Food Executive Program

Ed McLaughlin is the emeritus Robert G. Tobin Professor of Marketing, the Director of the Food Industry Management Program, and current interim Dean of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. He has numerous teaching and research awards in the areas of marketing, retailing, and international marketing, including the Best Article of the Year (2008) in the Cornell Hotel Quarterly and the Stephen Weiss Presidential Award, Cornell’s most prestigious honor for distinguished teaching. He is also Director of the Cornell Food Executive Program, widely regarded as the premier executive training program in the food industry. Professor McLaughlin’s international experience includes work with the U.S. State Department, the United Nations, and the World Bank. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

Glenn Altschuler received his PhD in American history from Cornell in 1976 and has been an administrator and teacher at the university since 1981.

He served as dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions from 1991-2020. From 2009-2013, Professor Altschuler also served as vice president for university relations, with responsibilities for articulating and overseeing strategies related to communications, government relations, and land grant affairs.  Professor Altschuler has been an animating force in the American Studies Program and has been a strong advocate on campus for high-quality teaching and advising. In 1998, he became the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies. For many years, his two-semester survey, Popular Culture in the United States 19900-Present, was one of the most popular courses at Cornell.

Glenn Altschuler is the author or coauthor of 11 books and about fifteen hundred essays and reviews. He is a regular contributor to The Hill and Psychology Today. The National Book Critics Circle has cited his work as “exemplary.” Psychology Today has featured it as “essential reading.” For four years he wrote a column for the Education Life section of The New York Times. From 2002 to 2005 he was a regular panelist on national and international affairs for the WCNY television program The Ivory Tower Half Hour. His political commentary appears on websites and newspapers in the United States and abroad.

Ken Blanchard, one of the most influential leadership experts in the world, is the coauthor of the iconic best sellers “The One Minute Manager” and “The New One Minute Manager,” as well as 65 other books whose combined sales total more than 23 million copies. His groundbreaking works have been translated into more than 47 languages. In 2005 he was inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 best-selling authors of all time.
He is the cofounder, with his wife, Margie, of The Ken Blanchard Companies®, an international management training and consulting firm in San Diego, California. He also cofounded Lead Like Jesus, a worldwide organization committed to helping people become servant leaders.

Ken has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions in the fields of management, leadership, and speaking. The National Speakers Association awarded him its highest honor, the Council of Peers Award of Excellence. He was inducted into the HRD Hall of Fame by Training magazine and he received the Golden Gavel Award from Toastmasters International. Ken also received the Thought Leadership Award from ISA – The Association of Learning Providers.
When he’s not writing or speaking, Ken teaches students in the Master of Science in Executive Leadership Program at the University of San Diego. Born in New Jersey and raised in New York, Ken received an M.A. degree from Colgate University and a B.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Professor Clarence Lee is an assistant professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he is a Breazzano Family Sesquicentennial Fellow. Professor Lee’s research examines the drivers behind consumer adoption, usage, and purchase dynamics of digital goods, where he models consumer behavior using Bayesian statistics, structural econometrics, and machine learning techniques. Digital products and platforms, such as the ones produced by many Silicon Valley and NYC tech start-ups, are increasingly present in almost all consumer interactions. In such settings, understanding consumer choice and the dynamics of engagement and usage become critically important in order to acquire, serve, and retain consumers. He currently teaches Digital Marketing and Data Analytics & Modeling at both the Ithaca and Cornell Tech campuses.

Professor Lee received his doctorate from Harvard Business School and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. Prior to pursuing graduate studies, he has conducted nanotechnology research at IBM and space system design at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

William Drake recently retired From Cornell, where he was Senior Extension Associate, faculty member, and Director of Executive Education of the Food Industry Management Program (FIMP) in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

Bill developed and continues to direct the National Association of Convenience Stores Executive Leadership Program and the National Grocers Association Executive Leadership Program. In addition, he teaches in the Food Executive Program, United Fresh Produce Executive Development Program, and FIMP’s various international food executive programs. Bill has conducted programs for food industry executives from over 30 countries.

Before joining Cornell, Bill was an executive at SuperValu, one of the nation’s largest food retailers and wholesalers. His positions included Vice President of Marketing and Real Estate (Cub Foods); Vice President of Strategic Planning, Key Wholesale Customers (SuperValu corporate); and Vice President of Strategic Planning, Marketing, and Real Estate (Save-A-Lot).

Bill is a founding member of the National Grocers Association University Coalition and also serves on the Boards of Directors of LEADNY; Coborn’s, a large regional multi-format food retailer in the Upper Midwest; and Vantage Foods, a Canadian supplier of case-ready meat to North American retailers.

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 ecommerce. Dan is an outstanding strategist and general manager, and 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, he has shaped clients’ programs across four continents and eight classes of trade. His passion is in helping companies see their unique DNA and positioning and creating actionable marketing and sales strategies essential for their success.

Michael J. Hostetler is a faculty member of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. Mr. Hostetler’s main research and teaching interests are in strategy, decision-making, leadership, high performance teams, innovation and change management. He has taught classes in the MBA program, Executive MBA program and the Cornell-Queen’s EMBA program, as well as many non-degree executive education programs.

Mr. Hostetler also consults with private and non-profit organizations, both domestically and internationally. In particular, he works frequently in the health care, financial services, manufacturing and food industries. Recent clients include the Lehigh Valley Health Network, the Community Health Foundation of Buffalo, New York, the P2 Collaborative of Western New York, Northern Trust, Schwan’s, LG, United Technologies, Driscoll’s, Philip Morris International, Citigroup, Victaulic Co., Anthony Marano Co., Nunasi Corp., Ahold Delhaize, Sun World International, Samsung, LG, Sony, NACS, United Fresh, Vantage Foods, OSRAM, Baldor, NGA, and SG Cowen. Mr. Hostetler has also designed and taught a number of executive development programs and strategy consulting projects globally, including the U. S., Great Britain, Holland, Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Brazil, Venezuela, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, India, Dubai, and Egypt.

Most recently, Clay Ellis served as the VP of Strategy and Business Development for Trilliant Food and Nutrition, working closely with the CEO to identify and evaluate acquisition and partnership opportunities to accelerate the company’s growth plans.

Prior to Trilliant, Clay spent over eight years in various corporate leadership roles with Daymon Worldwide, Inc., a retail branding, consumer experience marketing, sourcing, and advisory services company. Clay led multiple teams and a wide range of strategic initiatives that have had a positive impact on multiple business areas, increasing revenue, improving efficiencies, and driving overall performance.

Prior to joining Daymon, Clay worked in management consulting for both Andersen and KPMG, consulting within their retail and CPG practices. In these roles, he designed and implemented several strategic initiatives, including process reengineering, customer service improvement, customer value segmentation, brand positioning, and technology and revenue growth projects. Prior to that, Clay was a customer solutions executive for Symphony/Information Resources, Inc. (IRi), responsible for the development and delivery of analytic, modeled, and technological marketing solutions for Fortune 100 CPG manufacturers.

Clay holds a Master’s from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, an M.S. in Organizational Psychology from Springfield College, and a B.A. from Macalester College. He lives in Cos Cob, CT, with his wife, two kids, and goldendoodle.

A world-renowned expert in retail insight, Bryan Gildenberg is the SVP of Commerce at Omnicom Commerce Group and a member of the company’s executive leadership team. As the SVP of Commerce, he is responsible for strengthening OCG’s retailer intelligence and partnerships and helping the OCG agencies (TracyLocke, Integer, TPN, Haygarth) be better, more strategic, and more vital partners to their clients.

Bryan joined OCG from Kantar’s retail consulting practice, where he was responsible for the company’s analysis and insight as Chief Knowledge Officer, Retail, as well as a member of the practice’s executive committee.

An established writer, speaker, and media commentator, Bryan provides a clear, dynamic, and always-topical focus on a variety of channels and retailers around the world. His perspective has been featured on broadcast media such as CNBC, Fox Business, and the BBC, and he is frequently cited in a range of U.S. and global business publications. An award-winning writer, Bryan has authored numerous articles for Kantar Retail publications and third-party periodicals such as The Hub and GMA Forum. An engaging speaker, Bryan has addressed numerous Kantar Retail forums and industry conferences.

Bryan earned an M.B.A. summa cum laude from Babson College and an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University in Cambridge, England.

Dr. Ana C. Krieger is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Departments of Medicine, Neurology, and Genetic Medicine. She holds board certifications in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, and Sleep Medicine, and is a faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, at Weill Cornell Medical College as well as an Associate Attending at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and at Rockefeller University Hospital.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Krieger has been actively involved in patient care, training of sleep specialists, and sleep medicine education. Besides her clinical activities, Dr. Krieger works in research projects as a clinician scientist, investigating the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and thrombosis in sleep apnea, and helping with the development of new technologies for sleep monitoring and education.

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, which is globally recognized as the premier food industry education and research program. He 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 and barriers of 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.