I lead the best and tastiest dark chocolate brand in the US - Ghirardelli Intense Dark. With a vision to become the #1 premium dark chocolate brand in the US, I'm part of an exciting evolution of what dark chocolate means to the US consumer. As part of the Marketing team, I manage the brand P&L, marketing plans, activation budget, long-term brand strategy, and assess market dynamics to deliver strategic recommendations to the management team.

I'm part of an exciting transformation of a 100+ year old company that is entering new categories looking for sustainable organic growth. As part of the Innovation team I'm focused on leading new product development initiatives beyond the veggie can and the fruit cup, working with a broad cross-functional team to deliver amazingly tasty and on-trend snacking and meal solutions for the consumer looking for delicious, healthy and environmentally friendly foods.

Led new product innovation from insight through concept, development, and launch working on products in the $2.1B pet category, with P&L ownership and leading an internal and external cross-functional team (including R&D, operations, consumer insights, customer sales, creative services, design agencies, demand planning, procurement, packaging engineering, and co-manufacturing) driving an estimated of $100M+ in portfolio growth in one of the company's largest product launches in 5 years. I also developed innovative and disruptive product platforms based on JMS consumer knowledge, design thinking principles, the jobs-to-be-done framework, and qualitative research/ethnography, to build our innovation pipeline, while collaborating with the brand marketing team on long-range planning, brand strategy, sell-in strategy, and product P&L.I managed ~$2M of product development spend across multiple brands, projects, and cross-functional teams.

Led an amazing cross-functional team to implement innovation projects in the Pet Specialty channel ensuring alignment with senior leadership and responsible for on-time and on-budget execution. I managed 4 to 5 projects at a time and was accountable from concept creation to market launch.I also Identified key opportunity areas constantly monitoring competitive landscape and business performance to develop new product ideas to enter new market segments or improve current product propositions. My work was heavily influenced by consumer insights and market research studies to inform many of the elements of new product launches.

Consulting project with Belgian bank to analyze retail banking future trends and technologies providing strategic recommendations to CEO to face new brick-and-click banking model

Led cross-functional team to develop a new portfolio of brands in new toy categories for the company creating the marketing plan, creative briefs, branding and positioning, while collaborating with product design, packaging, planning, and creative services team. Projected P&L for those new brands.

Collaborated with the Research and Consumer Insights manager to lead the consumer insights and market research initiatives for all MGA Entertainment brands including Bratz, Lalaloopsy, and Little Tikes. Projects included market information analysis, segmentation, trends, marketing mix, volumetrics, behavioral analysis, focus groups, and point of sale.

Led the materials supply strategy for high impact projects such as new production lines and new factories. Directed the savings implementation plan for material cost savings and working capital reduction in materials inventories in 2013 and 2014.

Led the procurement innovations team working with multiple areas (planning, R&D, marketing, legal) to complete the implementation of over 100 innovation projects. Managed 1 procurement analyst.

Managed agency relations to create product catalogues and other written materials. Distributed marketing materials to retailers and wholesalers.Received customer service calls and solved inquiries about the company's products.

Customs agents first contact with the company, monitored all imported parts and machinery through the complete logistics process, and gave support to the accounting department.