In the six years that Leigh Ann Schwarzkopf worked with General Mills (1998-2003) as manager of trademark licensing, she has exponentially expanded the reach of several trusted food brands. She led a department that tripled the licensee base for several of General Mills’ properties, such as the Pillsbury Doughboy and Betty Crocker, to become a force of 80 manufacturers that ship 1,500 General Mills-branded skus to all channels of retail.

Leigh Ann’s prowess at orchestrating powerful merchandising programs speaks for itself, but it is her uncommonly keen team-building skills that set her apart. She led efforts to create all-licensee summits that not only generated growth and information sharing opportunities for General Mills and its partners, but the summits set a new industry standard for communication and team development. Her department also launched a structured “new partner welcome program” to improve speed-to-market and start-up time for licensees. Perhaps her most important achievement, however, is how she seamlessly integrated Pillsbury’s property portfolio into General Mills' when the billion-dollar food giants merged in 2000.

Prior to General Mills, Leigh Ann worked for 15 years for apparel manufacturer KID DUDS. Starting as a showroom manager, she escalated every few years up through executive posts in product development and in sales, ultimately to become vice president of marketing. In the course of her years at KID DUDS, Leigh Ann strategically aligned with select licensors, organized a sales force targeting multiple tiers of distribution, opened accounts at national chains and broke company records in sales volume, led efforts for sku control, and raised efficiencies in the art and design departments. A partial list of the licensors partnered with include: The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon, Viacom/Paramount Studios, Peanuts, PBS (Barney, Wishbone), Norma Kamali and Eileen West.

Leigh Ann is also highly involved in leadership positions with trade organizations such as the Twin Cities Licensing Club, Fashion Group International, and the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA). She is a regular speaker at the University of Minnesota and a participant in several industry benchmarking activities.