The Power of Private Brands 2024 | October 10, 2024

Doug Baker is a food retail industry relations vice president for  FMI - The Food Industry, where he facilitates professional, non-competitive collaboration among member communities across private brands and technology issue areas. In addition to his oversight of the private brands council and their efficiency-driven initiatives to encourage brand owner innovation, Doug also leads FMI’s CIO Technology Board efforts related to omnichannel commerce facilitating benchmarking, research studies, and other collaborative projects that enable the path to modern retailing. Prior to FMI, Doug began his career in the food retail industry in 1984 as a bagger with Fry’s Food Stores. His 30+ years in grocery retail have included leadership roles at Fry’s, Kraft/Nabisco and Federated Group. Baker holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing, and throughout his career, he has focused on retail operations, consumer packaged goods manufacturing and private brand development and marketing. 

Steve Markenson leads FMI’s research & insights practice. Markenson is a market research executive with 30 years of progressive experience in his field – from research assistant to president of a full-service national market research firm – and his diverse experience includes research design, information/data collection and analysis and strategic planning.

In his role at FMI, Markenson oversees the research & insights practice at FMI, specifically the study design, survey fielding and efforts with outside knowledge partners and FMI subject matter experts. He leads the discovery process on the latest industry trends and operational insights that champion FMI as a credible voice of the food retail industry.