ARLINGTON, VA—Food Marketing Institute (FMI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Gigi Vita as the Vice President of Sales for the Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI). Vita will be responsible for managing the entire sales division of SQFI.
Vita comes to her new position with a seasoned knowledge of the food industry, having previously worked across all trade channels and led highly successful initiatives within domestic and global organizations. Vita’s forward-thinking, innovative approach to sales and marketing will be experience-grounded and deepen SQFI’s global sales presence.
“Vita is an accomplished, versatile sales and business expert whose passion for operational and customer opportunities will bring new levels of awareness to the SQFI brand and strengthen our voice so it resounds around the globe,” said Robert Garfield, chief food safety assessment officer & senior vice president at SQFI.
Most recently, Vita has led strategic business development and innovation for the nation’s largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), driving alignment and interactions with customers, strategic partners and industry associations. She established a “culture of innovation” through a marketing focus and new product development across the company.
Prior to DFA, Vita served as the President and COO for Fonterra North America. In this role, Vita had responsibility for a $1 billion premium ingredients and commodity business for the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Central America. Vita dramatically improved operational effectiveness of the business through best in class business-to-business and business-to-consumer insights and sales teams, as well as supply chain, manufacturing and globally sourced customer offerings.
Vita spent more than eight years with PepsiCo, serving in several leadership roles. She directed anchor bottler brand marketing, customer marketing, sales capability, revenue management and category management teams. In addition, Vita led the Customer Alignment effort, partnering with external consultants to orchestrate the reorganization of the domestic sales and marketing structure for Pepsi Americas.
Vita also held senior leadership roles at other major consumer packaged goods companies including Coca-Cola, Kraft/Nabisco, Campbell Soup, Nestle and Procter & Gamble. Vita holds a BA in English from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
As the food industry association, FMI works with and on behalf of the entire industry to advance a safer, healthier and more efficient consumer food supply chain. FMI brings together a wide range of members across the value chain — from retailers that sell to consumers, to producers that supply food and other products, as well as the wide variety of companies providing critical services — to amplify the collective work of the industry. www.FMI.org
