Retail Food Industry Consultant

Countless studies and years of work with some of the world’s most innovative companies gives Michael Sansolo a unique and diverse view of the changing nature of trends impacting shoppers, employees, competition, economics, supply chains and management. A long-time senior vice president of the Food Marketing Institute and now a consultant, speaker and author, Sansolo has traveled the globe working with companies on adjusting to new market conditions.

Sansolo recently co-authored The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies, a book that identifies creative lessons in leadership, marketing and workplace dynamics gleaned from movies as varied as The Godfather and Young Frankenstein. Topics in the book include ethics, brand building, crisis management, outside-the-box thinking and diversity. Sansolo also writes a weekly column on wide-ranging business trends for www.MorningNewsBeat.com, a daily blog with nearly 28,000 readers.

Sansolo is a frequent speaker and moderator at conferences and company meetings in the United States and around the globe, addressing crowds from 20 to 5,000, from college students to CEOs of Fortune 100 organizations.   He conducts strategic planning retreats for companies and has designed conferences for a number of trade associations, including the widely acclaimed FMI Future Connect leadership conference.

He currently serves as the research director of the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Councils of both North and Latin America, working with these groups on emerging business topics such as social networking. He is vice chairman of the board of The Food Institute, an industry research organization.  Sansolo works with students at Western Michigan University, St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, George Mason University in Virginia and Portland (Oregon) State University.

In his 13 years as senior vice president at FMI, the biggest food retail association in the United States, Sansolo had oversight over all education, supply chain and research activities. In this position he developed an in-depth perspective of the changing nature of cooking, eating and shopping. Prior to joining FMI, Sansolo was editor-in-chief of Progressive Grocer magazine and was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers.  In his career he received a number of awards for excellence in writing and reporting.

Sansolo is a graduate of the State University of New York College at Cortland with a degree in political science, economics and journalism.