Women Impacting Storebrand Excellence Welcomes Six New Jr. Board Members
Women Impacting Storebrand Excellence (WISE) has elected six new members to its junior board of directors. At the annual meeting on November 9th, Shanaz Ahmed, Keri Cardenas, Elysia Handy, Alexis Herbert, Bailey Furtado and Kirsten Taylor were elected to serve a two-year term starting January 1, 2023. They will join Nabiha Asfar; Topco, Angela Atamian; John B Sanfilippo & Son, and Mayra Buenrostro; Daymon, who will remain on the Jr. Board to serve another term.
With the welcome of new board members, we also have to say thank you to members who are leaving our Junior Board for their incredible contributions. The new members are replacing spots vacated by Kristen Jones; MZB-USA, Charlie New; Whole Foods, and Kiana Remgni; Bonduelle. And last, but certainly not least, Miranda Penna (Sakschek); Winland Foods (formerly TreeHouse Foods), is moving into her new position on WISE’s Board of Directors. “These six women are the perfect addition to our Jr. Board! I’m so excited to see how they use what we have done over the past year and take it to the next level,” states Penna (Sakschek).
Meet our new Jr. Board Members!
Shanaz leads Albertson’s Own Brands Regulatory Affairs team and sets regulatory agenda responsible for ensuring faultless compliance of product labeling across all brands. She was the 2021 recipient of TWISB (Top Women in Store Brands) Functional Expertise - R&D / QA award. With over 15 years of industry experience in Regulatory, Nutrition & Product Development across several companies, Shanaz is a strong and passionate leader. She also played an instrumental role in spearheading Own Brands’ RA Strategic Initiatives agenda and paved way for consistency for In-Store product compliance. Shanaz holds a double Master of Science degrees in Food Science and in Nutrition & Dietetics, and a Biotechnology undergraduate degree.
Keri Cardenas is the Senior Sourcing Leader of Supplements at Whole Foods Market for the Exclusive Brands team. In her current position, Keri is responsible for launching new products, and managing costs and resources across a vast supplier network. Aside from her role in sourcing, she also serves on the Inclusive Products Sub Committee, Whole Foods Market Culture Champions and is the Exclusive Brands Training Captain. She received her bachelor’s degree in Sociology and considers herself a lifelong student with interests in intersectionality and women’s history. Her pass times include turning her yard into a native plant and pollinator habitat, practicing the drums and spending time with her family.
Elysia Handy is a Customer Business Manager at TreeHouse Foods, where she manages the entire THS private brands portfolio for Whole Foods and Winco. She was previously with branded companies like Newell Brands, Wholesome Sweeteners, and Dyno LLC (Singer). She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. She currently lives in Austin, TX with her husband and three children. She enjoys traveling, listening to audible books, baking and watching her daughters play softball and soccer.
Alexis Herbert is a Business Manager at Daymon, supporting the Ahold Delhaize account for nearly three years. Alexis started with Daymon after graduating from Western Michigan University’s Food & Consumer Packed Goods Marketing program in 2019. In her role, her responsibilities include supporting suppliers and retailers in various ways such as developing new private brand programs, closing distribution voids, searching for innovation and white space opportunities and more. She has a passion for exploring new food and consumer trends. In her spare time, she loves travelling to new cities and countries, being active and playing sports, cooking, listening to True Crime podcasts and spending time with friends and family. She is very passionate about promoting diversity and she is truly honored to be a part of the WISE Junior Board.
Bailey Furtado was born and raised in Central California with a strong agriculture background. She graduated from California State University, Fresno in 2021 with a bachelor in agriculture business. Furtado started with Topco in the summer of 2019 with a Produce Procurement Internship, then continued to complete two more internships with Topco, another Produce Procurement Internship as well as a Category Management Internship. Upon graduating, she moved to the Chicago area and joined the Rotational Program with Topco, which is a two-year developmental program that gives an opportunity to work in a total of six departments. The departments in this program include; Member Services, Master Data, Demand Planning, Logistics, Sourcing and Category Insights. Having almost completed 5/6 rotations, Furtado has been able to get diverse exposures and insights to the grocery industry which she hopes to use to aid the WISE Junior Board.
Kirsten Taylor is a Senior Business Systems Analyst at TreeHouse Foods. She got her bachelor’s degree in Accountancy and her master’s degree in Management Information Systems from Northern Illinois University. She started her career in Internal Audit at PwC, then, started with Internal Audit at TreeHouse Foods in 2019. She then moved over to the IT team at TreeHouse Foods in 2021 where she works closely with business partners in the finance team to make sure financial IT systems are running smoothly and to help optimize financial systems. She joined WISE in March 2021 and is excited to be a part of the WISE Junior Board! At TreeHouse, Kirsten is also the Membership Committee Chair for the Woman's Employee Resource group and truly has a passion for DEI. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing in social sports leagues, and spending time with her husband and her fur babies (2 cats and 2 dogs).