Leadership additions at Schwan's

Schwan’s Consumer Brands Inc. announced two additions to its leadership team: Dave Susla has joined…

Schwan’s Consumer Brands Inc. announced two additions to its leadership team: Dave Susla has joined as senior vice president of customer sales, and Diane Harper has been named vice president, consumer insights and marketing integration. Both strengthen Schwan’s Consumer Brands’ focus on driving frozen-category growth for its retail customers.

Susla’s immediate priorities are to enhance Schwan’s Consumer Brands’ customer relationships and empower its field sales team to grow category sales with the company’s iconic pizza, dessert and meal brands. He reports to Schwan’s Consumer Brands' president Bob Waldron.

“Dave brings tremendous leadership and an ability to quickly and effectively build strong partnerships with our retailer customers,” said Waldron. “He is a versatile executive accomplished in developing businesses, driving innovation and delivering profitable sales and category growth in the consumer packaged goods space.”

Before joining Schwan’s Consumer Brands, Susla led the branded and private-label business for Sun Products, where he was responsible for the mass and drug channels. Prior to joining Sun, Susla held various sales positions with Unilever and Chesebrough-Ponds.

As vice president, consumer insights and marketing integration, Diane Harper is unifying Schwan’s Consumer Brands’ consumer and shopper insights, category management, shopper marketing, integrated marketing and analytics functions. The integration of these functions is designed to enable Schwan’s Consumer Brands to uncover insights that will help the company and its retail customers win in frozen-food aisles. She also reports to Waldron.

“Diane brings tremendous experience harnessing consumer insights to drive strategic growth, an imperative for both our business and retail partners,” said Waldron. “Her work to strengthen our ability to understand and delight our consumers will be instrumental in refreshing our iconic pizza, desserts and meals brands through compelling brand positioning and innovation.”

Most recently, Harper was group vice president, consumer insights and strategy for SuperValu where she built the consumer insights capabilities, contribution and business impact for the $37 billion grocery chain. Prior to joining SuperValu, Harper held various consumer insight roles with General Mills and Kraft.