Peter Pappas

Summary

Peter Pappas
is an expert at leading and managing teams that work with large, complex customers and business challenges. An agile and accomplished senior executive, he has a proven history of generating outstanding sales and profit growth in challenging and highly competitive industries. He is recognized as an energizing servant leader who sets strategic direction and provides the tools, resources and infrastructure that enable organizations to succeed.

His strengths lie in his ability to build trust with customers, peers and subordinates. Peter's strong communication skills and collaborative style of leading, builds strong internal and external partnerships.

Although a tenacious competitor, he wins the "right way"...

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Experience

• SVP, Sales & Marketing / Chief Customer Officer
  Dean Foods, Inc.

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• SVP & Chief Customer Officer, Walmart & Sam’s Club
  Dean Foods, Inc.
  

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• VP, National Sales & Customer Development
  SABMiller/Miller Brewing Company

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• VP, Sales and Marketing, Convenience Retail
  Pepsico, Inc.
  

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• Mobile Oil Corporation
  Retail and Marketing Division
  
  

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Education

University of California

Los Angeles, CA
B.A. International Relations

Board Experience

• Board Member
  Michaela’s Army
  Charity Fighting Adolescent Cancer
  2013 - Present
  
  
• Board Member
  Hunger Busters
  Charity Serving Underfed Children
  2012 - Present
  
  
• Advisory Board Member
  Students in Free Enterprise
  University of Texas at Dallas
  2010 - 2012
  
  
• National Exec. Board Member
  Students in Free Enterprise
  University of Texas at Dallas
  2009 - 2012
  

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Summary

 

Peter Pappas is an expert at leading and managing teams that work with large, complex customers and business challenges. An agile and accomplished senior executive, he has a proven history of generating outstanding sales and profit growth in challenging and highly competitive industries. He is recognized as an energizing servant leader who sets strategic direction and provides the tools, resources and infrastructure that enable organizations to succeed.

His strengths lie in his abilities to build trust with customers, peers and subordinates. Peter's strong communication skills and collaborative style of leading, creates and fortifies strong internal and external partnerships.

Although a tenacious competitor, he wins the "right way", using strong strategic thinking while possessing a P&L ownership mentality. His ability to balance both short and long term objectives and priorities, his command of supply chain, operations and commercial functions is second to none.

Peter possesses a competitive spirit and the ability to build, lead, and inspire top-performing teams to embrace high standards through accountability, strategic discipline, cross functional teamwork, and flawless execution.

Extremely collaborative and endowed with the unique capability to drive change and establish a performance culture without creating organizational turbulence, Mr. Pappas holds a strong understanding of how to expand margin pools and impact different leverage points of the P&L. He is a highly successful servant leader with a passion to mentor and coach future leaders with a history of building customer confidence.

SPECIALTIES:

•  Complex Customer Management
  
• Collaborative Servant Leadership
  
• Organization Transformation
  
•  P&L Management
  
•  Strategic Planning
  
•  Brand Marketing & Innovation
  
•  Customer Development Solutions
  
•  Building Sustainable Customer Partnerships
  

SVP Sales & Marketing/Chief Customer Officer
Dean Foods | Dallas, TX
2012 – Present

Dean Foods is the largest dairy processor in the US manufacturing and delivering fresh milk, ice cream and cultured dairy products to all retail and food-service channels of trade.

As Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing and Chief Customer Officer at Dean Foods:

Peter is directly responsible for $8B in revenue and $300MM in operating Income along with $22MM in brand marketing, oversight and development.

He oversee the sales and marketing functions for the diverse $10.6B portfolio comprised of branded, private label, regional and national brands.

He's responsible for the development and performance of 26 regional "fresh white milk" brands, TruMoo – the nation’s #1 chocolate milk brand, the third largest ice cream business in North America, along with all aspects of national and regional sales.

Responsibilities include sales and marketing strategy development and implementation, National and Regional customer management, sales capability development, brand and customer specific marketing, brand development, product and package innovation, category and consumer insights, sales execution, sales finance.

Peter is a member of the Executive Leadership Team and part of the leadership team that developed divestiture strategy of the White Wave and MorningStar food brands generating over $3B in equity used to buy down debt and significantly improve the balance sheet stability and agility of the “new” Dean Foods.

He exceeded sales, margin, and trade spend targets in 2012, resulting in over delivery of operating Income target by $50MM.

Peter has performed extensive customer segmentation to prioritize sales efforts and restructure the sales organization to support the most critical customers while reducing G&A by over $4MM.

He has built sales and marketing strategy that identifies deepest profit pools and methods by which to drain those pools. The resulting focus has delivered over 100MM gallons of new business.

He launched TruMoo chocolate milk, the result of a consolidation strategy, resulting in a $640MM brand that has displaced Nestlé’s Nesquik as the #1 chocolate milk brand in the US garnering 27 share of the retail flavor milk category and over 30 share at Walmart.

Mr. Pappas was responsible for dramatically improving standings and relationships with critical customers such as Walmart, Target, Costco, 7-eleven, McDonald’s, Baskin Robbins, Starbucks, Walgreen’s, SuperValu/Albertson’s LLC, and CVS, resulting in several customer recognition awards as “Vendor of the Year”, multi-year contract extensions and over 130MM gallons of new business valued at over $48MM in operating income.

SVP/Chief Customer Officer - Walmart Inc.
Dean Foods | Dallas, TX
2009 – 2012

As Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Dean Foods:

Peter was responsible for leading the development of the Walmart and Sam’s Club US businesses across the three Dean Foods companies of Fresh Dairy Direct, White Wave Foods, and MorningStar Foods. He managed $2.6B in revenue and contribution margin of $700MM annually and influenced P&L levers across DSD and warehouse delivered portfolios across Dean Foods.

He was in charge of the 26 regional fresh white milk brands, Horizon Organic, Silk plant based beverages, and International Delight creamers. Additionally, responsible for developing the Great Value and Member’s Mark private label dairy products by utilizing full capability of supply chain resources.

Mr. Pappas executed an innovative two year partnership agreement securing 77% of Walmart and Sam’s Club private label milk business valued at $1.8B annually, expanding distribution into more than 2700 Walmart SuperCenters and 450 clubs.

He upgraded 2/3rds of the leadership team, consolidated three independent selling organizations (Fresh Dairy Direct, WhiteWave and MorningStar) into a single cohesive Walmart/Sam’s Club selling team focused on category and segment development, fortified business, and established strong senior level relationships between Dean Foods, Walmart and Sam’s Club executive teams.

Peter streamlined supply chain, category management and shopper marketing functions to support the selling organization and provide a distinct competitive advantage resulting in two year compounded annual growth rate of 6% at Walmart, 21% at Sam’s Club and category advisorship at both Walmart and Sam’s Club.

Pioneered Joint Business Plan (JBP) process with Sam’s Club and initiated innovation valued at $400MM in annual revenue.

VP National Sales & Customer Development
SABMiller | Dallas, TX
2006 – 2008

As Vice President of National Sales & Customer Development

Peter transformed the national sales organization of 170 people into a highly capable, collaborative, disciplined and accountable team, respected by distributors and retailers alike. He executed detailed channel and account segmentation to identify where profits and volume opportunities exist.

He restructured the organization to align accordingly with focus on build-out of integrated customer teams against the five largest customer opportunities, and built a Customer Development “center of excellence” focused on developing channel strategy, category management, supply chain, shopper marketing and consumer insight solutions to differentiate the SABMiller offer.

Mr. Pappas developed and executed a comprehensive capability strategy focusing on a disciplined “Miller way to sell” process, clear sales competencies and a detailed learning agenda to build, retain and develop sales talent.

He was responsible for over $1.02B in revenue and direct contribution of $454MM while managed trade spending of $21M, and oversaw sales development (volume, profit and share) of top tier national and regional customers across all classes of trade including Walmart, Grocery, Convenience, Club/Drug and Mass and on-premise, including casual dining, recreation venues, hotels and concessionaires.

Peter sheparded sales and business development functions, including profit and loss management, strategic planning, category management, product innovation roll-out, strategic account management, shopper marketing, customer relationship development, contract negotiations, and people development.

Reversed industry perception and elevated customer confidence resulting in recognition as Vendor Partner of the Year by 7-eleven, Speedway Super America, RiteAid, and Buffalo Wild Wings.

Delivered the first national channel and industry “share builder” program with Kroger delivering 4.6 pts incremental share and $6,750,000 incremental revenue.

Reversed three year negative trends at Walmart delivering 12% CAGR over two years, 5% space gains and 3.1 share gains.

Upgraded 80% of the leadership team, introducing over 50 new sales executives to the organization while delivering organizational effectiveness scores in the top tier of the entire company which demonstrated an ability to build, lead and motivate a highly effective sales organization. 

Established disciplined strategic/fact based selling protocol and competency model transforming customer and distributor selling effort from transactional to strategic resulting in elevated customer satisfaction.

VP of Sales & Marketing, Convenience Retail Division
PepsiCo | Dallas/Fort Worth Area
2004 – 2006

As Vice President of Sales & Marketing - Convenience Retail Division:

Peter integrated three operating divisions into a single-voice sales organization to rejuvenate sales and profitability, while managing over $1.3B in revenue and profits of $280MM, $110MM trade spending budget, ten dedicated account teams, and a category management organization focused on the ten largest national accounts in the U.S.

He provided channel leadership, support, and strategic plans into respective division operating plans while developing objectives and strategies, blending distinct distribution methods, overlapping product lines and competing entities into a cohesive, customer-focused organization.

Peter designed strategic growth plan focused on four planks (innovation, strategic insights leadership, precision execution, and customer and loyalty marketing) to rejuvenate sales and exceed business and share objectives.

He oversaw sales and business development functions, including profit / loss management, strategic planning, category management, product innovation roll-out, strategic account management, customer relationship development, contract negotiations, customer marketing, and people development.

Mr. Pappas designed, developed and integrated a single voice PepsiCo sales organization focused on top strategic customers delivering significant competitive advantage while improving trade spending efficiency by 11%, resulting in savings of $11MM. 

He also shifted the spending culture from fixed expenditures to variable, realigning dollars toward customers growing at rate exceeding industry average.

By pioneering the convenience channel category management platform utilizing SKU & space optimization tools, category profit optimization models, and pricing optimization, Peter established the highest-share position for company beverages at 44.5%, a nine-point advantage over competition and $27MM wholesale improvement.

Director of National Account Sales and Marketing Convenience Retail Division
Pepsi Cola Company | Dallas/Fort Worth Area
1989 – 2004

As Director, National Account Sales and Marketing - Convenience Retail Division:

Mr. Pappas accelerated growth and delivered fiscal and account management discipline to national account sales organization, focused on top 15 convenience retailers.

He directed $620MM in revenue, $80MM in trade advertising and market support, and team of ten senior executives while overseeing a channel and customer strategic plan development, category management, national account development, large-scale contract negotiations, account specific marketing, and people development.

Peter collaborated with a complex network of 130 company-owned and independent bottlers to develop strategic plans, ensure mutual sales and profit objectives, and execute account plans.

As Director of National Account Sales

Business, Industry, and Education Division

1997 - 1998

Peter increased sales and shared position in business, industry, and education channels and managed $200MM in revenue and oversaw team of 15 sales executives focused on improving product availability and sales to food-service operators, contract vendors, secondary schools, and colleges and universities.

Group Manager, National Sales | National Account Sales Manager | Franchise Manager | Key Account 

Pepsi / Lipton Tea Partnership - Purchase NY | Seattle WA

1989 – 1997

As Group Manager, National Sales (1995 - 1997):

Peter directed sales functions for ready-to-drink tea joint-venture, including national account sales, field sales, food-service sales, bottler development, and customer marketing. he directed retail and fountain channel strategy with network of 130 company-owned and independent bottlers, and directed customer and bottler marketing plans and established sales and share objectives, delivering double-digit top-line and bottom-line growth for business valued at $800MM.

National Account Sales Manager, Purchase NY  (1993 - 1995)
Franchise Manager, Seattle, WA  (1991 - 1993)
Key Account Manager, Seattle, WA  (1989 - 1991)

Retail and Marketing Division
Mobil Oil Corporation | Fairfax, VA
1986 – 1989

Micaela's Army

Board Member | 2013 – Present
Micaela's Army is a 503c charity fighting adolescent cancer.

Hunger Busters - Dallas, TX

Board Member | 2012 – Present
Hunger Busters is a 503c charity dedicated to serving underfed children

Students in Free Enterprise - University of Texas at Dallas

Advisory Board Member | 2010 – 2012
Students in Free Enterprise
National Executive Board Member | 2009 – 2012