Susan Thomas Email & Phone Number

Company Director at Snowstorm Consulting Ltd, offering independent consulting to any organisation striving to improve the people and planet impacts of our food and retail system. My aim is to bring the top-class strategy consulting expertise you'd expect from the Big 4, but delivered in a true partnership, working beside you and your team to further your mission to improve the way we produce, sell and eat our food. I'm not going to send you a pretty report that tells you what you… Show more Company Director at Snowstorm Consulting Ltd, offering independent consulting to any organisation striving to improve the people and planet impacts of our food and retail system. My aim is to bring the top-class strategy consulting expertise you'd expect from the Big 4, but delivered in a true partnership, working beside you and your team to further your mission to improve the way we produce, sell and eat our food. I'm not going to send you a pretty report that tells you what you already know (unless that's actually what you need), I'd like to think with you, build with you and make it actually happen with you. Website under construction! Show less

Leadership of Asda's Better Planet and Net Zero strategy, reporting directly to the executive board. Recruited to develop Asda's Sustainability Strategy, establish key targets and lead the whole organisation towards delivering the right programmes of work to drive results. Directly accountable for Asda's Waste services, including surplus food redistribution and packaging optimisation. Led key activities like our Refill Trial Stores execution. Set out our policies for the supply base… Show more Leadership of Asda's Better Planet and Net Zero strategy, reporting directly to the executive board. Recruited to develop Asda's Sustainability Strategy, establish key targets and lead the whole organisation towards delivering the right programmes of work to drive results. Directly accountable for Asda's Waste services, including surplus food redistribution and packaging optimisation. Led key activities like our Refill Trial Stores execution. Set out our policies for the supply base and worked directly with big suppliers to drive down our shared environmental footprints. Broader 'quarterbacking' role as a facilitator and catalyst for work done by experts spread across fleet, property, buying, marketing, retail operations and other core functions. Deliver executive board briefings on constantly evolving external risks and opportunities, presenting business cases to secure appropriate capital and operating investments and helping the different EVPs navigate their strategic options. Leading the "E" as a member of Asda's board-led "ESG" steering committee, building connections into our wider health and social responsibility commitments as well as co-designing corporate governance protocols and managing environmental reporting. Responsible for stakeholder management and building Asda's corporate reputation in this space within the industry and investor community. Extensive external engagement as part of several industry-wide and/or NGO-led coalitions. Member of the British Retail Consortium Steering Committee for the Climate Action Roadmap, and chair of the Customer Engagement Pathway. Founding member of the CBI Sustainability Community. Show less

Reading, United Kingdom

Leadership of Insights & Analytics function for PepsiCo West Europe.People Leader: functional line manager for 70 insights and analytics professionals in 6 countries, responsible for talent development, organisation design, capability and engagement. Function Leader: representing West Europe on the European and Global insights leadership teams, co-leading a capability, efficiency and impact transformation. Accountable for >$50m research budget and consistently improving… Show more Leadership of Insights & Analytics function for PepsiCo West Europe.People Leader: functional line manager for 70 insights and analytics professionals in 6 countries, responsible for talent development, organisation design, capability and engagement. Function Leader: representing West Europe on the European and Global insights leadership teams, co-leading a capability, efficiency and impact transformation. Accountable for >$50m research budget and consistently improving the department ROI.Brand & Marketing Leader: personally lead annual brand planning process for the European executive team, anchored in robust landscape assessment and deep consumer trends. Winner of the 2018 global collaboration award for creating a new process to connect sales and marketing teams towards a shared end-to-end growth plan. Purpose Leader: a member of the WE Snacks Purpose Council and UK Sustainability Task Force, responsible for briefing leaders on the external environment and emerging regulatory landscape as well as the growing opportunity to serve the 'conscious consumer'. Sponsorship of the "Better For You" Snacking strategic agenda, including development of nutritional scoring and healthier portfolio plan. Lead development of the PepsiCo position on government consultations around reducing obesity, including building the evidence base for interventions which could work. Finalist 2019 AIM European Marketing "Nudging For Good" awards, with work on Walkers Oven Baked. Show less

Leadership of UK strategic sales functions - category management, shopper marketing, merchandising, sales planning, retail execution and strategic retailer relationships programme.Commercial Leader: a member of Sales Council, reporting to the executive VP for sales, sharing accountability to deliver $2bn net revenue across all retail channels for the savoury snacks, juices and cereals business. Responsible for providing the analysis to shape commercial decisions around pricing, ranging… Show more Leadership of UK strategic sales functions - category management, shopper marketing, merchandising, sales planning, retail execution and strategic retailer relationships programme.Commercial Leader: a member of Sales Council, reporting to the executive VP for sales, sharing accountability to deliver $2bn net revenue across all retail channels for the savoury snacks, juices and cereals business. Responsible for providing the analysis to shape commercial decisions around pricing, ranging and trade marketing investments and support the sell-in to key retail partners. Operational Leader: through a team of 60 we touch every aspect of retail execution from shelf layout to shelf-ready-packaging to point-of-sale marketing. Operating under intense time pressure with multi-functional and external stakeholders, pragmatically overcoming unexpected setbacks and at the same time developing strategic capability and innovating to continually raise the bar on how we show up. Transformation Leader: initiated PepsiCo's "Perfect Store" programme, leveraging data to optimise range, merchandising and financial returns of our categories for our retailer partners. Step changed Shopper Marketing as a way to drive ROI within the marketing mix with the application of Behavioural Science and process integration, with the team winning several industry awards. Commercial lead for the Walkers brand Turnaround Responsive Working SLAM, reporting to the UK General Manager to reboot the UK's favourite crisp brand. Purpose Leader: strategic leadership for Walkers' "Better For You" snacking agenda, including landing dedicated healthier snacking zones in Tesco stores to shift basket health scores for the category and prepare for impending HFSS regulation. Food Co-Lead for the Consumer Goods Forum's "Collaboration For Healthier Lives" which delivers test-and-learn projects in a coalition of industry, charity, policy and academic stakeholders. Show less

Reading, United Kingdom

Moved "client side" to lead the Shopper Insights and Category Management teams within the sales function for Snacks, Juice & Cereal.Key focus on overhauling our Shopper Insights capability to become a sales-driving activity which informed our growth and execution plans internally and externally. This involved a complete re-design of the team's role as well as a wholescale redeployment of our research budget towards understanding what shoppers 'do' rather than what they 'say they do'.… Show more Moved "client side" to lead the Shopper Insights and Category Management teams within the sales function for Snacks, Juice & Cereal.Key focus on overhauling our Shopper Insights capability to become a sales-driving activity which informed our growth and execution plans internally and externally. This involved a complete re-design of the team's role as well as a wholescale redeployment of our research budget towards understanding what shoppers 'do' rather than what they 'say they do'. Upgrading of our Category Management approach to develop Trusted Advisor status with key retail and channel partners, contributing towards PepsiCo achieving 1st place in the AGS rankings for 5 consecutive years. Show less

Responsible for design and deployment of world class retail & shopper insight capabilitiesthroughout the TNS organisation (~$2bn), focused on priority markets (UK, US, China).Responsible for integration of three acquired agencies specializing in pioneering technologies, including global scaling and P&L of PathTracker (RFID instore shopper tracking).Personally led key retail consulting assignments focused on designing store layout, optimising promotions and improving… Show more Responsible for design and deployment of world class retail & shopper insight capabilitiesthroughout the TNS organisation (~$2bn), focused on priority markets (UK, US, China).Responsible for integration of three acquired agencies specializing in pioneering technologies, including global scaling and P&L of PathTracker (RFID instore shopper tracking).Personally led key retail consulting assignments focused on designing store layout, optimising promotions and improving shoppability - clients included Walmart, Morrisons, ICA Sweden, Albert Heijn and others. Show less

Henley

Completed an Executive MBA while working full time. Key features- Masters Dissertation "Obesogenic Environments: the role of supermarkets in food choices" Behavioral Science | Regulatory | Corporate Responsibility | Nutrition Science- One week pro bono placement consulting for Dame Hilary Cropper Foundation in South Africa Designed a training programme for previously disadvantaged young people living in the wine farming community, aimed at creating future leaders… Show more Completed an Executive MBA while working full time. Key features- Masters Dissertation "Obesogenic Environments: the role of supermarkets in food choices" Behavioral Science | Regulatory | Corporate Responsibility | Nutrition Science- One week pro bono placement consulting for Dame Hilary Cropper Foundation in South Africa Designed a training programme for previously disadvantaged young people living in the wine farming community, aimed at creating future leaders and owners of vineyard businesses. Show less

10 years in client facing, account management and commercial team leadership positions,directly consulting with top tier FMCG clients (P&G, Mars, Sainsbury etc.) culminating in role asDirector on UK executive board jointly responsible for £50m P&L of continuous panels business.Set up new Advanced Analytics function, recruiting technical team and developing modellingservices (segmentation, price elasticity etc.), now scaled globally.

Mba, Management

Ba English, English Literature & Language