Omnichannel
LeadershipExecutive Summit
June 23-26, 2025 at Cornell Tech

in NYC

As Kellanova’s Chief Customer Officer (CCO), Carrie Sander is Kellanova’s face to the retailer and is responsible for their customer and commercial operations in the US business. Carrie has been with the company since 2002.

Most recently, Carrie has served as General Manager of the Portable Wholesome Snacks (PWS) business, where over the past 2.5 years she has led the strategic direction, growth plans and operations of some of our most iconic brands, including Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, Nutri-Grain and RXBAR.

Carrie has held many senior commercial roles, including sales leadership and planning roles in Away From Home (AFH). She has led regional account teams, large customer teams and served as Vice President of National Account sales from 2019 to 2021.

Throughout  her career, she has led strategic joint business planning partnerships resulting in successful joint share gains, sales and profit growth across the portfolio. Carrie was awarded the distinction of being named one of Progressive Grocers Top Executive Women in recognition of her influence.

Prior to joining Kellogg, she worked in merchandising analytics at Target Corporation. Carrie also serves as a member of the Kellanova Fund Board of Directors. The Kellanova Fund serves as a charitable arm of the company, making grants around the world in support of their Better Days Promise.

Carrie is the mother of three, she and her husband reside in Mason, OH.  She earned her degree in Marketing, Management and Economics from Indiana University.

Ethan is an outcome-driven product management executive with a diverse professional background spanning consulting, strategy and operations, M&A, and product management. Following his time in Consulting, he spent a decade at Kroger driving innovation like developing a new national brand, launching and scaling new means for e-commerce fulfillment, merging with Home Chef, or delivering groceries via drones and autonomous vehicles. For the past two years, Ethan has led a dynamic Product organization at Shipt overseeing B2B, the Gig experience, and fraud. Ethan lives in Cincinnati with his wife, two children, and a dog. Outside of professional life, he spends his time with his family, supporting Cincinnati sports, or running a local family business he co-owns. He has a degree in Marketing from Miami University and an MBA from Indiana University.

Alexander Ross is a highly accomplished strategic sales and business development leader, currently holding the position of Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Upshop. With over 20 years of experience in the food & beverage and hospitality technology sectors, he most recently spent 6+ years as the Vice President of Business Development at Shipt, a Target-owned company. Alex’s diverse background spans seed-round funded startups to publicly traded giants like Expedia, OpenTable, and The Cheesecake Factory. A proud Cornell SHA alumni, Alex looks to actively contribute to the growth and learning of students and industry professionals. At Cornell University, he serves as a guest lecturer in various courses, including The Food Executive program, The Omnichannel Leadership program, and Food & Consumer Packaged Goods Industry Dynamics. Residing in the Greater Boston Area with his wife, two kids, and their dog, Alex is a dedicated professional passionate about fostering industry expertise and development.

Parbinder has spent his career building and transforming world-class teams in the digital advertising ecosystem, with growth and consumers at the core. Before joining CVS in 2022, he has been leading and in-sourcing the media business for Walmart Connect. Joining Walmart in 2019, he oversaw everything Beauty, Personal Care, and Health and Wellness, leading a multi-disciplined team that helped grow Walmart Connect’s Supplier and Merchant partnerships across the category.
From 2018-2019, he worked with leading media industry CEOs, consulting to drive strategic change, digital growth, and change management. From 2016 until he left at the end of 2017, he was the VP of Global Accounts at Spotify, working across the business’s largest Global advertisers to transform partnerships across the platform, building the discipline of deal-making with critical partners across the streaming giant.
Between 2012 and 2015, he and his family resided in Barcelona, where he was the CRO, leading the global sales and operations for Softonic, a software download company. And previously to this, he worked on various businesses as VP and Director in London and New York for CBS Interactive.
Parbinder resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Tonya Herring is the Senior Vice President of Omnichannel Development for Peapod Digital Labs, which supports Ahold Delhaize USA, the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast. In this role, Tonya is responsible for leading the commercial evolution as part of Ahold Delhaize USA’s omnichannel ambitions. She leads efforts to simplify processes, improve ways of working and establish commercial tools, systems and processes within the commercial model that will ensure a durable future in an omnichannel world for each of the U.S. businesses.

Tonya has more than 30 years of retail grocery experience, and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Chief Merchant for Giant Food, where she was responsible for strategic leadership, business
plan design and P&L within the Merchandising organization, including Category Management, Pharmacy, Pricing, Promotion and Merchandising Planning. She also spent time at Ahold USA as Senior Vice President of Edible Grocery and Fuel, where she was responsible for strategic leadership, business plan design and execution of the Grocery Food, Dairy, Frozen and Fuel teams.

Prior to joining companies of Ahold Delhaize USA, Tonya served as Vice President of Category Development, Own Brands for Safeway. Before that, she was Director of Division Merchandising, Director of Category Management and Regional Director, giving her a strong balance of operations, marketing and merchandising.

Tonya currently serves on the NextUp board and recently served on the USO Metro board. She is also a five-time recipient of Progressive Grocer’s Top Women in Grocery award and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020.
Tonya lives in Odenton, Md., with her husband, Brent, and enjoys their leisure time walking their dogs, golfing, bike riding and visiting family in their home state of California.

As VP eCommerce & OmniChannel, North America, Ajay Sharma is responsible for leading the end to end eCommerce agenda developing strategies and programs that center on the consumer experience as well as overseeing the executional implementation across all retailers.

Ajay has a proven track record in eCommerce & OmniChannel with international experience having also worked in the Global eCommerce team in Switzerland, working with key markets and Bayer’s UK Head of eCommerce. Ajay spent the first 10 years of his career working in a number of commercial, trade marketing and eCommerce roles across multiple channels at Coca-Cola.

Nicholas Bertram is the CEO and President of Flashfood, an app-based marketplace that connects consumers with fresh food at great prices, while reducing the amount of food grocery stores send to landfill.

Nick is a first-generation college graduate who spent the last 20 years transforming retail one store at a time, most recently as president of The GIANT Company. While leading TGC’s transformation to a purpose-led company, eliminating food waste became a shared passion.

In addition to his role at Flashfood, Nick is also an independent director for PECO, Clemens Food Group, Pennsylvania Chamber and CHOP’s Foundation Board. Along with his wife, Jennifer, Nick has five young sons who he hopes will one day make the world an even better, healthier, and more inclusive place for humanity to thrive.

Risa Mish is professor of practice of management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. She designed and teaches the MBA Core course in Critical and Strategic Thinking, in addition to teaching courses in leadership and serving as faculty co-director of the Johnson Leadership Fellows program.

She has been the recipient of the MBA Core Faculty Teaching Award, selected by the residential program MBA class to honor the teacher who “best fosters learning through lecture, discussion and course work in the required core curriculum”; the Apple Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the MBA graduating classes to honor a faculty member who “exemplifies outstanding leadership and enduring educational influence”; the “Best Teacher Award”, selected by the graduating class of the Cornell-Tsinghua dual degree MBA/FMBA program offered by Johnson at Cornell and the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University; the Stephen Russell Distinguished Teaching Award, selected by the five-year MBA reunion class to honor a faculty member whose “teaching and example have continued to influence graduates five years into their post-MBA careers”; and the Globe Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the Executive MBA graduating class to honor a faculty member who “demonstrates a command of subject matter and also possesses the creativity, dedication, and enthusiasm essential to meet the unique challenges of an EMBA education.”

Mish serves as a keynote speaker and workshop leader at global, national, and regional conferences for corporations and trade associations in the consumer products, financial services, health care, high tech, media, and manufacturing industries, on a variety of topics, including critical thinking and problem solving, persuasion and influence, and motivating optimal employee performance. Before returning to Cornell, Mish was a partner in the New York City law firm of Collazo Carling & Mish LLP (now Collazo Florentino & Keil LLP), where she represented management clients on a wide range of labor and employment law matters, including defense of employment discrimination claims in federal and state courts and administrative agencies, and in labor arbitrations and negotiations under collective bargaining agreements. Prior to CC&M, Mish was a labor and employment law associate with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, where she represented Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, consumer products, and manufacturing industries. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and state and federal courts in New York and Massachusetts.

Mish is a member of the board of directors of SmithBucklin Corporation, the world’s largest trade association management company, headquartered in Chicago and TheraCare Corporation, headquartered in New York City. She formerly served as a Trustee of the Tompkins County Public Library, Vice Chair of the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, and member of the board of directors of the United Way of Tompkins County.

Rob Brooks was appointed President and CEO of SaksOFF5TH.com in March 2023. In this capacity he leads the ecommerce business as well as Marketing and Merchandising for the holistic brand. Previously, he served as President of the brand’s store division, O5, where he oversaw operations for the Saks OFF 5TH store fleet. In this role, he established O5 as a standalone operating entity.

Rob has been with HBC for more than seven years, holding key leadership roles at Saks OFF 5TH, Hudson’s Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue. Prior to establishing O5 as a standalone entity, he served as Chief Customer Officer for Saks OFF 5TH, where he drove operational efficiencies to ensure a seamless environment between stores, logistics and digital operations. Earlier in his tenure, he led Human Resources for Hudson’s Bay, Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks OFF 5TH.

Rob joined HBC from Macy’s where he held a number of senior HR leadership positions. With Rob’s people-centric background, he is focused on fostering an inclusive, team-oriented environment that breaks down silos and drives business performance.

Peter V.S. Bond works as Partnership Acceleration Lead at Flywheel, a division of Omnicom. Prior to Flywheel, Mr. Bond was the Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Business Development at Fetch Rewards, a mobile loyalty platform. He has also held leadership roles at PowerReviews, CVS Health, dunnhumby, IRi, and Priceline.com. Mr. Bond holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an MBA from The Stern School of Business at New York University, and Executive Education certificates from the business schools at Columbia University and Cornell University.

Karan Girotra, Professor of Operations, Technology and Information Management (OTIM), is the recipient of the Charles H. Dyson Family Professor of Management chair, for a 5-year term. This chair was given by Rob Dyson, MBA ’74 to support a founding faculty position for Johnson instruction at Cornell Tech, in honor of his father, the founder of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation.

Karan Girotra is a Professor at Cornell Tech and in the Johnson School at Cornell University. Karan collaborates with companies building new business models in the areas of urban living, smart transportation and e-commerce, helping them build rigorous research based solutions.

Karan’s research team has been recognized by multiple awards including the prestigious Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Award and multiple best paper awards. He has also won teaching awards for his teaching on entrepreneurship and new business models and was featured in the Poets and Quant’s Best 40 under 40 business professors lists.

In addition to his academic work, Karan was one of the founders of Terrapass Inc., which the New York Times identified as one of the most noteworthy ideas of 2005. Since then, TerraPass has helped businesses and individuals reduce over hundred million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Karan holds PhD and AM degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Mark Milstein is Clinical Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. He conducts applied research in and oversees the Center’s work on market and enterprise creation, business development, clean technology commercialization, and sustainable finance.

Dr. Milstein specializes in framing the world’s social and environmental challenges as unmet market needs which can be addressed effectively by the private sector through innovation and entrepreneurship, thereby allowing companies to achieve financial success by creatively addressing problems such as climate change, ecosystem degradation, and poverty. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation the S.C. Johnson Foundation, SEvEN, the World Bank, the University of Queensland, and the Water Resources Institute. Over the past decade, Dr. Milstein has worked with more than 100 firms across a range of industries, including renewable energy and carbon markets, life sciences and sustainable agriculture, consumables, food and nutrition, healthcare, tourism and hospitality management, as well as finance and international development.

Dr. Milstein’s work and perspectives have been featured in The New York Times, MSNBC, CNBC, Forbes, The Guardian, and GreenBiz. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of strategy, organizational change, and innovation related to business and sustainability. He also consults with a number of multinational firms, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and NGOs. Dr. Milstein currently serves on the board of directors of Livelihood Basix International and as a board member for Johnson & Johnson’s Earthwards Program.

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, Mr. Hooker 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.