Dave Peacock was named Advantage Solutions CEO in January 2023. His 30-plus-year career in the consumer packaged goods and retail industry includes four years as president and chief operating officer of Schnuck Markets, Inc., and two decades at Anheuser-Busch, where he served three years as the company’s president.
Prior to joining Advantage, Peacock was chief operating officer and on the board of directors of Continental Grain Company, a global investor, owner and operator of companies across the food and agribusiness spectrum. Previously, he was a member of the board of advisors for, and was the founder and chairman of, Vitaligent, LLC, a multi-unit restaurant franchise.
He is a member of the board of directors of Stifel Financial Corp. and past member of the board of directors of Wayne-Sanderson Farms and Post Holdings Partnership Corporation. He also is a member of the board of directors for FMI-The Food Industry Association. He also served on the board of trustees of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and the board of directors of Pink Ribbon Girls.
Chris Growe leads all aspects of Advantage Solutions’ finance organization, including investor relations, accounting, payroll, treasury and tax.
He has more than 25 years of finance and investment experience, most recently at Stifel, a global wealth management, investment banking and investment advisory firm. As a managing director in the consumer and retail sector, Growe covered food and tobacco stocks and offered guidance to institutional investors. He is the recipient of multiple awards for his work at Stifel, including several Financial Times/StarMine awards for earnings estimates and stock picking. He has also been honored by The Wall Street Journal with the Best on the Street Survey Award. Prior to Stifel, Growe was an analyst covering food, beverage and tobacco stocks with A.G. Edwards. He spent his early career in marketing at Anheuser-Busch.
Kelli Hammersmith leads all aspects of Advantage Solutions’ corporate narrative, including internal, external and executive communications.
Previously she led global executive and internal communications at Northern Trust. Earlier in her career, Hammersmith held communications leadership roles at Kohl’s and Molson Coors Beverage Company. She began her career as a journalist, reporting for television stations in Peoria, Illinois, and Milwaukee, where she also served as a bilingual reporter.
Brian McRoskey leads Advantage Solutions’ growth and transformation team with a dual focus on accelerating the company’s growth and optimizing its operations. In addition to partnering with Advantage Solutions business segments to drive success against long-range plans, McRoskey oversees a portfolio of transformational initiatives designed to evolve the business and position Advantage for profitable growth.
Prior to joining Advantage Solutions, he spent 17 years at Bain & Company, where he collaborated with some of the best-known consumer products companies in the world to develop and execute strategies to help grow their businesses. Most recently he led the Commercial Excellence capability within CPG. As part of this work, McRoskey advised senior sales leadership on driving top-line growth via salesforce effectiveness, key account management, revenue growth management, and overall sales execution. During his time at Bain & Company, McRoskey also led research and deep analysis around insurgent brands, serving as an industry expert on fast-growing brands.
Pamela Morris-Thornton leads all aspects of Advantage Solutions’ human resources function.
She previously spent 15 years at Panera Bread, including serving as the head of diversity, equity and inclusion and leading Panera’s talent acquisition, executive recruiting and the HR business partner practice. Earlier in her career, Morris-Thornton served in human resources leadership roles at the Metropolitan St. Louis Transit Agency and Graybar.
Jack Pestello leads the Advantage Sales division, which provides industry-leading headquarter sales services, retail services and business process outsourcing for brands and retailers across all channels of trade in the U.S. and Canada.
He most recently served as a senior advisor in Boston Consulting Group’s consumer practice, partnering primarily with retail and manufacturing CEOs on growth strategies, operational and organizational design, merchandising, sustainability and product development. Previously, Pestello was executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at Big Lots, where he led the omnichannel merchant team and was responsible for buying, planning, financial services, pricing and promotions. He spent seven years with Walmart, where he led an omnichannel portfolio across the company’s largest merchandise division. His time with Walmart also included leading private brands and leading merchandise strategies in the retailer’s international division. Pestello spent 20 years with Daymon in leadership roles overseeing private brands and business development. His global experience includes serving as the head of trade for Woolworth’s Australia Limited.
Bryce Robinson is responsible for oversight of Advantage Solutions’ legal department, providing counsel regarding a wide variety of business matters, including mergers and acquisitions, financing, international joint ventures, private equity transactions, compliance, corporate governance and commercial contracts.
Robinson’s career includes in-house and external counsel roles. Prior to joining Advantage, he was senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at InSight Health, a healthcare services company.
Michael Taylor leads Advantage Solutions’ global retailer-focused businesses and teams, including Daymon, SAS Retail Services, retailer experiential marketing services, shopper marketing agency Promopoint and The Data Council, a content creation and syndication agency.
Taylor, who previously served as president of Daymon, also leads Advantage’s Customer Collaboration Center of Excellence.
Earlier in his career, he held leadership positions spanning retail, business management and business development. Taylor began his career with PepsiCo Inc.
Francesco Tinto leads Advantage Solutions’ information technology team and Advantage Intelligence, a portfolio of software solutions and services that turn data into insights and strategies that drive product demand and distribution and supply chain efficiencies.
He most recently served as global chief information officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance, where he oversaw the company’s digital transformation, launching a world-class digital experience and customer insights platform that delivered personalized offerings and blended the online and offline customer experiences. He previously led the technology integration between Kraft and Heinz and, as the global chief information officer for the merged Kraft Heinz company, defined the go-forward information technology operating processes. Tinto began his career at Procter & Gamble in information technology and services in Rome.
Andrea Young has global oversight of Club Demonstration Services (CDS), Costco’s preferred event marketing provider in 12 countries and regions. She previously served as group president, Omnicommerce Solutions and co-president, Advantage Customer Experience.
Prior to joining Advantage in 2011 as senior vice president, experiential marketing, Young served in senior sales, operations and business integration roles at multiple agencies within Omnicom Group.
Young is a founding member of the Advantage Solutions Diversity, Equity & Inclusion board.