Associate Category Manager for N/A Beverages, Beer, Wine & Spirits at Rite Aid with a total of 2,450 stores.

Emily Kanter is the Second Generation Co-Owner and CEO of Cambridge Naturals, a 47 year old natural wellness retailer with two locations in Cambridge and Boston. Originally from the Boston area, Emily spent several formative years in Portland, OR with her now husband (and fellow co-owner) Caleb, where she received her MBA from Bainbridge Graduate Institute. She serves as an advisor to several organizations including Real Pickles, Protect Our Breasts, and Findaway Adventures.

Thomas supports the Amazon’s Recruitment and Development Division in the Consumables Grocery and Gourmet category. Thomas primarily focuses on recruiting new and emerging brands to the Amazon Marketplace within the Emerging Brands program. If accepted into the program, sellers are offered free account guidance and management for a calendar year including optimization coaching for listings, shipping plans, advertising and troubleshooting. This opportunity also includes exclusive marketing and advertising support. The ideal candidate will have existing interest to launch on Amazon, understand the bandwidth necessary to manage Seller Central, and have the ability to ship products to FBA for Prime or handle shipping logistics.

Alexandra McArthur is directly responsible for creating and selling cross-platform partnerships for the AEG Presents portfolio of assets including events, music festivals, venues, tours, content and digital media properties. As a vice president working for one of the largest concert promoters in the world, she also oversees budgets for several high-profile AEG Presents music properties including Rams Head Live, The National, The Norva and Firefly Music Festival, while also creating prominent partnerships across AEG’s entire global portfolio. Alex has worked with several brands in food and beverage including Pop-Tarts, Heineken, Anheuser Busch, Proximo Spirits, Bai, Dogfish Head, Boost Juice, Rekorderlig Cider and more. She is brand obsessed, and works closely with her team to pioneer the most creative solutions to drive awareness, sampling and sales with her brand partners.

As Director of Marketing on the Global Partnerships team with AEG Presents, I’ve had the unique opportunity to work on brand partnerships across platforms grounded in our music properties including within the food & beverage sectors. Whether music festival experiential + sampling partnerships or venue tasting opportunities, I’ve worked on exciting and unique marketing programs for a variety of QSR, NAB, beer + spirit brands.

Heidi Traore has been a passionate member of the US natural products industry since the late 1980s and currently serves as business development manager for National Co+op Grocers (NCG), a business services and purchasing co-op with $2.5 billion in annual sales serving 147 US retail food co-op members. An established sales and marketing professional, Heidi worked with NCG’s category management team on solidifying a fact based business approach through targeted bi-annual business planning events that have enhanced business relationships and created efficiencies for her organization and its partners. Under her leadership, NCG promotional program revenue grew 69% over a four-year period. Through collaborations within cooperative supply chains, Heidi has been instrumental in bringing exclusive products produced by co-ops or made with cooperatively sourced ingredients to market at retail food co-ops. Recently, Heidi has been developing NCG’s supplier diversity which will ultimately seek to create greater economic empowerment within NCG’s supply chain. Heidi strives to be an agent of change and is a fervent supporter of inclusivity in society. When she’s not at work, you may find her on the floor of a West African dance class, working towards racial justice or rolling at the local skating rink.

Sarah Nathan is the Frozen, Body Care, and Lifestyle Category Manager for National Co+op Grocers, a virtual chain of independent co-ops and UNFIs 2nd largest customer. She recently moved to St. Paul from Brooklyn, where she was previously running programming for the Chobani Incubator. During her time at the Incubator, she had the unique opportunity to work with a diverse set of determined entrepreneurs who all shared the same desire of bringing better food to more people. She is continuing that mission on the other side of the table, and brings in her expertise from the brand side.