Vanessa Walker founded Millennial Brands Consulting, Inc., and uses her previous experiences, along with those of the other principles, to usher brands from concept to commercialization. Formed in late 2018, Millennial Brands Consulting has several clients including, Fresh Blends, Tohi Ventures, Niagara Bottling, and Jones Soda Co., of which Walker serves on the Board of Directors. Walker has worked in beverage and retail for 25 years and has a proven track record building strong business infrastructures, turning brands around, and creating brands to attract consumers and develop winning categories at retail.
Prior to founding Millennial Brands Consulting, Walker served as the EVP Sales and Marketing, then EVP Marketing & Innovation for Celsius Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: CELH). During her time at CELSIUS, she lead the re-development repositioning the brand from calorie burning to a healthy energy for the masses with tagline, “Live Fit”. She lead the creation of a global brand brandmark, setting global standards for the brand working with Asia and EU business partners to create a uniform global brand. Walker reported directly to the CEO of global Celsius Holdings, Inc.
Previous, to 2016, Walker served as EVP Sales and Marketing of La Croix Sparkling Water, National Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: FIZZ). She visualized the brand’s repositioning creating a revised mission statement for La Croix and began strategically planning the revitalization transitioning the brand and the sparkling water category from a largely on premise category, to an everyday category growing category dollars from $624 million in 2007, to over $2 billion in 2016. Under Walker’s leadership, La Croix grew from a small regional brand into a major national brand, ranking number one in dollar share, then besting Nestle’s Perrier and San Pellegrino and leading the sparkling water segment in growth. A new corporate division was formed to support the rapid La Croix brand growth and Walker, named EVP Sales and Marketing lead the brand for eight years.
Prior to her time at National Beverage Corp., Walker was Director of Marketing, Big Red, VP National Accounts, IN ZONE Brands, and Regional Buyer (foods/beverages), and store manager, Target Stores.
A graduate of The Florida State University, Walker received her EMBA in International Business from Mercer University. Most recently, Walker was named to the Zenith Global Beverage Digest judging panel for the inaugural awards, 2018, and to BevNet’s Leaning in to the Most Powerful Women in Beverage (August, 2018).
© 2024 Beverage Digest.
Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing