Manager Management

Brent E. Baarda

**** ***** ****** ***** 847-***-****

Libertyville, IL 60048 abm8j1@r.postjobfree.com

PROFILE – MARKET RESEARCH EXECUTIVE

High-performance, results-driven market research leader with experience discovering and leveraging consumer,

behavioral, and attitudinal insights to develop winning strategies for CPG retailers and manufacturers. Established

industry expert across a variety of strategic marketing platforms including: Healthcare & Wellness, Private Label

Strategy and Mitigation, Macroeconomics, and Shopper Micro -Segmentation. Over 15 years experience in leading

cross-functional teams, both within marketing research and custom consulting engagements. Recognized as a team

builder who understands how to develop skills and knowledge, set objectives and metrics, and implement supporting

capabilities to deliver business results.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

THE NIELSEN COMPANY – Chicago, IL 2012 - 2012

Associate Client Director

Summary: Lead on-site teams at two key consumer-focused manufacturer clients. Responsible for developing and

managing annual client business plans, including delivery of contracted products and services and identifying addition al

revenue opportunities within the client. Provide thought leadership and value -added support to the client president and

senior management by utilizing personal CPG industry subject-matter expertise and Nielsen products and services.

2006 –2011

SYMPHONY IRI GROUP, INC. - Chicago, IL

Director of Thought Leadership, Symphony Consulting

Summary: Managed cross-functional research and consulting teams and led the development and marketing of

strategic retail-focused thought leadership studies that have been featured in industry publications including : The Wall

Street Journal, Private Label Buyer, Drug Store News, Grocery Headquarters, Mass Market Retailers, Supermarket

News, and The Lempert Report. Co-developed and implemented annual business plans that resulted in a $2M annual

revenue stream from custom consulting projects and syndicated report sales. A sample of titles includes:

The Private Label Report: Understanding and Mitigating the Private Label Threat

The Healthy Kids Report: Understanding Health Trends within Kid-Driven Food and Beverage Categories

The Millennial Women Report: Preparing for the Upcoming Wave of Millennial Spending Growth

The Healthcare Report: Leveraging the Pharmacy as a Platform for Total Store Growth

Each syndicated report was built upon actionable, leading-edge thinking on opportunity-focused topics and include:

insights and implications on key trends impacting retailers and manufacturers, category-level developments, best-in-

class case examples, recommended retailer and manufacturer collaboration plans, and benchmarking tools.

WILLARD BISHOP CONSULTING, LTD. - Barrington, IL 1998-2006

Senior Associate, 2003-2006 / Associate II, 2000-2003 / Associate, 1998-2000

Summary: Worked with more than 100 food retailers, distributors, and manufacturers with a focus on the supermarket

and mass merchandiser channels. Successfully managed over 75 projects designed to help trading partners leverage

better sales information, fact-based merchandising tools, and sophisticated category management and profitability

models to make better business decisions.

Clients (Partial List): Retailer clients included Wal-Mart, Costco, Safeway, Kroger, Albertson’s, Ahold, Supervalu,

and Chevron. Manufacturer clients included Kraft Foods, Campbell’s, Frito -Lay, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, Nestle,

General Mills, Sara Lee, Nestle Purina, and Procter & Gamble.

Brent E. Baarda Page 2

Willard Bishop Consulting - Subject Area Expertise (Partial List)

Activity-Based Management - Supported activity-based costing category management tools and used this fact-

based information to help trading partners understand costs and profitability in channels including supermarkets,

mass, and club stores. Tools are fully integrated with Apollo and Pro/space space management software.

Category Management - Conducted category management analyses for virtually all center store categories across

dry grocery, dairy, frozen foods, packaged meat, and health and beauty care.

Aisle Management – Managed projects within the aisle management concept which takes a total aisle view of

category management and identifies opportunities to shift sp ace between categories to increase aisle profitability.

Retail Implementation – Assisted in the design and development of a new approach to managing in-store labor

execution that maximized available resources and prioritized category management resets based on acceptable

payback period and positive ROI.

Technology Validation – Designed and built customized activity-based costing models to calculate labor savings

and other benefits of several in-store technologies and merchandising methods including electronic shelf labels

(ESLs), gravity-feed merchandising fixtures, display shippers, and pallet modules.

Sales Platform Development – Created customized presentation-ready “selling stories” for manufacturers to use

with retailers to help revitalize the center-store, ease acceptance of new items and to protect and grow shelf space

based on profit-to-space performance, category growth data, new item information, and consumer behavior studies.

SENN-DELANEY RETAIL CONSULTING, LLP. - Chicago, IL 1996-1998

Staff Consultant

Led front end and cash office analysis and implemented in-store initiatives which created over $1,000,000 in

chain-wide annual savings at Metro Food Markets.

Developed and implemented over 25 front end operations initiatives and facilitated labo r scheduling

workshops for Martin’s Supermarkets resulting in a 12% improvement in sales per labor hour.

Initiated an activity-based costing approach to service desk offerings which resulted in a 7% reduction in

service desk labor hours at Chief Supermarkets.

COOPERS & LYBRAND CONSULTING, LLP. - Chicago, IL Summer 1995

Consumer Products / Retail Group Summer Intern

Established category management performance goals and develop ed a related workplan for Unilever.

Conducted financial and market-related research of prospective clients to support several partners in their

proposal development.

THE KROGER COMPANY - Indianapolis, IN 1992-1994

Co-Manager / Perishables Manager

Managed complete operations of all perishable departments in the highest volume Kroger store in Indiana.

Promoted two years ahead of company standard.

Served as Co-Manager of a medium volume Central Indiana store with merchandising responsibilities that

included dry grocery, general merchandise, and health & beauty care.

EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, MI, 1996

Master of Business Administration degree with emphases in Marketing and Corporate Strategy.

INDIANA UNIVERSITY, Bloomington, IN, 1991

Bachelor of Science degree with emphases in Marketing and Consumer Behavior.

Graduated in top ten percent of class.

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