Robin Simon

Background

About Robin Simon

Robin currently spends time on her consulting practice and volunteering. With over 30 years of business experience, primarily in the consumer products industry, she started SimonSez Consulting Corp. in 2002. Robin combines her top-notch analytic capability with excellent communication skills to help organizations make better decisions through the use of information. Specializing in sales and marketing analytics as well as forecasting, Robin enjoys doing the hands-on work and also training others. She served as a senior consultant and advisor to the Institute of Business Forecasting from 2003-2018, conducting workshops in the US, Canada, Mexico, Belgium, France, Israel and the Philippines. Prior to consulting, Robin spent 12 years in various marketing analytics and insights roles at Kraft Foods, in both the U.S. and Canada and began her career as a market research analyst on the Suave brand at Helene Curtis (now owned by Unilever). Her blog, CPG Data Tip Sheet (co-written with a former Booth classmate since 2012), is known as a key go-to resource for the CPG/FMCG industry and has almost followers. In addition to her professional experience, Robin is an active volunteer. She is currently the Director of Booth Alumni Nonprofit Consultants (BANC) with which she has been involved since 2016, as a consultant, Project Leader and Steering Committee member. Robin is also a volunteer docent with the Chicago Architecture Center since 1997, a Community Educator for the Illinois Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association since 2019 and a weekly volunteer at Nourishing Hope (formerly Lakeview Pantry) since 2020. Professional experience includes- managing the forecasting process for several categories: from building regression-based models to conducting cross-functional consensus meetings- providing analysis and recommendations across a variety of business issues including pricing, trade promotion management, consumer promotion, advertising effectiveness and product portfolio management - training several hundred field sales people in category management and the use of data as a fact-based selling tool with their retail customers Partial client list: Delta Faucet Co, Hostess Brands, S.C. Johnson & Son, Conagra Foods (US, Canada, Mexico), General Mills, Tyson Foods, Barilla USA, Nestle, Land O' Lakes, World Kitchen, Johnson & Johnson, Alberto Culver, Cadbury-Schweppes (Latin America), Horizon Organic Dairy, Quaker and Tropicana Divisions of Pepsico, The Steak N Shake Co, Peapod, Tate & Lyle, Reckitt Benckiser