Former Leaders at Walmart, Sam’s Club and Albertsons Join Insite AI Executive Advisory Council 

BENTONVILLE, Ark. April 10, 2024 -- Insite AI, a leading AI-enabled category and revenue growth partner for consumer brands, has selected five accomplished retail industry veterans to join the company’s executive advisory council. Each member has spent decades at leading retailers and brands, including Walmart, Sam’s Club and Albertsons, as well as top brands like Procter & Gamble, Nabisco and Clorox.

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The advisory council brings decades of industry experience to Insite AI and its customers, providing strategic guidance and enabling leading CPGs to leverage technology-driven capabilities to be more shopper-centric, accelerate decision-making and propel growth.

Joining the Insite AI Executive Advisory Council are:

• David Scogin, former VP of merchandising at Walmart and Sam’s Club. Scogin has spent more than 27 years at Walmart, including more than four years at Walmart China and six years at Sam’s Club, optimizing merchandising strategies for grocery, food and beverage. ​He also spent time leading store layout and space productivity at Walmart working closely with consumer brands.
• Joe Grady, former VP of merchandising at Walmart. Grady has spent 38 years in retail working in a variety of roles such as store operations, analytics, GNFR/capital procurement, merchandise buying and as a VP of divisional merchandise manager for 17 years at Walmart. In that role, he was focused on impulse, snack, beverage, confectionary, health and wellness, and consumables, helping consumer brands succeed.
• Valerie Wilson, former VP of category management at Albertsons. Valerie has held leadership posts at Albertsons, Safeway, Procter & Gamble, Nabisco and Clorox. She now advises clients globally on how to drive sales and revenue growth through category management and joint business planning.​
• Jody Pinson, former beauty category leader and VP of merchandising at Walmart. A recognized industry leader in beauty and personal care, for more than 30 years, Pinson drove merchandising strategies at Walmart. She also held a VP of merchandising position in pet care, worked as a buyer and served store operations at the retailer, and has extensive experience guiding emerging and large consumer brands.
• Philip Freehling, former pet category leader and VP of merchandising at Walmart. During his nearly 30-year career with Walmart, Freehling held prominent leadership roles, leading Walmart’s pet business as VP of merchandising for eight years. He also has broad-based experience across operations, pricing, planning, modular development and sourcing in health and wellness, sporting goods and broader consumer goods categories.

“As a capabilities provider that approaches business with a problem-solving mindset, Insite AI fills a considerable gap in the industry, addressing the needs of consumer brands and how they collaborate with retailers to deliver more efficient and effective retail strategies,” said Scogin. “I’m thrilled to be part of the advisory council and to help Insite AI continue to innovate and transform how AI and retail experts combine to move retail forward.”

Insite AI has also built an all-star team of industry executives from Walmart, Coca-Cola, Target, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kroger, Mars, J&J, Beiersdorf, Nielsen, IRI, dunnhumby and Numerator, among others.

“Insite AI’s advisory council is a reflection of our company’s mission, which is to be the leading technology company in helping executives at large consumer brands achieve growth and highly streamlined operations. The knowledge of industry-recognized leaders who know what our customers are working towards, having sat in their seats or partnered with them, is valuable,” said Shaveer Mirpuri, co-founder and CEO of Insite AI. “Our five years of proven in-market AI solutions make processes like assortment and trade promotion optimization a breeze. We’re able to support stronger decision-making for CPGs to accurately predict and explain market conditions, price elasticities, demand transference, and changes in shopper behaviors.”

The company’s most recent solution, Shopper AI, launched in early March, provides CPGs a highly simplified, cut-to-the-chase tool that explains the “what will happen” and “why” behind shopper data from any retailer, such as Walmart’s Luminate platform, third-party panels like Circana, Nielsen, and internal sources.

Insite AI is backed by NewRoad Capital and M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund. Insite AI is available on all cloud platforms but is a preferred Microsoft partner with solutions accessible via the Microsoft Marketplace. To learn more about Insite AI’s full suite of solutions, visit insite.ai.

About Insite AI

Insite AI is an innovator in sales, category management and revenue growth management for large consumer brands. Through a combination of our industry knowledge and transformative AI capabilities, we have become an indispensable partner to leading CPGs. We enable leadership teams in sales, revenue growth and category management to influence their retail partners, increase revenue, move at speed and reduce operational overhead. Visit insite.ai for more information on how to identify the best use cases for your organization.

Source: Insite AI