Store Brands magazine and Women Impacting Storebrand Excellence™ (WISE) created The Top Women in Store Brands honors in 2013 to recognize women executives, in the store brand industry, who bring a passion for store brands to their day-to-day activities. The awards cover functional expertise areas (Supply Chain/Procurement, R&D/QA, Operations, HR, Sales and Marketing/Merchandising), as well as three achievement areas not linked to a specific functional expertise area (Sparkplug, Innovation and Lifetime Achievement).
To select TWISB honorees, each spring, in-depth nominations from across the store brand industry are solicited. The submissions are carefully evaluated and reviewed to determine each year’s award recipients. The cross-functional committee ultimately selects one honoree for each category.
TWISB Award honorees are featured in a multi-page story within the October issue of Store Brands magazine. The TWISB Awards are presented during the WISE Annual Meeting.
This year’s honorees include:
- Samantha Hein, senior category merchant, exclusive brands, Whole Foods Market — a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award;
- Heather Corkery, senior director of CVS Store Brands, CVS Health — Innovation Award;
- Alison Gregas, private brands manager, Weis Markets — Sparkplug Award;
- Shanaz Ahmed, regulatory affairs manager, Albertsons — Functional Expertise: R&D/QA Award;
- Mary Conwell, senior director of sales, Sofidel America — Functional Expertise: Sales Award;
- Pam Ofri, director of product development and operations, Wakefern Food — Functional Expertise: Operations Award;
- Katherine Renn, vice president, commercial finance, Refresco — Functional Expertise: Corporate Services Award;
- Erin Shirkey, director of supply chain operations, Great Lakes Cheese — Functional Expertise: Supply Chain/Procurement Award;
- Emily Taylor, EVP, chief merchandising officer, Dollar General — Functional Expertise: Marketing/Merchandising Award.