Irene Rosenfeld

Irene Blecker Rosenfeld (born May 3, 1953) is an American business executive, the chairwoman and CEO of Mondelēz International.

Early life and education

Rosenfeld was born to a Jewish family in Westbury, New York, the daughter of Seymour and Joan Blecker. Her father’s parents were Romanian Jews, her mother’s grandparents were German Jews. She later attended W. Tresper Clarke High School in Westbury, NY. She holds a Ph.D. in Marketing and Statistics, a Master of Science in Business, and a B.A. degree in Psychology from Cornell University.

Career

Rosenfeld has been involved in the food and beverage industry for about 30 years. Her first job was at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency in New York and she later joined General Foods in consumer research.

In 2004, Rosenfeld was appointed Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, where she focused on promoting healthy products.

In June 2006, Rosenfeld was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Foods. She joined General foods which later became a part of Kraft foods. Among her many accomplishments at Kraft foods, she led the restructuring and turnaround of key business in the US, Canada and Moscow. She is active in a number of industry and community organisations, including the Economic Club of Chicago. She was appointed to the additional post of Chairperson in March 2007, following Altria Group's spin-off of Kraft.