Hill’s Pet Nutrition. Nestle Purina PetCare. General Mills/Blue Buffalo. These are among the pet food companies that have been led by a female executive in the past five years or so — as have many smaller companies and pet food suppliers.
I don’t have definitive data, so I can’t compare this to the 12% of women sitting in the C-suite or on executive boards in the 2,500 companies, across 12 companies and 10 industries, measured in a 2023 survey from IBM’s Institute for Business Value. I do know that, at least anecdotally, the number of women in pet food leadership, and in the industry overall, has been increasing.
More anecdotal information: Petfood Forum’s Student Program draws many female students in pet food-related academic programs; and the share of women among Petfood Forum speakers each year continues to rise, reaching more than 55% this year. That’s a far cry from when I first started working on the conference in 2007; men dominated not only its speaker list but also as professionals within the industry.
The increased representation of women is one reason we started the Women in Petfood Leadership program (under Petfood Forum) in 2023. That, and because some female leaders in the industry were already networking and supporting each other in their career development, and they asked if we could help advance and grow those efforts in a more public forum.
From a very small nucleus of dedicated founders, Women in Petfood Leadership is now spreading its wings, expanding to encompass four working committees comprised of other women in the industry volunteering to get involved, plus a growing LinkedIn group and networking activities at other pet industry events.
This year’s Petfood Forum will launch a new career development session track, featuring Karen Jones, a vice president for NextUp, a nonprofit aiming to empower women in all workplaces. The track will also include a panel discussion of women pet food executives sharing their experiences and advice.
Note that these sessions are open to everyone seeking to learn about career development and leadership, not just women. In fact, that’s the case for Women in Petfood Leadership; it’s heartening to see that the LinkedIn group includes five men. Though individual pet food companies no doubt offer career learning and growth opportunities to their employees, programs like this make them available for, and from, multiple people across the industry.
