The 10 food and beverage entrepreneurs to watch march 2017
Who is irene rosenfeld
1. NAME : Irene ROSENFELD
COMPANY NAME : KRAFT FOODS
2.
3. Irene Rosenfeld was born in 1953,
Westbury, New York to parents Seymour
and Joan Blecker, a Jewish couple. Her
father’s parents were Romanian Jews,
her mother’s grandparents were German
Jews.
4.
5. Rosenfeld talks about being in a kind of
remedial gym class in grade school. She was
embarrassed by that and pushed herself until
she developed the attitude, skill and
perseverance to excel at sports. In high school
she honed her naturally competitive nature via
participation on various sports teams and in
business she uses the sports techniques of
envisioning the desired outcome and using
motivational exercises to prepare for the action
as well as the coaching skills she saw
demonstrated along the way. She believes that
keeping score is as important in business as it is
in sports – as those that keep score keep trying
to better the score they get. Her advise on
losing? “The best way to handle losing is to
make sure you learn something from it so that
you have higher odds of winning next time.
6.
7. EDUCATION
She later attended W.T. Clarke High School
in Westbury, NY. She holds a Ph.D. in
Marketing and Statistics, a Master of Science
in Business, and a B.A. degree in Psychology
from Cornell University.
She lives in Kenilworth Village, north of
Chicago on the North share of Lake Michigon
with her husband.
She and her husband, Philip Rosenfeld, had
two girls, Carol and Allison, both now grown.
Philip was also well educated, having earned
three degrees prior to signing on with IBM.
8. HER CAREER BEFORE
KRAFT FOODS
Rosenfeld has been involved in the food
and beverage industry for about 30
years. Her first job was at Dancer
Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency in
New York and she later joined General
Foods in consumer research. With nearly
30 years of experience in the food and
beverage industry, Irene Rosenfeld drives
business results by leading the global
team that understands consumer needs,
constantly innovates and creates
delicious moments of joy.
9. In 2004, Rosenfeld was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, where she focused on promoting healthy
products.
Irene took a short break from Kraft Foods in 2004, serving for two years as
Chairman and CEO of Frito-Lay. While there, she accelerated growth in
better-for-you products and health and wellness offerings.
10. CAREER
Irene came home to Kraft Foods, the
predecessor to Mondelēz International, Inc., in
June 2006 as CEO and Rosenfeld was appointed
Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Foods in June
2006. She joined General foods which later
became a part of Kraft foods. Among her many
accomplishments at Kraft foods, she led the
restructuring and turnaround of key business in
the US, Canada and Moscow. She is active in a
number of industry and community
organisations, including the Economic Club of
Chicago. She was appointed to the additional
post of Chairman in March 2007, following Altria
Group's spin-off of Kraft.
11.
12. CAREER
In 2008 she was placed sixth on The Wall
Street Journal's "50 Women to Watch" list. Forbes
rated Rosenfeld 2nd on the top 10 Most Powerful
Women in 2010 and 10th in 2011.
In 2010, Rosenfeld earned total compensation
of $19.288 million, placing her 48th on the
Forbes Executive Pay. Rosenfeld is a member of
the Economic Club of Chicago. She also serves on
the Board of Directors for the Grocery
Manufacturers Association and the Cornell
University Board of Trustees.
13. On August 4, 2011, Kraft Foods said it plans to split into two publicly traded
companies, with one focusing on its international snack brands like Trident gum and
Oreo cookies and the other on its North American groceries business that includes
Maxwell House coffee and Oscar Mayer meats.
14. On December 5, 2011, Kraft
announced that Rosenfeld
will stay on as chairman of
the $31 billion global
snacking company, which
will be called Mondelēz
International, Inc. Tony
Vernon, the president of
Kraft Foods North America,
will become CEO of the $17
billion North American
grocery business, which will
keep the Kraft Foods name.
15. She repositioned the company to deliver
consistent top-tier growth by reinvigorating
iconic brands, transforming the portfolio and
strengthening the company's presence in
fast-growing developing. markets. The
transformation she led culminated with the
spin-off of the company’s North American
grocery operations and creation of Mondelēz
International, Inc. in October of 2012.
Irene began her career in consumer
research, later joining General Foods, which
itself became part of Kraft Foods. Irene led
the restructuring and turnaround of key
businesses in the US, Canada and Mexico.
She served on the team that spearheaded
the company's IPO in 2001, and successfully
integrated the Nabisco, LU and Cadbury
businesses.
16. The Financial Times and Fortune recently ranked Irene on
their “Top 50 Women in Global Business” and “50 Most
Powerful Women in Business” lists, respectively. Forbes has
named Irene as one of the world’s “100 Most Powerful
Women” for several years.
Irene holds a Ph.D. in Marketing and Statistics, an M.S. in
Business Administration and a B.A. in Psychology – all from
Cornell University. She is active in a number of industry
and community organizations, including The Economic Club
of Chicago. She also serves on the Grocery Manufacturers
Association Board of Directors and Cornell's Board of
Trustees.
17.
18. Rosenfeld's success as a female CEO in the
male-dominated CEO world extends even to
equal pay for similar positions. Some
attribute this equality to the fact that
Rosenfeld – like most CEOs – opted for stock
and options over salary and bonus types of
compensation.
19. AT PRESENT
This year Rosenfeld has been busy orchestrating a
corporate split of Kraft's North American grocery business
and its global snacks business into two independent public
companies. The break-up was announced in August 2011
and is expected to be complete by the end of 2012. The
doctor of marketing and statistics will lead the $35 billion
snacks company, with brands like Oreo cookies and Trident
gum, where she foresees substantial growth as busy
consumers eat more frequently on-the-go. It will leave
behind the Kraft name and be called Mondelez
International, an invented word meant to evoke the phrase
"delicious world" in a variety of romance languages, which
was chosen through an employee contest to name the new
company. However, some management decisions have been
less whimsical. Rosenfeld cut 1600 jobs, relocated others
and closed three Kraft offices to create "leaner"
operations.
