Richard A. Brindle, Jr.

Class of 2017

Richard A. Brindle, Jr. (Rick) was born on January 21, 1960, in Washington, DC, and is the oldest of six children to Richard A. Brindle, Sr. and Maria.

Growing up, anytime he could Rick would go to work with his father, who was with Safeway Stores and who also owned a couple of restaurants before buying an Arnold Bread franchise.

Rick’s first job involving candy was working as a night stocker with Safeway while in high school and one of his aisles was candy. He continued to work with Safeway, using the wages along with scholarships and earnings from campus jobs to completely fund his tuition at Frostburg State College, becoming the first college graduate in his family. He earned a BS in Business Administration, Management and Marketing in 1982, and Rick says he considers it a foundational milestone for him and his younger siblings, Robert, Susan, Julia, Christian and Jennifer.

while in college, Rick met Deanna “Dee” and they married in La Plata, MD, in May 1983. They have three children, Richard A. III “Trey”, James “Jamie” and Caroline.

Shortly after getting married, Rick left Safeway Stores and went to work for Proctor & Gamble as a sales representative, ending up as District Sales Manager for the Walmart Team in Bentonville, AR. In 1996, he joined Nabisco, rising to the position of Vice-President Global eSales before joining kraft Foods as Vice-President eSales & Industry Relations, North America in 2001. while at Kraft, Rick was credited with developing their eBusiness Strategic Sales Platform, which is still regarded “best in class” in the industry.

Since 2012, Rick has been with Mondelez International, Inc. as Vice-President of Industry Development, North America.

Rick says he was taught the importance of developing industry relations early in his career and consequently he has a long history of leadership in industry associations including the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, National Grocers Association (where he is only one of three manufactures allowed to serve on the Board of Directors), National Association of Convenience Stores, Food Marketing Institute, Retailer owned Food Distributors Association, Grocery Manufacturers Association and National Confectioners Association, where he is currently on the Board of Trustees.

Rick has been named Consumer Goods Industry’s Top 25 Visionaries by Consumer Goods Technology magazine, Supervalu Vendor of the Year, and has won the National Grocers Association Board of Directors Service Award.

He loves to play tennis and looks forward to attending all four of the major tournaments in tennis when he retires.