Kevin Burkum Kevin Burkum has accumulated 20+ years of communications and promotions experience in the food industry. He is currently the senior vice president of the American Egg Board, an organization that promotes relationships between American egg farmers and consumers. In his most recent work with the AEB, Burkum oversaw the “Wake Up To Eggs With Bacon” campaign. The campaign, featuring Kevin Bacon, won a Cannes Lion award. He also redesigned the organization’s marketing process to include more consumer research, which resulted in a 40 percent reduction of costs. During his time as senior vice president of the American Dairy Association, Burkum’s experience with integrated marketing expanded. He championed partnerships with 15 NFL teams and the joint sponsorship of a NASCAR team with Kellogg’s. He led a three-year project with Nabisco Oreo that resulted in sales of 20 million gallons of milk, one of the most successful promotions in industry history. Burkum success started early while he was the director of marketing communications for IGA, a collection of independent grocery retailers. He headed a sponsorship with Coca-Cola for the Women’s USA Softball Team. This campaign was the largest Olympic promotion Coca-Cola had done with a single retailer and resulted in a 6.5 percent volume increase of Coke in IGA stores. Thus far, Burkum has led strategic partnerships with cbig-name clients such as Kraft Foods, General Mills, Nestlé, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Costco, Sesame Street and Food Network star Rachael Ray. Burkum is more than a businessman. He is also a philanthropist and avid runner and has participated in over 20 marathons. He ran the Chicago Marathon to raise money for Project Canaan, a partnership between the AEB and the Heart of Africa to build self-sustaining egg farms that will feed local communities in Swaziland. Burkum graduated from Marquette University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Journalism and Marketing. He lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his wife, Karen, and their three sons.
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