Michelle Deignan

Earned promotion to own marketing and P&L for the company’s $2B bars portfolio of iconic brands: Snickers, Twix, 3Musketeers, and Milky Way. I provide business leadership, marketing strategy, and P&L ownership while overseeing an incredible team of marketing experts (direct reports) and cross-functional professionals in finance, sales, human intelligence, R&D, manufacturing and supply chain. Together, we continually break new ground in the marketplace by launching fresh innovations and revitalizing mature brands. • Brought new life to the portfolio—driving top and bottom lines through clearly defining, shifting and evolving brand strategies, taking a future-back approach to growth as well as SKU simplification, premiumization, pricing optimization, and digital routes to market. • Revitalized and scaled the Snickers titan by changing the focus from ROI to inspiring people about the brand, sharpening the strategy and by reaching consumers through high-stakes partnerships and 360-degree campaigns (paid, owned, earned channels, including sponsored athletes, influencers, strategic partners, events, performance marketing, PR) • Neutralized supply chain challenges caused by the global pandemic by reshaping customer demand (making well-considered tradeoffs across the portfolio) and influencing sales, supply, and other teams to align objectives across the business. Marketing Strategy & Execution | Executive Leadership | General Manager | P&L | Digital, Social, TV, Retail | Omnichannel Marketing | Team Building & Leadership | Coaching & Mentoring | CPG | Performance Marketing | Product Innovation & GTM | Brand Transformation

Identified untapped opportunities and drove performance for this $1B North American portfolio (Twix, 3Musketeers, and Milky Way) by launching products and bringing crisp new energy to existing brands. My teams and I delved deeply into each brand: I set the vision, created strategies, and built confidence among people at every organizational level to ensure seamless and efficient execution of business plans and marketing campaigns. • Designed the billion-dollar vision and steered R&D and launch of Twix Cookies & Creme, the brand’s largest innovation to date, which included a Gold Effie award-winning campaign with The Shoe Surgeon and Nike. Delivered 20x category growth and double-digit performance across the board. • Used digital, social, retail, and other channels to turn declining sales into big wins for two major brands and elevate relevance and penetration among Gen Z and millennial consumers. • Prioritized people—resulting in superior scores for team engagement, follow-though, and other metrics. Business & Marketing Strategy | P&L | 360-degree Marketing | Brand Building | Performance Turnaround | Collaborative Leadership | GM | Campaign Development | New Product Launch & GTM

Revived enthusiasm for an iconic brand—M&M’s—and spearheaded brand transformation and market-building initiatives prompting a major turnaround and powerful YOY performance. I rallied teams behind a single vision and goal. We worked diligently and collaboratively to orchestrate new product launches and riveting, award-winning campaigns with measurable and sustained success. •Delivered 6% growth every year for three consecutive years—a big, unexpected win. •Directed the M&M’s Caramel launch, the largest ever activation in the category. Produced record-breaking sales, faster-than-ever distribution, and unmatched penetration while leading the brand to rank #1 in the everyday category. • Designed and led the high-performing M&M’s Crispy rollout and 360-degre marketing plan. • Shaped M&M’s music strategy including the company’s first user-generated TV spot. • Planned and executed the first PRIDE activation for M&M’s brand and Mars USA. Marketing Executive | Business Leadership | Budgeting | Omnichannel & 360-degree Marketing | Branding | Team Building & Collaboration | Campaign Development | Product Launch & GTM | Brand Transformation | Turnaround Strategy

Tapped to grow the M&M’s brand in the fiercely competitive North American market. Zeroed in on opportunities to improve revenue and gross margins through strategic branding and marketing leadership, portfolio optimization, partnerships, and creative campaigns. In this role, I provided accessible and continual support to team members, effectively managing people, budgets, and changing priorities. • Faced challenges headfirst—and inspired employees to do the same. • Ignited the “Better with M” marketing campaign by empowering team members across sales, marketing, finance, and supply (as well as agency partners) to think of themselves as brand trendsetters and co-creators. • Increased the bottom line by eliminating unprofitable SKUs, minimizing waste, and fine-tuning the product mix while simultaneously designing cross-platform campaigns. • Selected as strategic lead for Beyond Product Innovation (BPI) initiatives; presented solutions to engage retailers and consumers for core products and increase buy-in and adoption of new ideas. Branding | Marketing Leadership | Portfolio Optimization | Campaign Development & Launch | Ad Campaigns | Product Innovation | Core Brand Growth | Budgeting | People Management | Digital, Social, TV, Print, Retail, PR

Expanded accountability to drive visibility and marketability for the Uncle Ben’s brand across multiple countries, cultures, and markets in Europe. In this highly versatile leadership position, I influenced and aligned stakeholders, building a robust and scalable GTM playbook and plan —and paved the way for rapid, sustained growth. Oversaw all facets of product management, branding, and marketing—including communications and retail (point of sale) execution. • Transformed losses into gains by heading the company’s first-ever through the line cause marketing campaign in Europe, “Begin with Ben.” Designed the through-the-line activation strategy & GTM playbook which became the model for global deployment. • Created a consumer-validated innovation pipeline to enable profitable new products. • Appointed to the European Brand Board and Irish Food Management Team. Business Leadership | Marketing Strategy | Product Management | Marketing Campaigns | TTL Activations | Go-to-Market Strategy | Staffing & Team Development | Budgeting | Cause Marketing | Marketing Campaign Design & Execution

Managed business and marketing operations—soup to nuts—for the $30M Uncle Ben’s organization in Ireland. I hired and trained staff, created strategic plans, and controlled P&L. At the same time, I created and led a holistic activation plan for Ready Rice (adopted worldwide) that ranked #1 in the segment for global share (92%) and penetration (22%). Mars is known as the “Ultimate Business School” and I attribute my all-around acumen and leadership skills to my early-career positions with this organization, where I had the opportunity to delve deeply into operations, marketing, finance, and supply chain management while building environments that embrace diversity and nurture talent.

Guided the 360-degree launch of the Balisto brand to Irish consumers, developed the seasonal brand strategy for the chocolate segment, and drove marketing efforts for 10+ brands.

Analyzed key financial data to support the business planning department including key submissions to the European market.