Meet Sheila Stanziale

Meet Sheila Stanziale, Chief Executive Officer of Mighty Leaf Tea during PINK’s 11^th Annual Fall Empowerment lunch scheduled for October 19^th from 10:30am-2pm at the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta hotel.

In the meantime, we want you to get a little acquainted with  Stanziale who is an accomplished business leader with a proven track record of high performance in results oriented, blue chip companies.  A strong entrepreneurial approach has helped support her considerable success with premium, well known brands in sales, operations and general management across three businesses:  consumer packaged goods, foodservice/hospitality and adult beverages.

Stanziale began her career when she was recruited from college for a commission based sales job with NCR (NCR/NYSE), a global technology company with POS systems and software. She landed the company’s single largest sale of the year with The Tunnel, the prestigious NYC nightclub of considerable notoriety in the late 1980’s.   Stanziale’s early experiences in this role – arranging financing, coordinating order, install and delivery; and scheduling service/repair all sparked a strong, entrepreneurial spirit which she carries with her today.

She joined Nabisco (KRFT/NYSE) in 1987; while attending business school in the evening to earn an MBA, she was consistently promoted over 9 years with this category leader.  At Nabisco,  she distinguished herself by introducing key brands such as OREO, Egg Beaters, Grey Poupon and A.1 Steak Sauce to Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Denny’s and Marriott.  She created new partnerships with co-packers and logistic suppliers to accommodate the unique needs of these foodservice customers and delivered significant share gains to Nabisco by identifying new consumers for treasured national brands.

Stanziale joined Pepsico (PEP/NYSE) in 1997 as Director of Business Development in the newly formed Foodservice Business Unit.  She was instrumental driving early share gains, acquiring new, long term beverage contracts with Panera Bread, Au Bon Pain and later, Golden Corral and Applebee’s.  Later, she was selected to lead Pepsico’s largest customer, Taco Bell.  As VP, Beverage Development, Sheila launched a proprietary fountain drink, Mountain Dew Baja Blast; this drink distinguished Taco Bell from key competitors and was a vivid example of delivering customized innovation to the marketplace while leveraging a key Pepsico trademark.  She introduced new equipment technology which expanded soft drink flavors on the menu without having to expand precious counter space. Successfully building Pepsico’s business at a time when Taco Bell same store sales were declining, Sheila Stanziale became known for her collaborative, solutions oriented approach with Taco Bell’s franchised system.

Later, as VP Operations, Stanziale started a coalition of independent bottlers to support a new, multi-year agreement  which supported a consistent national equipment platform and standardized service and repair for large chain accounts across the country. With no supply chain background, she successfully consolidated a highly fragmented bottler network of fountain syrup production and distribution points to a centralized system, again ensuring standardized specifications for national chain customers.  She led the conversion from fragmented, local bottler delivery to national distribution via Sygma, US Foods and MBM. Like a true start up, Sheila funded and created a small equipment refurbishment center to provide used assets to smaller, less sophisticated new customers and to ensure Pepsico remained competitive in this niche.

With P&L responsibilities as VP/GM Naked Juice, Stanziale led early turnaround results by broadening the brand’s narrow base of consumers and expanding consumption; she again consolidated an expensive, decentralized supply chain by leveraging existing facilities; this also fueled efficiencies for other Pepsico businesses.

In 2010, after more than 13 years at Pepsico, Stanziale joined Diageo (DEO/NYSE), the world’s leading premier drinks company, as President and General Manager, Diageo-Guinness USA. She is credited with expanding the Guinness brand by extending the world’s iconic stout into the lager space, a larger, more lucrative space for the beer category, with Guinness Black Lager. Additionally, she created a new category for Smirnoff malt based beverages, bringing this well known brand to new consumers and new drinking occasions with frozen pre-mixed cocktails in a convenient pouch package. In January, 2014, Sheila joined The Hain Celestial Group (NASDAQ:  HAIN) as President & General Manager, US Baby and Refrigerated Juice.  She joined Hain to lead smaller, entrepreneurial businesses; since joining, Sheila’s successfully exited two founders and beat revenue and operating income plans for super premium brands including Ella’s Kitchen, Earth’s Best and BluePrint Juice.  She was named Chief Executive Officer of Mighty Leaf Tea, a San Francisco-based, super premium tea company, in March 2015.

Stanziale attributes much of her success to her supportive family, which includes her husband, Ben and two children, Ben Jr. and Claire.  She is an avid snow skier and bicyclist and greatly enjoys cooking for family and friends at home.