Marketing food futures
Age:35
Organization: Barilla America, Inc.
Title: Marketing Manager, Foodservice
City: Chicago
State: Illinois
Jeanette Gerger has built her professional career around her passion for marketing, food, and dance.
As an enthusiastic woman of Puerto Rican, Italian and Hungarian descent, she points to her parents’ instilling in her the values of embracing her Hispanic heritage and learning the importance and power of being a woman.
She also credits organizations such as HACE to support Hispanics and showcase individuals who “embrace their heritage, come to work as they are, and break barriers for those that follow.”
Gerger, who earned her MBA in marketing from DePaul University, is Marketing Manager, Foodservice US for Barilla, an Italian multinational food company.
At Barilla, the Chicagoland native works to launch and drive innovation and is an active member of Barilla’s Alleanza ERG, to promote diversity and inclusion for employees of color.
As an undergraduate at DePaul, she was involved in the prestigious Center for Sales Leadership and interned for the Kellogg company, sparking her desire for a career in the food industry. She maintains close ties with DePaul, participates in panels, and DePaul’s Kellstadt Marketing Group. She refers to herself as a “Double Demon Scholar” in homage to its mascot.
Her previous work with many world-class food organizations in marketing and market research and employee resource groups, or ERGs, helped fuel her passion for promoting women, Latinos, and young professionals in the workplace.
HACE’s acknowledgment and recognition showcase the next generation of Hispanic leaders and spotlight their achievements and the responsibility to continue the momentum and pave a path for following generations, she said.
Similarly, she credits her father, a successful, small business owner instilling her love of business and marketing, and her mother, a first-generation university graduate, and registered nurse, for her dedication to the advancement of women.
Her life-long love of Latin dance led to competitions where she learned the importance of dedication, drive, persistence, practice, and passion. She has helped bring her background to Barilla during Hispanic Heritage Month competitions and performed twice in Chicago Bulls Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.
