About us
Bringing real-world experience with leading brands, led by Dr. Brian Harris.
We are a seasoned team of Retail and CPG industry experts, led by Dr. Brian Harris, who pioneered the concept of Category Management. We bring real world experience from our time with Kroger, Jewel Osco, Kraft Heinz, Procter and Gamble, Dunnhumby, IBM and Microsoft.
Leadership Team

Dr. Brian Harris
CEO/President
Dr. Harris pioneered the concept of Category Management in the late 1980s. Since then, he’s been an ambassador and thought leader teaching the benefits of Category Management to hundreds of retailers and manufacturers across the globe. For the last 30 years, he has been a leading contributor to every major ECR initiative across the globe directly related to Category management and its related practices. Dr Brian Harris has trained over 10,000 executives and managers in Category Management and its related processes across the globe.

Julie Beck
Chief Customer Officer
With an award-winning career spanning Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, and Treehouse Foods, Julie brings over 35 years of experience driving double-digit growth for both national and private label brands. Her expertise in strategic Category Management and building high-impact retailer partnerships has delivered results across all channels, including food, drug, mass, club, e-commerce, and foodservice. Julie has held leadership roles in general management, sales, channel insights, innovation, marketing, and shopper marketing, consistently unlocking growth through insight-driven strategy and execution.

Kamal Kapur
Chief Technology Officer
With a career spanning both products and engineering and having worked in both startups and large tech, Kamal brings a versatile and hands-on perspective to solving complex challenges and seizing new opportunities. He was the Vice President of Products for Oracle’s Content Management portfolio encompassing DAM, Content and Document Services, Digital Experiences, and Sales/Marketing focused SaaS applications. Kamal excels in transforming innovative and groundbreaking ideas into market-leading products that drive business growth.

Billy Gillispie
Senior Vice President, Retail Practice
Accomplished Retail Executive in the food, drug and mass industries along with sales and consulting practices. Over 30 years of experience across marketing, merchandising, procurement, supply chain, Category Management, and store operations specializing in customer analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, IoT, digital, commerce and innovation processes. Billy has been a senior executive at grocery chains Jewel Osco, Supervalu before his consulting stints at IBM and Microsoft.

Luc Demeulenaere
Senior Vice President, CPG Practice
Luc has 35 years in the FMCG industry including 12 years as global Assoc. Director in P&G’s global operations. His primary role was the implementation of Category Management globally with P&Gs retailers and to lead shopper insights initiatives to support these efforts. He is globally recognized expert in Category Management and the use of consumer and shopper insights in brand equity building frameworks.
Senior Advisors

David Ciancio
Senior Advisor, Retail Practice
David brings 54+ years of retail experience as an operator, marketer and strategist. He created Kroger’s first go-to-market and industry leading KrogerPlus loyalty program after working every role in a supermarket, including 20 years in store management. David is known for his visionary and pioneering work in applied data science to grocery merchandising and marketing.

John Showalter
Senior Advisor, Manufacturer Practice
With over 35 years of leadership experience in insights, category development, and customer strategy, John has supported some of the world’s most innovative consumer brands. He has held senior leadership roles at Red Bull, Califia Farms, Guayakí Yerba Mate, and HIVERY, and built his career foundation at Coca-Cola and Kellogg. A certified strategic advisor, he also holds credentials in AI for Strategic Decision-Making, Data Storytelling, and Leadership Development. His advisory approach blends strategic vision with operational discipline—helping organizations unlock growth, navigate complexity, and deliver measurable business impact.

Karen Sales
Senior Advisor
Over the last 30 years, Karen has held multiple sales management, customer strategy, digital and media solutions, and shopper marketing leadership roles for Coty, Sara Lee Apparel and Foods, Quotient, Albertsons Companies and SKUxchange, a start up SaaS company in the fintech space. Industry awards include P2PI’s Shopper Marketing Hall of Fame and Retail Info Systems “Top Ten Mover and Shaker” in Retail.

Dr. Gerhard Hausruckinger
Senior Advisor, Europe
Gerhard brings 30+ years of experience in the retail, CPG and General Merchandise space. He worked as Senior Partner, CEO, CCO and Group President in leading global consulting, data analytics and market research companies, including Accenture, GfK and Circana. He was also leading the work for ECR Europe on topics such as Category Management, On-Shelf Availability and Consumer Value Management.

Xavier Cros
Senior Advisor, Spain
With +20 years in CPG industry, Xavi has become one of the foremost experts in Spanish shopping behavior and retail. His passion lies in transforming consumer data into actionable insights that drive business growth. He is dedicated to delivering impactful results and pioneering strategies that enhance the shopper experience and drive sustainable business success.

Pepe Camps
Senior Advisor, Spain
Pepe Camps is a seasoned consultant specializing in Go-to-Market, innovation, and Shopper Marketing. With over 30 years of experience at Procter & Gamble, he served as Director of Category Management, Point of Sale, and the FMOT Center for Innovation. Pepe holds the distinction of being the first professional to lead a category management project in Spain. His expertise lies in developing strategic initiatives that optimize market entry strategies and enhance shopper engagement.

Noah Herschman
Senior Advisor, Asia
Noah is a veteran retail and ecommerce executive with 35+ years of global leadership at Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, and more. Expert in digital transformation, AI-driven solutions, and marketplace strategy. Fluent in Mandarin; passionate about innovation, growth, and cross-cultural collaboration.

Dana Keilman
Senior Advisor, Market Research
Dana has spent 25 years at Ipsos, partnering with clients across CPG, Durables and FinTech and ranging from Fortune 100 companies to emerging startups. Dana brings a passion for using consumer research to uncover what motivates people and drives their decisions. She has helped brands like Kellogg’s, Newell Brands, Under Armour, and Kimberly-Clark realize incremental growth by aligning human-centered insights with business strategy.

Dennis Sobotka
Senior Advisor, Retail Practice
Dennis has over 40 years of retailing experience including 17 years at Tops in Buffalo. He introduced Category Management business practices into Tops and led the Category Management team. In 1994 he joined forces with Dr. Brian Harris. Together they introduced and implemented Category Management in over 20 retailers in the US and across the globe. These retailers include Safeway, Ahold USA, Sobey’s Canada, Pick-n-Pay S. Africa, Casa Ley Mexico, and leading retailers in Japan, China, India, Colombia and Europe.
He excels in providing on-site, hands-on retail implementation of Category Management methods. He has facilitated over 1,200 Category Business Plans across all product departments. His approach has delivered outstanding financial results and strategic competitive advantage for retailers.

Shan Kumar
Senior Advisor, Retail Practice
A results-driven executive with a Wharton MBA (Finance) with a proven track record of leading large-scale business transformations across major retail chains. Shan is widely recognized for designing and launching enterprise-wide category management initiatives, Safeway’s SCOP and Albertsons’ ACBP programs. He played a leading role at merged Safeway-Albertsons, establishing national-local hybrid category management processes, change management, measurements, CDT, Assessment, Assortment & Shelving principles, Assortment & Space planning tools, and improved retail execution with labor standards & Planogram compliance measurements. He also had a successful tenure as CFO of a Silicon Valley wireless startup, from ideation to revenue, gaining retail customers in the U.S. and Europe. His core specialties include financial management, category management processes and systems, organizational transformation, change management, and performance measurement.

Fatima Merlin
Senior Advisor, Brazil
Fatima Merlin brings over 30 years of experience in retail, consumer behavior, marketing research, category management, and shopper marketing, blending academic depth with hands-on expertise to elevate shopper experience and commercial performance. As an entrepreneur for the past decade, she has led the development of advanced, data-driven category management strategies for retailers and suppliers across physical and digital channels. A former executive at Kantar Worldpanel and ABRAS, Fatima has also held senior roles in leading food and pharma companies. She serves on multiple retail boards, is a member of the CatMan Network Steering Group, co-founded Women in Retail, and is the author of several books on shopper behavior and retail strategy

Paul Walsh
Senior Advisor
Paul Walsh is a leading expert on the impact of weather on business. He has held executive roles at Google, IBM, and The Weather Company, where he focused on developing weather strategies for consumer businesses. The former on-air business and weather expert on The Weather Channel, Paul’s insights have been featured on CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, and more. He’s also a veteran, having served in the US Air Force and Army.

Norbert Herman
Senior Advisor
Norbert is an accomplished business strategist and AI leader with deep expertise in Retail, CPG, and global enterprise transformation who specializes in AI-driven business performance, integrating behavioral economics with strong architecture expertise to optimize strategy, customer analytics, and supply chain operations. Led key initiatives at Microsoft and IBM, shaping AI adoption, go-to-market strategies, and enterprise innovation.
Join Us
Working with our team is intellectually rewarding and you’ll get the opportunity to work with experts in retail and cutting-edge technology.
Look at the open positions and apply!