Partner
Strategic Growth Partners, Inc.
Roselle, IL, United States
Jerry Smiley is the founder of Strategic Growth Partners, Inc., a management-consulting firm dedicated to the food industry. He provides strategic guidance to manufacturers within all channels of food distribution. He helps clients to identify, quantify, evaluate, prioritize, and implement strategies that profitably grow their businesses. These activities include strategic planning, category assessments, customer profiling & targeting, competitive analyses and acquisition analyses.
Since founding his own practice in 2000, Jerry has assisted many clients in their efforts to profitably grow their business. Before forming this consulting practice, Jerry spent more than two years as Senior Associate at Technomic, Inc., a preeminent consulting and market research firm.
Jerry spent 14 years as an executive within the food industry, all with leading consumer packaged goods manufacturers. His industry responsibilities included marketing planning & execution, division P&L accountability, strategic planning, business development, new product development, and acquisition analysis. This experience includes all channels of food distribution including grocery, foodservice, in-store bakeries, warehouse clubs, and convenience stores.
Before entering the consulting profession, Jerry was Director of New Ventures & Marketing for the Foodservice Division of Sara Lee Bakery. He has also held strategic planning, marketing and business development positions with the H.J. Heinz Company and The Quaker Oats Company.
Jerry has been a featured speaker/facilitator at the following conferences and seminars:
 2022 Bakepedia podcast of Bakery Trends
 2019 Presentation of Foodservice trends at the Swander Pace Capital annual conference
 2010 International Bakery Industry Expo featured presenter
In addition, he has been a reference for numerous trade journals such as Baking Buyer, Progressive Grocer, Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, and Snack Food & Wholesale Baking.
Jerry earned his Bachelor of Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati and his Master of Business Administration degree (with highest honors) in Marketing from DePaul University.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
1:00 PM – 1:45 PM PT