The American Bakers Association (ABA) has announced its esteemed Afternoon Business Session Speaker at the 2018 Convention in Scottsdale, Ariz. this April – former global marketing officer (GMO) of multinational Procter & Gamble (P&G) and leading innovation expert Jim Stengel. Stengel will draw on his extensive expertise in business innovation to plant ideas for reinvigorating the baking category.

On April 16, Stengel, author of Unleashing the Innovators: How Mature Companies Find New Life with Startups and Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies, will impart his knowledge from working with numerous Fortune 500 brands who have partnered with startups to adjust and adapt in today’s marketplace. Recognizing the “need for speed” in a complex and dynamic world, Stengel will deliver ways for legacy companies to embrace innovation, freshness and strategic risk-taking to strengthen relationships with customers.

“Jim’s business acumen and his keen awareness of how to integrate traditional models with refreshing ideas captures the essence of this year’s ABA Convention theme,” said ABA president & CEO Robb MacKie. “The session will hopefully spark ideas for attendees on how to affiliate with startups to leverage tradition and convert it into innovation.”

Before his role as president/CEO of The Jim Stengel Company, LLC, Stengel served as P&G’s GMO (2001-2008), and the company saw its sales double. Stengel’s recognitions by and contributions to his industry are numerous. Recognitions include:  

• “Advertiser of the Year” for P&G’s first time being honored at Cannes International Advertising Festival
• Number one “Power Player” in marketing – Advertising Age (2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007)
• "Grand Marketer of the Year” – Brandweek Magazine (2005)
• “Marketer of the Year” – Advertising Age magazine (2005)
• Named to the first-ever Fortune Executive Dream Team (2011)
• American Marketing Association Hall of Fame (2017)

Stengel authored Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies – a work demonstrating the correlation between 50 top businesses’ financial performance and their ability to connect with fundamental human emotions, hopes, values and greater purposes. In 2017, he was appointed senior fellow and adjunct professor within the Kellogg Markets & Customers Initiative at Northwestern and is a former member of the Board of Directors for AOL and Motorola. Stengel now serves as an advisor for Bionic and Compound and is Chairman of the International Advisory Board for in/PACT.

“We are thrilled that Jim will join us and offer insight into his leadership style that has made him highly successful,” said MacKie. “We look forward to his thought leadership on how the baking industry can invite and embrace innovation.”