Gayle Fuguitt
VP, Consumer Insights, General Mills, Inc.

As Vice President, Consumer Insights, P. Gayle Fuguitt, oversees all of the global marketing research and data analyses to generate insights about consumers and translate them into business opportunities. Her staff of 150 includes a team dedicated to state-of-the-art research and translating insights from consumers into business strategy. She recently created the “Center for Learning and Experimentation” to further build proprietary techniques.

In 2000, Fuguitt led General Mills to a strategic alliance with MarketTools, Inc., a privately held internet research firm in Mill Valley, California. Through this relationship, more than 80 percent of the company's research on consumers has been moved to the internet with dramatic savings in cost and time. Fuguitt serves on the board of directors of MarketTools, Inc. In 2002, she formed a similar alliance with Iconoculture for on-line trends.

Fuguitt holds leadership positions in several professional associations, including the Iconoculture Board, Dean's Advisory Board at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Advertising Research Foundation's marketing research vision committee, the board of Carlson School Institute for Research in Marketing at the University of Minnesota. She is past chairperson of the ACNielsen Center of Marketing Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former faculty member of Metropolitan State University, Minneapolis.

Recipients of Fuguitt's pro bono services include Minnesota Orchestra, Walker Art Center, and Minneapolis YMCA. She has recently been elected to the Board of Directors of Vocalessence, one of America's premier choral arts organizations. She is currently active in the Minneapolis Institute for Arts Antique Show and Sale, as Co-Chair. She chaired the 2002 General Mills United Way Campaign and served on the 2003-04 Greater Twin Cities United Way Advisory Committee. Fuguitt recently finished her tenure as a board member of Family Tubman Alliance where she created and chaired Very Vintage Sales, a variety of antique sale events to raise money for non-profit organizations, and chaired their Marketing and Communications committees.

Fuguitt holds a Master of Business administration degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and two bachelor's degrees – in economics and industrial relations – from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.