Sonia Punwani Email & Phone Number

United States

Wayzata, Minnesota, US

CMO for Cargill’s North America business, which is headquartered in Wichita, and services retail, foodservice and food manufacturing customers and feeds 90 million consumers around the world every day. I lead teams across marketing, innovation, category and customer analytics, consumer insights, and culinary across all proteins and channels.

Wayzata, Minnesota, US

Wayzata, Minnesota, US

Global Commercial Director for Bakery at Cargill Global Edible Oil Solutions (GEOS). Successfully led the development of the 2025 global bakery strategy. Played a critical role in GEOS' transition to adopting a category structure and becoming more customer driven. Established and led an 80+ category team across six regions to grow Cargill's presence in the.

Wichita, KS, US

Washington, DC, US

HomeQZine is an online marketplace for wholesome, family-style meals from the kitchens of talented local chefs across the Twin Cities. Helping consumers discover more authentic flavors and healthier options, while supporting local hometrepreneurs.

Lakeville, MN, US

Full P&L and general management responsibilities for $110MM profit target across 3 business units: Hot Cereal (Better Oats, Malt-O-Meal Hot Wheat, Farina, Cocoa Wheats), Shredded (Post Shredded Wheat, Malt-O-Meal Mini-Spooners), and Bakery (Grape Nuts) portfolio. Led cross-functional asset team including Brand Management, Consumer Insights, Trade, R&D.

Wayzata, Minnesota, US

- Brand Strategy: Led marketing for global initiatives supporting growth of ClearValley® branded healthy oils in the foodservice industry. Responsible for consumer and customer trends, market sizing, value proposition development, competitive intelligence, and training of global sales teams.- Customer-Driven Innovation: Closely collaborated with Sales.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, US

- Margin/Cost Management: Managed cross-functional team of Operations, Logistics, Sourcing, and R&D in the identification and execution of holistic margin management projects for Betty Crocker portfolio. Delivered current year goal of $24MM COGS reduction, and developed pipeline of an additional $20MM. Won 2012 Division Award for Accountability- Category.

Wilmington, DE, US

• Led global cross-functional team in building competitive intelligence capabilities for food safety/pathogen detection products
• Established roadmap for collecting VoC on product performance, analyzing current and desired competitive positioning, and integrating analysis into business strategy setting

Arlington, VA, US

• Diagnosed prospective client issues and negotiated $1MM in consulting contracts by demonstrating service value in collaboration with Sales staff. Closed 2009 at 130% of OLEX’s annual goal despite industry downturn
• Identified drivers of quality management system adoption by surveying over 3,500 employees at 30 companies; data-driven insights helped clients achieve 20% customer complaint reduction, raised client retention rates to.
• Developed and delivered recommendations for heads of Operations at Fortune 500 companies on 5-year strategy, budget allocation, and talent development
• Analyzed client feedback to modify service mix and segmentation strategy, resulting in 15% increase in food industry subscriptions
• Trained Delhi research team on qualitative research, root cause analysis, and client interaction skills

Arlington, VA, US

• Launched Quality Executive Board (QEB) in 2006 for Chief Quality Officers; Grew business to $3.3MM and secured 200 subscriptions within 2 years
• Led team to develop presentations and recruit 40 clients for quality management conferences at Cisco and at EMC Corporation; both events achieved QEB's highest client evaluations and renewed subscription of several.
• Authored over 30 case studies on how companies like Sara Lee and Whirlpool improve the customer experience and maintain competitive advantage through product quality

Arlington, VA, US

• Created best-practice procurement research studies through interviews with Fortune 500 executives
• Received Research Quality Award from division management for study on improving procurement function’s spend visibility and compliance

Redwood City, CA, US

Coached 5 tenth grade students from under-served communities on securing venture capitalist support for new business launch, identifying target markets, and managing ongoing operations; all 5 students have continued with BUILD in their junior year and plan to apply to colleges

Communications Intern at Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2004: Recruited media for congressional briefings, analyzed county-level metrics for Status of Women in the U.S. reports

Education record

Mba, Concentration In Consumer Marketing

Ba, Economics, Psychology