K. Patrick Davis

VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, BLUE BUFFALO, GENERAL MILLS, INC.

K. Patrick Davis is the VP and General Manager for Blue Buffalo, the #1 natural petfood brand in the US and the largest brand at General Mills. In this role, Patrick is responsible for the P&L management of +$2.5B in revenue, long-term strategy, advertising and marketing and innovation. He also leads overall digital transformation for the organization, including launching the first app based CRM platform in the pet category and advancing connected commerce capabilities at General Mills.

Patrick has almost 25 years of professional experience across general management, marketing, innovation and sales. Prior to Blue Buffalo, Patrick was Senior Vice President and General Manager, US Laundry and Home Care for Henkel Consumer Products for almost 4 years. In that role, Patrick had General Manager responsibility for Henkel’s largest region (+$1.8B in revenue), across more than 2 dozen consumer brands like all Free Clear, Snuggle, Persil and Renuzit. He also functioned as the division’s NA CMO and oversaw all aspects of marketing, innovation, digital, market research and consumer affairs across the US and Canada, including +$200M in advertising spend.

Prior to Henkel, Patrick served as Vice President and General Manager at Georgia Pacific, one of the world’s largest producers of consumer paper products. As General Manager, he was responsible for operations, sales, marketing and innovation for a $300M category including brands like Vanity Fair and Mardi Gras, as well as private label for some of the largest retailers in the country. Patrick spent almost a decade at Georgia Pacific, with prior roles as Vice President of Innovation and Sr. Director of Quilted Northern, a billion-dollar flagship brand for the company.

Prior to Georgia Pacific, Patrick began his post-MBA career at The Procter and Gamble Company, where he spent almost a decade in a variety of marketing and sales roles. Notably, Patrick led Shopper Marketing for more than half of P&G’s categories at Walmart, the company’s largest customer and worked as Brand Manager for Crest Toothpaste, one of P&G’s largest megabrands.

Patrick earned an MBA from Kenan Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Science in Business from The University of South Carolina at Columbia. He has been a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. for more than 30 years and serves as an officer in the Stamford Alumni Chapter for the fraternity. In addition, he’s also an active mentor to young males of color through the Kappa League program. Patrick resides in Connecticut with his wife and three sons.