Managing Disruption: Driving Change From Within

Paul W. Earle, Jr. is a brand and innovation professional, entrepreneur and lecturer. At present, Paul is principal of Paul Earle & Co., a consultancy and venture platform that helps leading corporations TRANSFORM MIND INTO MATTER™. He is also a faculty member at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, where he co-teaches the Corporate Innovation and New Ventures class, an intensive immersion that pairs student teams with top corporate partners such as McDonald's, Visa, Procter & Gamble, United Airlines and Hyatt. Prior to launching his latest enterprise, Paul was executive director of Farmhouse, the innovation and new venture center of the global creative agency Leo Burnett.

Faculty Lead / Managing Disruption

Jesper D. Nordengaard was named Vice President and General Manager, Hill’s U.S. in 2017. Prior to this position, Nordengaard served as Vice President of Global Marketing and Innovation providing the best, leading-edge pet nutrition technology, products, and expertise to pet parents, veterinary professionals, and other key pet nutrition influencers worldwide.

Nordengaard joined Colgate in 1997 as Assistant Brand Manager for the C-P Nordic Group. He progressed through various roles of increasing responsibility in the subsidiary, including Brand Manager - Fabric Care, Customer Marketing Manager, and Marketing Manager. Nordengaard later moved to GABA Germany as Marketing Director and was promoted to Marketing Director of the GABA Group in 2009. He was promoted to Director of the Oral Care CIC (Consumer Innovation Center) for Colgate Europe in 2011.

Nordengaard joined Hill’s in 2013, responsible for integrating consumer insights and science and technology expertise to drive innovation and new product success. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Marketing from the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.

Speaker / Managing Disruption

Eric Schwartz is on a journey to grow Tyson chicken as chief marketing officer for Tyson Poultry and general manager and senior vice president of Tyson Brands. Before Tyson Brands, he was general manager of the Jimmy Dean business unit of Tyson Foods, where he launched successes like Stuffed Hash Browns, Frittatas and Simple Scrambles breakfast kits. Prior, Schwartz served in multinational companies across packaged goods categories, including detergents, fabric softeners, air fresheners, hard surface cleaners, insecticides and water filtration. Based on past category disruptions, he was awarded Brand of the Year by Brandweek and recognized as Brand Genius by Ad Age.

Speaker / Managing Disruption

As a senior leader of the digital transformation team at 7-Eleven, Tarang Sethia is responsible for driving the transformation of 7-Eleven becoming a digital firm. He’s focused on customer experiences and is determined to make 7-Eleven’s products and services available whenever and wherever customers need them. Previously, Sethia has led transformation with digitization of desktop products at Intuit QuickBooks and Tax businesses. He credits Intuit as a place where he learned how to focus on customer problems and delight them with simple solutions. Sethia is a 2013 Kellogg School of Management graduate and has an M.S. in computer science and a B.S. in electrical engineering.

Speaker / Managing Disruption