Food Executive ProgramJuly 12-17, 2026 in Ithaca,

NY

Amy Nordstrom is the Head of Sales for Frozen Foods for Nestlé USA. In this role, Amy leads the Sales account teams, Category Leadership, E-Commerce and Category Strategy for Frozen Foods. In her prior role, Amy was the Vice President of Sales leading eight Customer Sales Teams within the Grocery, Club, Value and Natural Channels for all categories within the Nestlé Sales Organization. Amy began her career with Nestlé in the Nestlé Sales Management Development Program with the Nestlé Food Company. She has since held various roles with increasing responsibility beginning with Customer Management roles in Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles and Category and Shopper Development Management driving our Nutrition businesses though 4P development and execution nationally within all channels.
From 2000-2002, Amy was on an international assignment located in London, England working with a cross-functional, worldwide team as part of an ambitious, multi-year global restructure and best-practice standardization project for Nestlé S.A. In 2011, Amy was promoted to Director of the Publix Customer Team for Nestlé USA in Tampa, FL and then moved to Fayetteville, AR as Director of the Walmart Customer Team for Nestlé USA. In 2016, Amy was promoted to Division Vice President, Category & Shopper Development supporting the Nestlé Pizza and HOT POCKETS® businesses based out of Cleveland, OH, with responsibility for category, customer and shopper marketing strategy, trade development and pricing strategy. Amy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, a Masters of Business Administration from DePaul University in Chicago and is a graduate of the Food Industry Management Program at the University of Southern California.

Chris is an experienced Thought Leader with over 15 years of expertise in market and consumer research, driving strategic insights and innovation across the fast-moving consumer goods industry. As Vice President of Thought Leadership and Food and Beverage Insights Lead at NIQ, Chris leads strategic initiatives, delivering forward-looking insights that help manufacturers navigate an increasingly complex and dynamic retail landscape.

Known for his expertise in data storytelling and strategic foresight, Chris integrates diverse data sources to uncover emerging trends and translate them into actionable strategies. His work has guided both emerging brands and global industry leaders across traditional retail and eCommerce channels, driving measurable impact and innovation.

Chris is a frequent keynote speaker and published author, recognized for his ability to distill complex market dynamics into compelling narratives that influence decision-making at the highest levels. His insights have been featured at major industry forums and in widely circulated publications.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago, a combination that underscores his unique blend of analytical rigor and consumer-centric thinking.

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Austin Leonard is Vice President and General Manager of DG Media Network at Dollar General. With over 20 years of experience in advertising, media, and retail technology, he leads strategy, operations, and growth for the company’s retail media business. Austin has held senior roles at Publicis/Epsilon, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Rakuten, and eBay. He earned his Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Florida and his Master of Business Administration in marketing from Georgia State University.

Gordon Reid serves as President of Stop & Shop, a great local brand of Ahold Delhaize USA. Founded in 1914, Stop & Shop now has more than 400 stores across the Northeast and employs nearly 54,000 associates.

Prior to joining Stop & Shop in 2019, Gordon Reid served as President of Giant Food and led the brand to the number one market share position in each of its local markets. Under his leadership, the company made healthy eating easier and affordable, while also growing home delivery and transforming the shopping experience with the customer top of mind.

Reid has more than 35 years of international retail experience. Before joining Giant Food, he worked as CEO of China and Deputy Regional Director of North Asia for The Dairy Farm Group in Hong Kong. Previously, he spent time at Tesco in various leadership roles and worked in a variety of countries such as Hungary, India and China. He also previously worked at Boots in the United Kingdom for 15 years, where he held general management roles, and at A.S. Watson Group spending time in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. He started his career as a pharmacist in 1984.

Reid holds a bachelor’s of science in pharmacy from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, U.K., and a Master’s of Business Administration from Nottingham University Business School in the U.K. He serves on the Board of Directors at the Greater Boston Food Bank and Partnership for a Healthier America. Reid also serves on the National Academy of Sciences’ Roundtable for Obesity Solutions representing Stop & Shop, which was the first-ever grocery retailer to join this group in their work to address the obesity crisis. Gordon and his wife reside in Boston, Mass.

Bryan Gildenberg is an industry expert, keynote speaker, and advisor on the commerce landscape. With over 25 years of experience helping retailers, brands and their trading partners adapt to and win in the changing retail world, Bryan is a trusted subject matter expert on both physical and digital retail, including retail ecommerce. Today, Bryan leads the North America business for Retail Cities –  a global retail research business aimed at helping brands and retailers predict, map and capture the next $10 trillion of retail growth coming before the end of the decade. In addition, his enterprise and thought leadership brand Confluencer Commerce seeks to help leaders lead the major transformation of the next decade – the confluence of retail, media and content.

Bryan is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and private events, and his perspective has been featured in dozens of media publications and news outlets such as CNBC, the BBC and Fox Business. He is a former co-host of the popular CPG Guys podcast and a recognized expert in the changing commerce, commerce media and retail landscapes.

Bryan spent over 20 years as Chief Knowledge Officer for Retail at Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company. He also served as SVP of Commerce for Omnicom’s retail marketing agencies.

Bryan holds an MA with Honors from Cambridge University and an MBA from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

Jason English is currently the General Manager of Nomad Foods.

Jason is also the Founder and President of South Street Advisers where he consults with CEOs and CFOs, primarily in the Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) industry. He has advised on M&A and business transformation initiatives as well as Investor Relation practices. Prior to launching his own firm Mr. English spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs. He began his career at Goldman in 2010 covering the Packaged Food sector before expanding his coverage to encompass the Household and Personal Care sector (HPC) in 2012. In 2016 he was promoted to Managing Director and in 2018 he was elevated to be the Consumer-Retail Business Unit Leader where, in addition to maintaining his core coverage responsibilities of the Packaged Food and HPC sectors, he assumed a broader managerial oversight role of the business unit which encompasses retail, restaurants, gaming, leisure and lodging sectors.

Mr. English began his Wall Street career at Bear Stearns in the Spring of 2007 as a junior analyst on the Packaged Food team. His team was one of the few lifted out and into J.P. Morgan in the subsequent acquisition. He became the top internal salesforce ranked junior analyst at J.P. Morgan and was promoted to Vice President in 2010 before being recruited away to Goldman.

Mr. English spent nearly a decade working within the CPG industry in roles of increasing responsibility within the marketing/Brand Management organizations of Campbell Soup (in its Pepperidge Farm division), InBev US, Atkins Nutrition and Kellogg prior to pursuing a career on Wall Street. At InBev he played an integral role in turning around the Rolling Rock brand before being promoted to Brand Manager of the Dos Equis and Sol brands. And at Kellogg Mr. English began his career as the Brand Manager heading up the firm’s frozen innovation efforts before being promoted to the Sr. Brand Manager on what was at the time the company’s second largest US cereal brand (Frosted Mini Wheats).

In addition to his role at South Street Advisers, Mr. English is also an active member of the Board of Directors at Wisdom Analytics, an early-stage growth company that is deploying artificial intelligence to transform the Revenue-Growth-Management and Trade-Promotion-Optimization practices within the CPG industry.

Mr. English holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and began hist study of the CPG industry as a Food Marketing Fellow while earning his BS from Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Mr. English remains involved with Cornell where he lectures annually at the university’s Food Executive Program. And in his free time Mr. English has coached his son’s recreational baseball and basketball teams. He holds series 7, 63, 86 and 87 FINRA certifications and a National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) coach certification.

Dan Hooker is a global retail and consumer packaged goods executive with broad experience across diverse business environments and formats, leading traditional food retail operations and merchandising, as well as product development, consumer and category analytics, sourcing and procurement, global trading, national sales, and e-commerce. An outstanding strategist and general manager, he has led the successful startup of multiple diverse businesses.

Known for and recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on retailers’ proprietary brands, Dan has shaped clients’ programs across four continents and eight classes of trade. His passion is in helping companies recognize their unique DNA and positioning then creating actionable marketing and sales strategies essential for their success.

Miguel I. Gómez is the Robert G. Tobin Associate Professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University. He is Director of the Food Industry Management Program, globally recognized as the premier food industry education and research program. Professor Gómez has an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Illinois.

Professor Gómez concentrates his research program on two interrelated areas under the umbrella of food marketing and distribution. The first is Food Value Chain Competitiveness and Sustainability. His work in this area involves multidisciplinary collaborations for the development models to assess supply chain performance in multiple dimensions, including economic, social, and environmental. The second is Food Value Chain Negotiation. Here, Professor Gómez combines theory and outreach methods to analyze food markets from farm to table, emphasizing key concepts such as demand response, consumer behavior, buyer/seller negotiations, market power, and retail performance. In addition, his research extends to economic development and environmental economics, examining incentives for and barriers to smallholder farmer participation in food value chains and sustainability of food systems, with emphasis in Latin America. Professor Gómez’s applied research efforts aim at enhancing market opportunities for fruit and vegetable products, benefiting producers, food processors/distributors, and consumers worldwide.

Professor Gómez’s work has been published in top journals, including Science, Management Science, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, World Development, and Food Policy. His research program has been funded with over 100 research grants, including the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Professor Gómez has won several prestigious teaching and research awards, including the Rising Star Faculty Award of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. He has consulted for multilateral development institutions such as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the Interamerican Development Bank.

Ayham Boucher is the Head of AI Innovations for both the Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) at the Ithaca campus and Information Technologies & Services (ITS) at Weill Cornell Medicine. With over eight years of experience at Cornell University, Ayham leads the institution’s AI innovation efforts in support of education, research, and administration. He also directs the AI Innovation Lab, which develops custom AI solutions to support Cornell’s institutional mission.

Ayham received his Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University. His expertise lies in building Large Language Model (LLM) powered applications, with a focus on harnessing LLMs to solve complex problems. He has particular experience in developing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems and AI Agents.

Prior to his current role, Ayham contributed to various AI projects at Cornell. He also co-leads the AI Innovation Accelerator, a group that encompass more than 50 institutions, fostering collaboration and advancement in AI technologies across higher education.

He currently teaches a course on building AI applications at Cornell, helping students bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical implementation.

Dr. Li Chen is a Professor of Operations, Technology and Information Management and Breazzano Family Term Professor of Management at Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. Dr. Chen’s research interests concern supply chain management, operations strategy, and Bayesian methods for predictive and prescriptive analytics. He has published research works in top journals in the operations management field, such as Management Science, Operations Research, and Manufacturing, Service and Operations Management. Prior to joining Johnson School, Dr. Chen was an Associate Professor of Business Administration at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Before his Duke appointment, Dr. Chen spent four years at TrueDemand Software, a supply chain software company in Silicon Valley, where he was the cofounder and lead scientist of the company. Dr. Chen obtained his PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University in 2005.

Andrew Quagliata is a Senior Lecturer in Management Communication at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, where he teaches courses in persuasive communication, interpersonal communication, entrepreneurial communication, real estate communication, and business writing.

Professor Quagliata is the author of “Build Better Slide Decks: Create Sharper Slides, Stronger Stories, and Standout Presentations” (November 2025) and several eCornell courses, including “Building Compelling Slide Decks and Reports,” “Developing Self-Advocacy Skills,” “Generative AI for Written Communication,” and “Preparing for Effective Presentations Using AI.”

Tom Schryver is the Executive Director of the Cornell Center for Regional Economic Advancement (CREA) and a Visiting Lecturer at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. CREA’s programs include Rev: Ithaca Startup Works, the Southern Tier Startup Alliance, and support of Cornell’s regional economic advancement efforts. Mr. Schryver leads the Upstate NY I-Corps Node and is the lead instructor for Cornell Engineering’s Commercialization Fellows program. He serves on the teaching team for eLab, Cornell’s student business accelerator, and teaches entrepreneurship and business strategy at Cornell.

Mr. Schryver is an experienced entrepreneur, having served as a startup founder and senior finance executive of high-growth companies. Previously, he was Director of Finance for the Triad Foundation, where his responsibilities included investing the Foundation’s $250m portfolio to top-quartile returns. Mr. Schryver’s board affiliations include the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park and Tompkins County Area Development, and he serves as board vice-chair of the Business Incubator Association of New York State.

Adam Brumberg splits his time between consumer behavior research and the food industry management program. He runs student programs, co-teaches “Supply Chain Strategy,” and is an active leader in executive education programs.

Marian is the Communications and Advocacy Lead, as well as the host of the Center’s Podcast – Conversations from the Precision Nutrition Kitchen. Her interest in the connection between nutrition and health began when she experienced obesity as a child and grew more urgent when her first daughter was born with nearly a dozen anaphylactic food allergies. Marian’s curiosity, rooted in lived experiences, has guided her work and studies for nearly two decades, and she is thrilled to continue this work by joining the Cornell Joan Klein Jacobs Center for Precision Nutrition and Health.

After working in management within the natural food industry for more than a decade, Marian returned to academia, studying Public Health at American University in Washington, DC. There, she worked as a research assistant in The Lab of Nutritional Neuroscience, studying the impact of diet on neurotransmission. Marian then went on to complete a Master of Science in Biomedical Science Policy and Advocacy at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Her master’s thesis explored the role of the human gut microbiome in health and disease, and proposed policy solutions to protect and promote a healthy microbiome, reduce chronic disease risk, and lower healthcare expenditures. Marian’s current interests include the role of the gut microbiome in chronic illness, the impact of diet on gut microbiome composition, immune training by gut microbiota, the interaction between agricultural soil microbiomes and the human gut microbiome, and “one health”, the framework acknowledging the inherent connections between animal human, environmental, and planetary health. She continues to work in health and nutrition policy development, and as an advocate for “food as medicine” policies, in Washington, DC. Above all, Marian cherishes her role as the mother of three amazing, healthy girls who inspire the work she does every single day.