Douglas R. Conant
President and CEO, Campbell Soup Company
Background:
Douglas R. Conant was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Campbell's Soup Company in January of 2001. He also was elected a Director of the company at that time. Conant is the 11th leader in the company’s nearly 140-year history.
Under Conant’s leadership, Campbell's has reversed a precipitous decline in market value and employee engagement. The company has made significant investments to improve product quality and packaging, strengthen the effectiveness of its marketing programs, and develop a robust innovation pipeline. Campbell's also has improved its financial profile, enhanced its relationships with its customers, and consistently improved its employee engagement through investments in its organization.
Today, Campbell's is delivering total shareowner returns in the top tier of the global food industry and displaying ever-improving employee engagement levels. As a result, the company is well on its way to achieving its mission of building the world’s most extraordinary food company by nourishing people’s lives everywhere, every day.
Campbell's is a $7.9 billion global manufacturer and marketer of high-quality consumer food products. The portfolio is focused on simple meals, heavily anchored by Campbell's soup; baked snacks, with Pepperidge Farm in North America and Arnott’s in Asia-Pacific; and healthy beverages. The company also has two high-performing allied growth businesses with Godiva premium chocolate and V8 vegetable-based beverages.
Conant joined Campbell's with 25 years of extensive food industry experience from three of the world’s leading food companies: General Mills, Inc., Kraft Foods, and Nabisco. Conant began his career in 1976 in marketing at General Mills. After 10 years with General Mills, he then moved to Kraft, where he held top management positions in marketing and strategy. Immediately prior to joining Campbell's, Conant was President of the $3.5 billion Nabisco Foods Company, where he led that unit to five consecutive years of double-digit earnings growth.
A native of Chicago, he earned his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.