2024 Food Industry Center of Excellence Summit

Donald Fitzgerald is a leader in The Partnering Group’s Retail Commerce Practice. His focus is on accelerating client revenue and earnings growth, through retail best practices, reinvention and competency training.

Don has deep retail experience and success across numerous retail formats, from Fortune 100 companies to start-up operations. Additionally, he has had involvement in numerous PE, Family Office and VC transactions in the sector.

Before joining TPG, Don spent more than 40+ years in retail organizations, including Dominick’s, Roundy’s/Mariano’s, Kroger and co-founded a start-up hybrid retailer, DOM’S Kitchen & Market. His focus has been in Merchandising, Marketing and C-Suite leadership. He is also an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University, in Chicago.

Amanda offers nearly a decade of cross-functional retail and food industry expertise in her consulting engagements at McMillanDoolittle, leveraging multidisciplinary knowledge in strategic planning, sales, marketing, concept development, and real estate to craft comprehensive strategies that help her clients win.

Amanda leads McMillanDoolittle’s food industry practice and has cross-functional experience working alongside partner firms – real estate agencies, technology solution providers, architects, designers, construction managers, and law firms – to ensure strong execution for her clients in North America, Europe, and Asia. She is a regular guest analyst on the TD Ameritrade Network; a keynote speaker at industry conferences including the FMI – Food Industry Association and National Grocers Association; and a subject matter expert quoted in publications including The Chicago Tribune, Progressive Grocer, and Winsight Grocery Business.

Key client engagements include Emart (South Korea), The Fresh Market, Sprouts, Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market, New Seasons Market, Roche Bros, Dom’s Kitchen & Market, and more.

Amanda began her career at PepsiCo, where she managed sales and beverage assortments for customers such as 7-Eleven, CVS, and Walgreens. She also has experience in promotional marketing at global advertising conglomerate WPP, where her client roster included Kellogg’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Snapchat.

Amanda was named a “Rising Star of Consulting” by Consulting Magazine in the category of Retail Excellence and a “GenNext Award” honoree by Progressive Grocer for her contributions as a young professional to the food industry. She holds a B.A. in Retail Merchandising, Marketing, and Global Studies from the University of Minnesota.

Chelsea Schroder is Director of Foodservice Client Development at Circana. She has spent the past 5 years leading with data driven insights and industry expertise to help her manufacturer clients navigate the ever-changing market by understanding the state of foodservice consumption, unlocking opportunities for growth, and helping clients to fine tune their go to market strategies. She began her career at Circana working closely with leading broadline distributors and utilized data to help them identify key category performance and gain market share through a fact-based approach for sales execution.

Prior to joining Circana in 2018, Chelsea spent 4 years working in international sales and product development for a leading absorbent hygiene company. It was in this role that she partnered with some of the largest global retailers to launch successful private label programs across key markets. Chelsea holds a B.A. in Business Management from Pennsylvania College of Technology and studied International Business at the Vorarlberg University of the Arts in Dornbirn, Austria. Chelsea currently lives in Williamsport, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.

Mercedes E. Wilson is a three-time author, award winning talk show host, breast cancer survivor, foodpreneur, philanthropist and mother of four amazing children. She loves to use her platform to give voices to those that don’t traditionally have one.

In 2017 Mercedes made her TV debut as the host of a daily talk show on WBBZ-TV called “Daily Buzz”. She then went on to host her own talk show “The Mercedes Wilson Show” and in 2021, won the National Hometown Media Award for “Best Informational Talk Show Series Independent Producer”. After becoming a regular food segment contributor with Channel 7ABC’s affiliate, Mercedes was then offered a co-hosting position on Buffalo’s longest running morning show, AM Buffalo. Mercedes is now the host of the digital first platform “7Life” that airs on Channel 7ABC, while also hosting weekly food segments “Recipes for 7Life” where she has the honor of inviting guests from the local community to cook a dish with her.

In 2021, after learning from her father about a cabbage based relish that her grandmother used to make from the veggies in her garden, Mercedes launched her own food line “Sadie’s Relish”. This delicious pickled relish that honors her late grandmother’s memory, is sold in over 157 grocery stores in Upstate New York, Western New York, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh, PA, and Indiana. These stores include Tops, Wegmans, Giant Eagle, Niagara County Produce, Lexington Co-op, Market32 and more! Her goal is to make to this “America’s Relish” for all to enjoy, one family at a time.

Out of all of her accomplishments, her four children are the greatest of them all.
To make them proud and leave them a legacy is what it’s all about.