Looking Back on Leadership at CAGNY 2024

Leaders from the world’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) organizations gathered at the end of February in Boca Raton, FL for the annual Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference.

There was a positive energy throughout the week-long conference across the food, beauty, personal care, consumer health, alcohol and ingredient companies that were both new to CAGNY and returning to the stage. Russell Reynolds Associates sat through the 31 presentations, which included many fun innovations, advertisements, TikToks and even special guests (yes, we’re talking about Hershey bringing Shaquille O'Neal to the stage to talk about their partnership in the gummy segment).

The importance of leadership and culture could be felt throughout the week. In addition to companies discussing the importance of culture as a competitive advantage in their presentations, many of them brought a large team to attend the conference. On average, each organization had a team of 9 people at the conference, even though there were 2-4 leaders presenting on stage. Some leaders brought their teams on stage with them, while others were sure to call out their teams in the crowd during their presentations, signifying the importance of the entire leadership team to the organization, not just the CEO.

While the themes of volume growth, consumer centricity, retail relationships, and digitization took the stage, we couldn’t help but take note of the people on the stage presenting these themes. There were newly appointed CEOs, tenured CEOs, CEOs familiar with the CAGNY stage and those that were there for the first time.

As CPG organizations face continuous change and need leaders capable of dealing with difficult issues, it’s unsurprising that we continue to see new leaders stepping into key roles.

Among the CEOs who presented at CAGNY

Diversity continues to be a challenge for CPG organizations. While we saw improvement in gender representation among CEOs at CAGNY this year, with representation of women CEOS doubling from ~7% in 2023, there is still a long way to go before we reach gender parity at the top.

Diversity in Leadership

Dana Dimitri is a senior member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ CPG practice. She is based in Chicago.
Andrew Hayes leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ global CPG practice. He is jointly based in New York and Houston.
Seema Threja Kathuria is a senior member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Consumer sector. She is based in Chicago.
Dick Patton leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Americas Consumer sector. He is based in Boston. 
Sotiria Pericli is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Consumer sector Knowledge team. She is based in New York.