing organization to embed commerce and full-funnel thinking across teams and brands by founding a new retail marketing function — bridging retail media and shopper marketing inside brand workflows. He also co-led the stand up of WPP Unite, a more than 120-person bespoke agency model driving end-to-end integration across media and commerce.
This past year, he reinvented how Unilever partners with Amazon, Walmart and Target through audience-first, commerce-led programming. Goodman also architected a step-change Amazon strategy that beat sales goals by 50% and set a new bar for brand storytelling, such as a 2024 Prime Day activation for Nexxus. Partnering with media personality Paige Desorbo, the activation delivered a 30 times purchase rate lift via connected video, live commerce and on-site media.
In leading media, e-commerce and digital marketing for Unilever’s U.S. Beauty & Wellbeing division, Goodman translates complex strategies into clear, actionable growth plans, integrates national and retail media, and drives digital transformation. His career spans global and U.S. leadership roles across marketing innovation, portfolio development and media operations in the CPG industry. He has been recognized for building cross-functional teams, accelerating Amazon and omnichannel strategies, and embedding innovation into marketing operations.
FUN FACT: The only phone number Goodman has memorized is his own.
Candice Gray
Vice President, Brand Commerce
New Engen
Age: 39
Gray led the launch of New Engen’s creator-led commerce solution, integrating affiliate link tracking and closed-loop attribution to connect creator engagement with measurable retail outcomes. Within 60 days, the solution drove more than $1 million in revenue and secured adoption from major CPG brands. She is most proud of building something that empowers brands to see real consumer behavior — down to what’s in the basket at checkout — and of mentoring her team through the process so they could grow alongside the work.
This past year her team also delivered a more than $46 return on ad spend on a Walmart Connect and 3M partnership campaign, proving the ability to link authentic creator content to performance at scale. Gray played a supporting role in Cannes Lions and Effie Awards-recognized campaigns in 2024, advancing best practices in influencer and retail media strategy. She also co-presented with Mondelez International and Walmart Connect at an exclusive client event, sharing insights on omnichannel measurement and the role of creator campaigns in driving holiday sales. Additionally, she built cross-category sales expertise across her team, with a focus on empowering women to lead in high-stakes, under-represented environments.
Throughout her 15-year career, Gray has held senior roles spanning sales, marketing and category leadership, with a track record of building high-performing teams and pioneering new revenue streams. She first joined New Engen in 2022 as vice president of sales before moving into her current role in 2025.
FUN FACT: Gray loves Mondays.
Anne Harrell
Head of Product Enablement
Pacvue
Age: 31
Harrell played an instrumental role in leading Pacvue’s platform integration with media giant GroupM (now WPP Media). She led discussions between the companies to build a bespoke solution that combines GroupM’s unique data, insights and best practices with Pacvue’s innovative technology to meet their customer needs. She also worked across teams to bring Pacvue’s iROAS Dashboard to market, partnering with the company’s data science team to utilize best-in-class data science and machine learning techniques to create a system that enables brands to accurately measure incrementality, understand campaign effectiveness, optimize marketing spend and improve strategic planning. Harrell also collaborated between teams to ensure Pacvue’s offerings evolved in alignment with the needs of brands and agencies, which resulted in exclusive, high-value capabilities that drive measurable competitive advantages.
In the last year Harrell played a pivotal role in Pacvue’s expansion into the social commerce space. Partnering closely with the company’s technical and partnership teams, she helped envision, design and execute Pacvue’s inaugural TikTok integration, which launched in May and has been met with strong enthusiasm from leading Pacvue clients with six clients onboarded into the alpha program within weeks and other customers on the waitlist.
She is becoming a thought leader in the retail media space, having led dozens of webinars, panels and fireside chats, and has spoken on stage with industry experts from retailers such as Amazon and Instacart to help bring broader awareness to the channel.
FUN FACT: Harrell recently was married during a celebration in Scotland.
Casey Harsh
Senior Vice President, U.S. Commerce
UM, IPG Mediabrands
Age: 31
Over the past year, Harsh has served as commerce lead for the General Mills business, a role that has allowed her to drive meaningful change across multiple facets of the account. She built her team during the first year of onboarding and has led the evolution and expansion of the partnership, collaborating closely with General Mills, retail media networks and internal teams across departments to break down silos and create more integrated solutions. Her team today is not only driving impact but also gaining recognition across the industry. In addition to account leadership, she has also supported the expansion of the broader commerce business, contributing to new business pitches and helping shape the buildout of new offerings within IPG.
One of Harsh’s proudest achievements this past year has been the opportunity to represent both her team and company onstage at several leading industry conferences. Speaking to audiences of peers, partners and clients, she has shared insights and best practices, highlighting the progress being made in commerce media. Harsh has been with UM for more than seven years.
Her experience spans multiple industries, with a particular focus on CPG, where she has helped brands unlock new growth opportunities by developing integrated omnichannel strategies. She has partnered with some of the world’s leading brands, giving her a unique understanding of the challenges and opportunities within today’s evolving commerce landscape.
FUN FACT: Harsh has a true passion for travel and exploring new places. Over the past year, she has traveled both internationally and domestically while embracing a bicoastal lifestyle through work. Travel continues to fuel her perspective, creativity and appreciation for new experiences — and the best part is getting to share many of these adventures with her dog, Kali, who flies right alongside her.
Eleanor Hayden
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Veriti
Age: 32
Hayden founded Veriti, a full-service shopper marketing and retail media agency, in 2021. It focuses on helping clean-label companies compete against legacy CPG giants. The team has supported more than 70 emerging food businesses both online and in stores across Instacart, Target, Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods and DoorDash, building the retail velocities and customer segments these brands need for long-term success.
This past year, Veriti saw notable client results across grocery categories, including a healthy pantry staple that reported a 13-times increase in attributed sales after just three months working with the agency, a 50% increase in average return on ad spend, and more than $569,000 platform profitability in five months. Additionally, a frozen grocery brand saw 26% of grocery retail revenue generated by Veriti and a 71% year-over-year increase in retail media revenue. After three years as Hayden Consultancy, working with mostly contractors, the company brought on its first full-time employees and now has a team of 15. The agency rebranded to Veriti, signifying a more accurate representation of its core values of transparency and integrity.
Hayden’s path to shopper marketing began in her first merchandising role at PepsiCo, where she witnessed how retail marketing was designed for massive budgets and teams. After moving through roles at emerging brands like Kodiak Cakes and Siete Foods, she saw how smaller, better-for-you companies faced the challenge of making their healthier products accessible to everyday consumers.
FUN FACT: Hayden was a foster parent to a total of 11 children in the Texas foster care system over the course of two years.
Melissa Homan
Shopper Marketing Manager
Talking Rain Beverage Co.
Age: 35
Homan led the company’s Rewired Tour with Walmart this year — a nationwide experiential marketing campaign that brought gaming, tech and influencer culture to more than 75 Walmart locations. The program featured Talking Rain Beverage Co.’s caffeinated line and 10-pack mini can launch, driving shopper engagement and brand visibility. She also orchestrated its national and regional Fetch program, a shopper marketing initiative leveraging Fetch Rewards, the mobile app that allows users to earn points by scanning receipts, shopping online and playing games. The program achieved double-digit growth through these efforts.
Homan is most proud of the Talking Rain Maker Spotlight Feature. She was recognized in May for Mental Health Awareness Month for sharing impactful best practices for maintaining balance and well-being in a fast-paced work environment. Homan began her career in the health and wellness space before moving into field marketing, where she built brand presence and led regional strategies.
From there she transitioned into CPG, focusing on better-for-you beverage categories and expanding into shopper marketing. What started with regional programs has grown into national account leadership, and today she oversees retail strategy and activation across Walmart, Target and club, driving omnichannel programs that strengthen brands, engage shoppers and deliver measurable sales impact.
FUN FACT: Homan was a competitive gymnast for 15 years, and she was voted the No. 3 best Pilates teacher in Austin, Texas, by Austin Fit Magazine.
Steffi Hudier
Director, Digital Commerce
Procter & Gamble
Age: 38
Hudier has elevated P&G's Walmart hair care e-commerce business to new heights, driving impressive year-over-year growth of 30%-50% and tripling the size of the digital business over the past three years. By forging strategic partnerships, she has established P&G as a thought leader in the digital space, which not only helped step change the company’s results but also led to recognition on a total company and industry level (i.e., winning an Effie award).
Hudier has spearheaded innovative strategies for P&G's hair care brands at Walmart, including Pantene, Head & Shoulders and Herbal Essences. She developed audience-focused strategies and full-funnel activations, customizing messages and tactics to align with shopper behaviors. In recent months, Hudier’s expertise in retail digital experiences has elevated her to a new role, where she will spearhead digital growth for hair care at Amazon. She takes great pride in her achievement of transforming Walmart's hair care digital business.
Hudier has been with P&G for 10 years, working in both Canada and the U.S. and holding six different roles. For the past eight years, she has been in hair care, where she has gained extensive experience in brand design, brand delivery, customer team marketing and digital acceleration.
FUN FACT: Hudier has a passion for travel and, this year, achieved one of her goals: visit all 50 states.
Bridget Johnson
Manager, Client Business Management – In-Store
Quad
Age: 27
Johnson played an integral role in shaping Quad’s In-Store platform, most recently launching a Client Business Management team tasked with 20% year-over-year growth for Quad’s in-store division. What started as a pilot role for her has grown into a high-performing team and strategic growth partner to clients, delivering value-engineered, scalable solutions that align directly with client goals.
As a subject matter expert for Accelerated Marketing Insights, Quad’s In-Store testing platform, she uses virtual store testing and consumer behavior data to help clients optimize performance and mitigate risk before going to market. She’s most proud when she sees her work in stores, knowing every detail contributed to a better shopper experience. In 2024, she drove $12 million in revenue across retail and CPG clients. Johnson drives omnichannel programs that combine creative, production, technology and testing across mass and specialty retail, CPG, cosmetic/beauty, grocery, pet, c-store and home improvement verticals.
She joined Quad In-Store as a strategic account specialist in 2020, driving organic growth and leading existing account relationships. Then, as a senior account specialist, she was responsible for further developing and leading new client onboarding. Promoted to client business manager for In-Store in late 2023, she supported integrated net-new client growth opportunities and acted as the key in-store subject matter expert. Johnson’s team continuously fuels the in-store division for growth.
FUN FACT: Johnson is an avid traveler. This year, she’s exploring Italy and Poland for the first time.
Carly Johnson
Senior Vice President, Group Director of Strategy
Momentum Worldwide
Age: 35
Johnson led the strategic development of the multi-award-winning in-stadium experience Purina Club, the first-ever permanent pet-friendly stadium space in Major League Soccer. For this unique partnership between Purina and St. Louis City SC, stadium architects collaborated with Purina pet experts and scientists to design the space to ensure pets have a positive and safe experience.
Johnson and her team engaged local and national talent from the soccer and St. Louis communities as well as selected petfluencers to increase awareness of the partnership and in-stadium activation. She also developed a new scorecard system to track experiential opportunities to sales and hold all vendors accountable. Through combined earned and paid media efforts, the Purina Club generated more than 28 million impressions and more than 40 media stories around the globe, from influencer partnerships with the biggest pets on social media to being recognized as the 2023 MLS Corporate Sponsorship Activation of the Year.
Under her leadership, Momentum’s Commerce vertical has achieved significant growth in recent years. Johnson is currently spearheading Momentum’s retail media offering in close partnership with IPG Mediabrands, bridging the gap between creativity and execution to ensure the right message reaches the right shopper at the right time. She is most proud of helping to secure one of the largest competitive pitches of 2024: Kellanova’s appointment of Momentum as its commerce agency of record.
FUN FACT: Cooking is a passion, but you'll rarely see Johnson following a recipe.
Allyssa Kaiser
Vice President, Direct-to-Consumer and Performance Marketing
Nest New York
Age: 34
Kaiser oversees Nest New York’s direct-to-consumer business, including online flagship NestNewYork.com, Amazon, global performance marketing and customer service. Over the past five years, she has led the digital transformation of the business, driving year-over-year double-digit revenue growth, scaling customer acquisition and supporting international expansion. Her work includes growing Nest’s direct-to-consumer presence in North America and supporting retail partners, including Sephora and Ulta Beauty, with brand-led media campaigns.
She is committed to team development and mentorship, and she fosters a collaborative, high-performing culture rooted in inclusivity and accountability, leading a predominantly female digital team while mentoring both women and men across the organization. She was named a Class of 2025 Innovator Honoree by Amazing Women in eCommerce (AWIE) and a finalist for The 2% Club's Top 10 Women in Wellness. Kaiser has more than 12 years of experience driving impactful media and marketing strategies for category-leading and emerging brands. Known for her results-driven approach, she has consistently demonstrated her ability to lead high-performing teams and achieve ambitious business objectives.
Kaiser began her career on the agency side (Publicis, Dentsu, IPG) working with clients in diverse industries such as financial services, technology and consumer packaged goods. She then transitioned to the brand side, gaining experience in sports and entertainment, fashion and beauty. In 2021, she joined the lifestyle fragrance brand Nest New York, and in 2024, she was promoted to her current post.
FUN FACT: With a trip to Hawaii planned for this fall, Kaiser will have officially visited all 50 states.
Julia Kallevant
Senior Manager, Shopper Marketing
Treasury Wine Estates
Age: 33
Over the past year, Kallevant has developed four innovative trade marketing tools that are now actively utilized by the company’s sales teams. She also designed and implemented two engaging in-store event solutions to meet customers’ ongoing demand for unique experiences, and she's repeatedly led cross-functional teams in evaluating campaign effectiveness and optimizing marketing spend. Additionally, she played a key role in supporting the successful launch of a new-to-world wine brand.
Kallevant has been with Treasury Wine Estates for the past nine years, both in California and Ohio. She joined the company in customer marketing, where she held four roles with increasing responsibility before transitioning to field marketing. She was named to her current post in July 2024.
Prior to her time at TWE, she worked for Oyster Bay/Delegat Wines in brand marketing for four years. She started her career working in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings, where she had the opportunity to meet Shaquille O'Neal.
FUN FACT: Kallevant is a dual American-Italian citizen.
Gene Karaffa
Senior Shopper Marketing Manager
Horizon Organic Dairy
Age: 39
Karaffa joined Horizon Organic Dairy in February 2024 and has since developed post-program analysis templates that integrate data from internal teams such as demand planning, insights and finance as well as external retail media partners to measure incremental investment impact and share insights with senior leaders.
He is most proud of his work this past year carving out all Horizon Organic shopper marketing activities from Danone after its sale. He led efforts to consolidate budgets and projects from more than 10 shopper managers at the former company to one Horizon Organic source of truth for all retailers. He says it was a tremendous team effort with his director, Sydney Whedon, and cross-functional partners at Horizon Family Brands.
Karaffa began his career on the agency side with a summer internship at BEN Marketing, planning more than 50 Sara Lee Fresh Bread sampling events at minor-league ballparks. (Karaffa's pro tip: Avoid sampling bread on free beer night.) He then joined Ogilvy in New York, spending five years managing omnichannel Disney partnerships for Sara Lee and Hillshire Farm, including collaborations with "High School Musical 3" and "Toy Story 3." Later he joined Crispin Porter + Bogusky, managing projects for brands such as Domino’s, American Airlines, Hershey and Kraft before leading shopper marketing at Boulder Brands. After Pinnacle’s acquisition, he continued with Conagra, overseeing shopper marketing across 15 key retailers, including Albertsons.
FUN FACT: Karaffa was a Domino's hand model. His hands are still featured on the Domino's iPad App, holding a box of pizza.
Tiffany Williams Khan
Group Vice President, Brand Sales
Inmar Intelligence
Age: 38
Khan led the team that achieved Inmar’s highest-ever coupon redemption rates this past year, underscoring her impact on performance, shopper engagement and incentive innovation. She oversaw the team's strategic adoption of Inmar's Fitscore solution, delivering double-digit retail sales lift by enhancing the precision of creator and campaign targeting. She also co-developed training modules and value calculators to shift teams from transactional sales to insight-driven, transparent partnerships with CPG clients.
Khan designs and hosts webinars focused on consumer trends, retail innovation and brand activation strategy, and she actively mentors rising talent within the organization and broader industry, with a focus on inclusive leadership and professional development. She also contributes to industry associations and thought leadership initiatives that promote growth and collaboration in the marketing and retail ecosystem. Khan is focused on mentoring and developing her team. She leads more than 90 associates with a focus on empowering teams to deliver exceptional client outcomes. Under her guidance, scalable, insight-led strategies drive measurable value to CPG and retail clients.
She has served in several CPG and retail development roles throughout her nearly decade-long career at Inmar, and she previously held leadership roles at Scout Marketing (now Accenture Song) and News America Marketing (now Neptune Retail Services.)
FUN FACT: Khan is a big advocate for animal rescue and has personally fostered more than 30 dogs, successfully adopting all of them to loving forever homes.
Brad Montgomery
Commercial Lead, APAC
QSIC
Age: 35
Montgomery joined QSIC in September 2024 and has since built a plan to establish a sales function from the ground up, creating a team, working closely with marketing to deliver a clear go-to-market strategy, and aligning with key strategic partnerships to boost QSIC’s profile. This included multiple market-facing initiatives such as event sponsorships, thought-leadership pieces in trade press, retail media dinners and site tours.
He played a critical role in expanding QSIC’s regional footprint, leading and pitching large-scale RFPs, and driving adoption of retail media audio across Asia Pacific. Montgomery’s key achievements include a 36% increase in logo count within 12 months across QSR, retail, and health and beauty. He also secured Wingstop’s flagship Sydney location, delivering a fully curated in-store audio experience aligned to the brand’s identity, generating significant press across multiple markets. He built the APAC network sales function from the ground up, securing talent and establishing strong operational foundations for long-term success, and partnered with customer success to streamline processes and lift client satisfaction through survey insights.
After 15 years in media sales, he took a (strategic) leap of faith into the tech and retail media space this past year. He also became a fourth-generation farmer, working alongside his brothers to run his family’s beef operation. Montgomery has more than 15 years of experience in audio and out-of-home advertising, including leadership roles in Australia and the UK.
FUN FACT: Montgomery is an identical twin.
Dylan Mueller
Vice President, Retail Media
Digits
Age: 38
Mueller launched St. Cloud, Minnesota-based Coborn's retail media network, one of the newest regional grocer retail media networks. He also launched Digits’ c-store retail media network, which is the first regional and independent convenience store retail media network. A more than seven-year veteran of the agency, he is most proud of his recent work launching these two networks. This past year he also continued to lead Midwest grocery company Fareway Stores' online shopping vendor media network.
Mueller heads both Digits’ media and retail media network teams, supporting retail media growth in both retailer and brand partnerships, including new solutions in the BevAlc space. He has also successfully established core media and tech partnerships with The Trade Desk, InMarket, Meta, Rippl, Walmart Connect, Kroger Precision Marketing, PubMatic, Vroom Delivery, Instacart, Birdzi and others. Mueller spent the first decade of his career at Target.
He began as a business analyst intern and then spent the next seven years in merchandising, from an analyst and supply chain expert in home categories to a merchandise planning manager in entertainment and electronics, and finally, senior buyer in grocery. He finished his time at Target in loyalty marketing, leading Target Circle (formerly Cartwheel) for food and beverages. He then made the jump from Target to Digits, where he started as director of digital media and finance before being promoted to his current post in January 2022.
FUN FACT: Mueller is a dad to two little girls, Sophia (7) and Margo (5).
Melissa Myres
Director, Account Management
Kroger Precision Marketing Powered by 84.51°
Age: 39
Myres has been instrumental in translating data into actionable strategies, paving the way for her clients to win with new innovations such as 84.51° Collaborative Cloud and Digital Journey. In addition to helping CPGs grow their brands, she has shown tremendous success leading her team to meet and exceed their goals.
Since the unification of insights, media and loyalty marketing functions under the newly named Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) Powered by 84.51˚ was announced, Myres has been leading a team of account managers who are tasked with helping brand marketers across every stage of the product lifecycle, from product innovation to campaign activations. She is an active advocate for CPG and retail community development, and she regularly shares her expertise to elevate education and thought leadership within the industry.
This past year, she won 84.51°’s Golden Microphone Award for increasing awareness through industry events and thought leadership. During that time, she participated in 25 industry articles, 12 interviews, one byline, two podcasts and two conference presentations. Myres joined 84.51° in 2020 as an insights account manager, where she managed a portfolio of CPG clients helping them translate data and insights into strategy. She started her career as an intern at Procter & Gamble, where she spent more than 11 years selling a variety of brands to retailers across multiple channels.
FUN FACT: Despite winning a 40 Under 40 award, Myres’ spirit more closely aligns with those double her age with her favorite hobbies being quilting and knitting. She has been known to enter the occasional county fair.
Leo Nagdas
Head of Corporate Development and Ventures
Dunnhumby
Age: 33
Nagdas has been working to establish an industry-first integrated corporate development model at dunnhumby, combining open innovation, incubation, partnerships and venture investing into a single streamlined mechanism for sourcing, testing and launching new AI-enabled propositions. He built a team that successfully identified, co-developed and launched five new offerings to its retailer and brand clients with partners, including Synerise, Osmos, Placer.ai and Bridg. These have supercharged dunnhumby’s and its partners’ offerings in areas such as retail media, loyalty, assortment optimization and commerce strategy, and started delivering measurable value creation to retailers and brands around the world.
In addition to proposition innovation, newly revamped dunnhumby ventures paved the path to future innovation by making early stage investments in startups such as Augmodo, Harmonya and Stitched Insights. Nagdas also founded the Retail Innovation Network by dunnhumby ventures, the fastest growing open innovation ecosystem in retail technology, connecting more than 500 pioneering members within its first year. Early success of this venture, highlighted by its international Retail Innovation Forum event and collaborative thought leadership series, has also inspired the launch of dunnhumby Incubate, a new program allowing anyone to propose incubation ideas for collaborative proposition building from the ground up.
Nagdas is also an innovation advisor to the National Retailer Federation (NRF) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). His diverse career journey in technology has included being a B2B services startup founder, corporate finance advisor, operator, strategist and venture investor.
FUN FACT: Nagdas used to be a competitive pianist and composer.
Sarah Nesheim
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Crafted
Age: 30
Over the past year, Nesheim has led Crafted’s expansion into retail attribution, combining creator content with in-store proof-of-purchase to close the loop between social and sales. She helped launch Crafted Convert, a first-party incentives tool now used by brands like Jack Link's and Lifeway to measure true in-store lift. Under her leadership, Crafted doubled revenue, grew its creator community to 10,000, and became a go-to partner for retail-focused influencer campaigns across Walmart, Target, Dollar General and other major retailers.
Nesheim is proud of making Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2025, an accolade she's dreamed of since she was a kid, and says P2PI’s 40 Under 40 is the next best thing. Before founding Crafted, Nesheim turned her hobby of cooking into a business that sits at the intersection of commerce and content, helping brands translate culture into measurable growth. She co-founded Crafted to solve a problem she saw first-hand in CPG marketing — the inability to connect influencer content to retail results.
Today, Crafted empowers lean marketing teams to activate thousands of creators at scale, capture receipts as proof of purchase and optimize media for real-world conversion. Her leadership style blends product thinking with storytelling, helping brands navigate the evolving world of retail media, AI and creator-driven commerce.
FUN FACT: Nesheim started a run club for retail and marketing folks. They run 5 kilometers at every conference they attend.
Emily Nguyen
Director of Accounts and Business Development
Kendal King Group
Age: 39
Nguyen has led several large-scale retail programs at Walmart, managing end-to-end execution from creative development through in-store activation this past year. She has overseen national display rollouts for multiple CPG brands, ensuring on-time delivery and sales impact throughout her 13-year tenure with the company. Most recently, she is proud of her work successfully co-leading the KKG team through the execution of a multimillion-dollar holiday program, balancing complex logistics and supplier partnerships while exceeding client sales goals.
Nguyen’s daily work includes overseeing retail strategy and execution for various Fortune 500 brands, as well as developing growth strategies that expand distribution, drive household penetration and improve profitability. She has more than a decade of experience in shopper marketing and display management, specializing in building strong client relationships and delivering impactful retail solutions.
Prior to her time at KKG, Nguyen spent more than four years at Walmart as a merchandise order specialist and then a product development coordinator.
FUN FACT: Nguyen can back a GMC Yukon XL into a parking spot on the first try, every time.
Adi Ronen
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
buywith/myAthena
Age: 37
Over the past year, Ronen has led her company’s pivot from live-stream shopping into the $180 billion retail media space by building myAthena, the first AI-powered, context-aware video ads platform tailored for retailers and marketplaces. The company secured a preferred partner status with Walmart Connect and Amazon Ads, and developed the proprietary “AI Director” and “AI Editor” modules for automated video creation.
She is most proud of successfully steering the company through this pivot — balancing fundraising, team restructuring and product innovation — while landing cornerstone deals that validate its new vision. She also says it has been rewarding to see its AI solution not only win trust from global retailers but also open up a scalable path to profitability. As the CEO and co-founder of buywith/myAthena, she leads strategy, fundraising and partnerships with global retailers and brands.
Prior to founding the company, she spent more than a decade at the intersection of e-commerce, retail and innovation, with roles spanning product development, partnerships and business strategy. Her career has focused on driving technology adoption in retail, from early live shopping solutions to today’s AI-driven retail media platforms. She’s passionate about transforming how brands and retailers connect with customers through video and commerce innovation.
FUN FACT: Ronen has a knack for finding the very best things online, from dream vacations to business partners — and even husbands.
William Ruth
Omnichannel E-Commerce Manager
Kenvue
Age: 32
Ruth led digital content optimizations on Walmart.com across a portfolio of nearly 3,000 products this past year, delivering more than 600 new page-1 placements across high-value keywords. His efforts also improved average search rankings by nearly 20 positions and strengthened conversions by more than 30%. He successfully launched more than 60 new products on Walmart.com across various categories, including innovations such as Neutrogena's Collagen Bank platform and the OGX Bond Protein Repair line of haircare solutions.
Ruth championed Kenvue's vision for e-commerce and brick-and-mortar sales to become more unified under a single selling organization that speaks to customers through a holistic lens, helping design new processes and ways of working while serving as an e-commerce subject matter expert and educator for the broader company. He is most proud of helping lead the transformation of Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost portfolio on Walmart.com, achieving the company’s best-ever performance on the platform and growing more than 1.5 times the rate of the category.
These results have been fueled by a comprehensive digital-first strategy centering on a surround-sound media campaign, deployment of best-in-class digital shelf content and organic search engine optimizations, all underpinned by top-tier content health across the full portfolio. These efforts helped the team achieve strong gains across sales, share, digital penetration, traffic, views and conversions, cementing Neutrogena Hydro Boost’s position as a category leader in the online skincare and beauty space.
FUN FACT: Ruth earned a college degree in chemical and biomedical engineering. He started his career in a corrosion research lab but quickly realized that watching metal rust wasn't exciting at all, so he changed industries and has been spending his free time traveling, fishing and playing golf.
Matt Seubert
Senior Director, Digital Marketing
Eggland’s Best
Age: 34
Seubert is leading the digital consumer eggsperience at Eggland’s Best, uniting digital efforts, insights, marketing and consumer engagement to deliver omnichannel growth. This past year he empowered the team with a digitally led consumer eggsperience model at the company, integrating digital insights, marketing and consumer engagement to guide brand strategy. Further, he partnered with cross-functional teams to deliver an omnichannel strategy through retail media, shoppable content and loyalty initiatives.
Seubert embedded marketing mix modeling and digital consumer insights into annual planning and media allocation. He also collaborated with brand and innovation leaders this year on positioning and strategy, including free range and pasture raised, to ensure innovation reflects evolving consumer expectations. He is most proud of his work building out the digital consumer eggsperience strategy, which is a team-driven approach that connects digital insights, user-generated content, paid media, consumer services, social, omnichannel strategy and more. Together the team is strengthening loyalty, retention and consumer connections for the company.
Previously at Church & Dwight, Seubert led e-commerce profitability strategy across dozens of brands, unlocking durable growth in digital commerce. He is also an active industry voice, sharing perspectives on marketing, commerce and consumer engagement at major conferences and with leading partners.
FUN FACT: Seubert enjoys baking and trying new recipes at home, always with EB eggs.
Giulia Smith
Senior E-Commerce Analytics and Insights
Haleon
Age: 29
Over the past year, Smith has delivered standout results in the e-commerce space, including driving double-digit digital sales growth and achieving an increase in digital penetration, a milestone not reached in recent years. She also pioneered and led the first-ever cross-functional Digital Deep Dive sessions with Haleon’s merchants, fostering stronger collaboration and strategic alignment across teams. These initiatives not only elevated category performance but also set a new standard for digital engagement and innovation within the organization.
Smith was awarded "The Most Innovative Go-to-Market Strategy" award at Haleon’s national sales meeting this year for accelerating e-commerce growth at Walmart, a recognition that reflects the creativity, strategic thinking and collaborative spirit of a team that consistently pushes boundaries to deliver impactful results. Smith has more than seven years of experience in consumer healthcare. She has a proven track record of driving digital sales growth, leading cross-functional strategies and delivering impactful insights across categories such as upper respiratory and smoker’s health.
With a strong foundation in net revenue management, customer strategy and sales operations, she blends analytical rigor with strategic foresight to optimize performance and enhance customer engagement. Smith joined the British multinational consumer healthcare company in early 2021 and assumed her current post in October 2023.
FUN FACT: Smith has traveled to more than 35 countries and has dual citizenship (U.S. and Ireland).
Emily Murray Wowk
Senior E-Commerce Brand Manager
Church & Dwight
Age: 35
Wowk’s responsibilities include creating and launching new products (whether pure-play exclusive or national launches) and optimizing the company’s current assortment online. She touches everything from creating PDP content and media assets to optimizing promotional strategy and campaign targets, as well as evaluating packaging and executing tactics to drive share and cross purchase. Over the past year she has partnered on some first-to-market product launches, and she's collaborated to overhaul both the look and feel and key messaging of various Church & Dwight sub-brands.
Wowk started her career on the agency side working in integrated strategy and digital media buying for various brands from pharma to CPG. While working on her MBA, she made the shift to the brand side, interning with Keurig Dr Pepper and doing brand management on personal care brands at Hain Celestial. Intrigued by the growing digital space and fast-paced environment of e-commerce, she then joined Church & Dwight as its e-commerce brand manager.
Today, she oversees all e-commerce sales for the company's fabric care brands, Arm & Hammer and OxiClean, where she works closely with the brand teams, omnichannel and pure-play sales teams, and digital shelf team to drive strategy and execution across all of the company’s brands, bringing its products to life and scaling growth online.
FUN FACT: Wowk has a 17-year-old West Highland White Terrier named Shevi, which is short for Manischewitz, because he's sweet like the wine.
Tim Yager
Global Category Development Manager
JDE Peet’s Coffee
Age: 33
Yager contributed to the creation and cascading of the 2025 and 2026 Value Creation Trade Stories, equipping local markets with compelling narratives to engage retailers on category trends, coffee growth opportunities, and how JDE Peet’s is leading the response. He also oversaw the shopper marketing and go-to-market strategy for Dubai Chocolate Mixed Instant sachets across Jacobs, Kenco and L’Or, expanding the company’s brands’ reach through on-trend, flavor-led innovation.
He led initiatives to drive relevance with the next generation of coffee consumers by positioning new occasions and consumption moments within the company’s creative approach, and he supported the introduction of sustainable packaging in instant coffee through paper refills. This was a first for JDE Peet’s and the category globally through tailored trade sell-ins, activation toolkits and merchandising guidelines. One of his proudest achievements this year has been creating and cascading the 2026 Value Creation Trade Story that aims to provide local markets with powerful, insight-led narratives to engage retailers, spotlight category growth opportunities, and position JDE Peet’s as the category leader responding to emerging and future trends.
Yager has more than a decade of experience across sales, shopper marketing and category development in both local and global roles, and he's earned a reputation for delivering impact while keeping the consumer firmly at the center of his decision-making process. He leads global category development for instant and liquid coffee, while also driving the global shopper marketing strategy for Jacobs, the largest brand within the JDE Peet’s portfolio.
FUN FACT: As an avid fan of herpetology, Yager would like to start keeping and breeding Australian gecko species in Europe.
Frederic Zhang
Director, Paid Media
CA Fortune
Age: 35
Zhang leads all paid media efforts, which generates more than $500 million in annual e-commerce sales across major platforms like Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, Kroger and others. He has grown the team from one to six, fostering expertise in campaigns that blend search, programmatic, TV, digital out of home, audio and influencer marketing. Zhang is most proud of the company’s innovative testing of ad combinations and leveraging campaign insights from successful media campaigns to drive greater brick-and-mortar retail distribution and measurable growth for CPG clients.
In the past year, the company has earned Amazon Ads Awards recognitions for its work with Mighty Spark and Garrett Popcorn, successes that highlight flexibility in partnering with category disruptors to compete against larger legacy brands and doing more with less through innovative full-funnel strategies. The company also saw success with Bumble Bee Foods, where its full-funnel campaign revitalized the legacy seafood brand, boosted sales by more than 120% in 12 months and engaged a younger generation of seafood consumers.
Zhang began his career as a financial analyst at Merrill Lynch before founding an organic coconut ingredients company that established a network of innovative farmers across Southeast Asia and created markets for coconut products in food and beverage, home decor and agricultural feed. Driven by a passion for sustainable food systems, he entered venture capital, investing in food and agriculture technology startups throughout Asia. He joined CA Fortune in 2021.
FUN FACT: Zhang is a racquet sport enthusiast. He created a community of pickleball, paddle, tennis and ping pong players in Southern California.
