Diane Harper - Vice President of Consumer Insights and Marketing Integration, Schwans Consumer Brands, Inc.

Diane Harper leads consumer insights and analytics, category management, marketing operations and integrated marketing for Schwans Consumer Brands.

She has over 20 years of experience with Fortune 500 consumer products and retail companies.  Before joining The Schwan Food Company, Harper was Group Vice President of Consumer Insights at Supervalu, Inc.

Harper spent six years at Kraft Foods leading Consumer Insights for the Global Marketing team which was charged with building Kraft’s 11 global brands. She also had responsibility for innovation, best practices, training and global trend identification.  

Prior to joining Kraft, she spent 14 years at General Mills. She held a variety of positions where she guided strategic business decisions and enhanced functional excellence. Her last assignment at General Mills was Director of Consumer Insights, Big G Cereal Division.

Harper is a member of the Board of Directors at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul.  She is also a member of the steering team for the Network of Executive Women, Chicago Region. 

She holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management and a BS in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Minnesota. 

Annalee Ulsrund - Vice President Retail and Experiential and Events, Periscope

Annalee Ulsrud is the Vice President of Retail and Experiential & Events at Periscope, a full-spectrum marketing impact agency with offices in Minneapolis, Toronto, Hong Kong and Delhi.

A trusted and proven member of Periscope’s Management Committee, Annalee has worked with companies globally in the development and execution of their brands, from idea through to implementation. She is a retail expert, and has worked with both retailers and product manufacturers in the development of new market opportunities and growth through effective brand strategies, environments, experiences, packaging programs and overall end-to-end multichannel marketing solutions.

Annalee has more than 15 years of marketing and client relationship experience, and has continued to assume roles with increasing responsibility and talent leadership. Prior to joining Periscope, Annalee held the role of Executive Director, Client Development & Market Intelligence and sat on the Management Committee for Watt International, a global retail branding, design and environmental firm, headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

 With broad experience across a variety of industries, Annalee has a particular passion for retail, believing “everything is retail.” Annalee’s client experience includes Target, Wal-Mart, Dollar General, Columbia, Jockey International, Sports Authority, The Aldo Group, HB Fuller, Lazard Bank, the City of Minneapolis and Wells Fargo, and has spanned businesses in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Caribbean and the UK.

As Co-Chair of the Network of Executive Women (NEW) – Twin Cities Region, Annalee works to further the mission of attracting, retaining and advancing women in the Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail Industries with fellow executives from companies like Del Monte, Ecolab, General Mills, Hormel, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Schwan’s, SUPERVALU, Target and many others. 

Annalee is a graduate of Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.