Contributors

MARIA DUBUC

Maria possesses nearly three decades expertise in creative management developing brand strategies, managing highly complex programs and driving business growth. As Marketing By Design, President, and Big Red Rooster, Vice President, Maria works diligently to ensure our people, projects, and processes drive clients’ successes. In the Retail Brands space she has coordinated the design and deployment of new and re-branded programs for a diverse set of retailers globally.

CHRISTOPHER DURHAM

Christopher Durham is the president of the Velocity Institute. Prior to this he founded the groundbreaking site My Private Brand. He is the co-founder of The Vertex Awards. He began his retail career building brands at Food Lion and Lowe’s Home Improvement. Durham has worked with retailers around the world, including Albertsons, Family Dollar, Petco, Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy, Metro Canada. Durham has published seven definitive books on private brands, including Fifty2: The My Private Brand Project and Vanguard: Vintage Originals.

THOMAS HOPLEY Senior Consulting Associate. SGK

Tom graduated with a Master in Political Economy and is a Prosci Change Management and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt practitioner. At SGK he has worked on key Consultancy projects across CPG and Retail, spanning process improvement, financial analysis, cost reduction, KPI measurement and resource modelling. Tom has also been involved in managing the development and implementation of innovation products.

HANS KRAAK

Hans Kraak is educated in biology and journalism and wrote three books about nutrition and health. He worked for the Dutch ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food quality and the Netherlands Nutrition Centre. As editor in chief he publishes in the Dutch Magazine for Nutrition and Dietetics, as a food and wine writer he published in Meininger’s Wine Business International and reports for PLMA Live EU and PLMA USA.

KATIE LOCKE

If you’ve ever met Katie, you’ve seen or heard her excitement for building or rebuilding brands. Her passions also include just about every facet of food and eating experiences. For the past 9 years, Katie has worked in Sales & Marketing for Marketing by Design (MBD), a branding and packaging design agency specializing in high volume retailer programs. At MBD, Katie gets to blend her passions by talking to thousands of National and Private brand leaders, mostly in the food industry, about expanding & enhancing their presence in market and on shelf.

KARA MIENCIER

Kara Miencier, Private Brand Sales Executive for Paramount Roasters, has a passion for store brands and the coffee industry. As a Board of Directors Member for Women Impacting Storebrand Excellence, Kara finds great value in the diversity and inclusion mission of WISE and bridging the experience gap between generations.

GEORGE PURO

President of the Puro Research Group, a market intelligence firm specializing in consumer insights, competitive/market intelligence and analysis. Puro’s services are designed to keep you abreast of the latest trends, make you look smart in presentations and help guide decision-making. The company has provided organizations and companies, ranging from Fortune 100 companies to startups, with aha! insights about competitors, customers and industries in a variety of topics and industries, including consumer products; retail; transportation, travel and hospitality; healthcare and health insurance; financial services and investment banking; traditional marketing, as well as digital and social media marketing.

TOM PRENDERGAST

Tom is the Director of Research

Services for the Private Label Manufacturers Association

(PLMA), based in the company’s New York headquarters. His responsibilities include gathering news and seeking trends impacting the global private label and retail industries, analyzing and sharing that information with the member companies of PLMA around the world. Previously he worked at NBC News as a News Assistant for the

SAMANTHA ROMANO Manager, Marketing Strategy, SGK.

With more than 15 years of experience in coordinating the proposal process from inception to final submittal, Samantha is a highly experienced proposal writer, having worked on a wide range of proposals, RFPs, RFIs, statements of qualification, and other sales-related documents to ensure a unified message and voice is achieved in key client deliverables.

PERRY SEELERT

A retail branding and marketing expert, with a passion for challenging conventional strategy and truths. Perry is the Strategic Partner and Cofounder of Emerge, a strategic marketing consultancy dedicated to helping Retailers, Manufacturers and Services grow exponentially and differentiate with purpose.

ELENA SULLIVAN

Elena Sullivan holds a BA in Creative Writing and a Masters Degree in Social Work. She is a writer, editor, social worker and advocate. With more than 15 years writing and researching the private label industry, Elena was previously the Managing Editor at Private Label Magazine and most recently created content for Private Label Manufacturers Association’s PLMALive! PL Category Trends series. Through her writing, Elena seeks to provide holistic information on Private Labels for all players in the industry.

MARCEL VERHAAF

Marcel is the Executive Creative Director of SGK Amsterdam and is responsible for the creative vision and design effectiveness of SGK’s work across brand and packaging design and is the driving force behind SGK’s sustainability innovations and designs executions. With a career spanning 30 years, he has been recognised by the industry with numerous accolades including international awards from The Dieline, Pentawards, Red Dot and ADCN in the Netherlands. Marcel has experience working with both global and local brands including Unilever, Nestlé, Heineken, Danone, Pladis, Ahold, AkzoNobel, Douwe Egberts, Pepsico, Pernod Ricard and Friesland Campina.