Advantage Solutions Names New Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Communications Officer

IRVINE, Calif. — Advantage Solutions today announced the hires of Chris Growe as chief financial officer, Pamela Morris-Thornton as chief human resources officer and Kelli Hammersmith as chief communications officer, all reporting to Advantage CEO Dave Peacock. Morris-Thornton and Hammersmith will begin their roles March 20. Growe’s appointment is effective March 27. He succeeds Brian Stevens, who will continue to advise the company through July.

Growe joins Advantage with more than 25 years of finance and investment experience, most recently at global wealth management, investment banking and investment advisory company Stifel. 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 and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Saint Louis University. As CFO, Growe will lead all aspects of Advantage’s finance organization, including investor relations, accounting, payroll, treasury and tax.

Morris-Thornton brings deep experience across all segments of human resources over the course of her more than 25-year career. She joins Advantage from Panera Bread, where she was most recently vice president and head of diversity, equity and inclusion, overseeing the brand’s inclusion strategy and initiatives and responsible for building an inclusive culture, enhancing employee belonging and increasing the recruitment and promotion of diverse talent. She previously led Panera’s corporate human resources, overseeing talent acquisition, executive recruiting and the HR business partner practice. Morris-Thornton spent her early human resources career at Graybar, where she led health and welfare plans, and at the Missouri Department of Mental Health, where she served as director of human resources. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and a master’s degree in human resources management from Webster University. Morris-Thornton will oversee all aspects of Advantage’s human resources function.

Hammersmith joins Advantage in a newly created role leading the corporate communications team and overseeing all aspects of the corporate narrative including internal, external and executive communications. She was most recently senior vice president and head of global executive and internal communications at Northern Trust where she led internal communications strategy and integrated storytelling, as well as CEO communications and executive engagement. She brings nearly two decades of communications experience to Advantage, including internal and leadership communications at Kohl’s and global people and diversity communications at Molson Coors Beverage Company. Hammersmith was a journalist in her early career, reporting for television stations in Peoria, Illinois, and Milwaukee, where she also served as a bilingual reporter. She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications where she earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism with minors in Spanish and sociology.

“I’m excited to welcome Chris, Pam and Kelli to our leadership team and I’m looking forward to collaborating with each of them on Advantage’s long-term strategy for growth,” said Advantage Solutions CEO Dave Peacock. “Their wide range of experiences in their fields and strong track records of consistently delivering results will be tremendous assets to Advantage as we work to drive transformation across the company.”