Daniel Williams Hooker

Biography

Daniel Hooker is a global retail and consumer packaged goods executive with broad experience across diverse business environments and formats, leading traditional food retail operations and merchandising, as well as product development, consumer and category analytics, sourcing and procurement, global trading, national sales, and eCommerce. Hooker is an outstanding strategist and general manager, and he has led the successful startup of multiple diverse businesses. Known for and recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on retailers' proprietary brands, he has shaped clients' programs across four continents and eight classes of trade. His passion is in helping companies see their unique DNA and positioning and creating actionable marketing and sales strategies essential for their success.

After earning a degree in agribusiness and marketing from Cornell University, Hooker plunged headlong into retail joining Aldi Foods as a district manager. In the early 1990s Wakefern/ShopRite was very concerned about Aldi's expansion east and he jumped at the opportunity to start a business, moved to West Springfield, MA, and opened the first Price Rite Store. Today, there are over 70 Price Rite stores that generate over $1 billion in annual revenue, and they are a strategic growth driver for Wakefern.

After spending two years at Arthur Andersen as a retail consultant, Hooker spent fourteen years at Daymon Worldwide working with manufacturers and retailers around the globe. His career at Daymon progressed rapidly, and in 2011 he was appointed to the executive leadership team (ELT) as the chief supplier officer (CSO). As CSO, Hooker was responsible for category management and analytics, supplier relationships, global sourcing, and procurement. He also ran Daymon's import and export businesses. As a member of the ELT, he was instrumental in re-inventing Daymon from a consulting/brokerage company to a broader retail services company. He left Daymon at the end of 2013 and joined Trilliant Food and Nutrition in January 2014 as vice president of sales for national accounts and ecommerce. Most recently, Hooker has focused on the digital channel selling to ecommerce retailers and running multi-million-dollar businesses for Walmart.com and Jet.com.

Today, he is on the faculty at the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, where he is the director of external education for the Food Industry Management Program and teaches graduates and undergraduates in Food and Consumables Marketing and Supply Chain Strategy.
He has an MBA from the University of Connecticut.

Recent Courses

• AEM 2480/AEM 6480 - Food and Consumer Packaged Goods Industry Dynamics
• AEM 4460 - Food Marketing Fellows
• AEM 4000 - Grand Challenges Project
• NBA 6290 - Special Topics in Marketing
• AEM 3270/AEM 5270 - Supply Chain Strategy and Supermarket Simulation

Academic Degrees

• MBA University of Connecticut, 2001
• BS Cornell University, 1993