Consumer Brands Association Hires Retail Industry Vet Ellen Davis
The Consumer Brands Association (CBA) has added Ellen Davis to the trade organization’s senior leadership team as EVP, industry engagement, effective March 2. Her most recent roles were SVP at the National Retail Federation (NRF) and president of the NRF Foundation.
In her new position, Davis will oversee membership, events and education at Arlington, Va.-based CBA.
“Ellen brings an incredible wealth of knowledge that will be invaluable to our new organization,” noted CBA President and CEO Geoff Freeman, to whom Davis will report. “She has spent the last two decades immersed in a consumer-driven industry that is also changing and being disrupted at an unprecedented speed. She’s proven incredibly effective at adapting to that change to help build and evolve a successful, value-driven membership organization.”
While president of the NRF Foundation, Davis launched various innovative initiatives and programs that helped reshape that organization’s purpose and objective. She developed and rolled out the NRF Foundation Honors, an event that has raised $15 million since 2015 to fund the foundation’s efforts. She also headed the launch of RISE Up, the foundation’s training and credentialing program to help people find jobs in retail and embark on meaningful careers, which has seen 75,000 participants since it began in 2017. Davis is also widely credited with coining the phrase “Cyber Monday” for the selling occasion that kicks off the online holiday shopping season.
“I’ve spent my entire career working for an industry that thinks about the consumer every single minute of the day — I’m so excited to take that perspective and apply a new lens to it in this role,” said Davis. “The opportunities for the Consumer Brands Association to provide real value for its membership are endless, and I’m thrilled to be a part of making CPG’s presence here in Washington and around the country equal to the industry’s profound impact.”
CBA was previously known as the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
