ÂÜÀòÂÒÂ×

LW

Latasha Napper (Watkins)

Associate Director New Product Development at Mielle Organics

Latasha Napper (Watkins) has over 17 years of professional experience in various roles. Latasha started their career in 2004 as a Manufacturing Manager at General Mills, where they managed a budget of over $20M, 300+ wage employees, and 20 salary employees to deliver 1M case volume growth in one year. Latasha then moved to a Continuous Improvement Manager role, where they designed and executed a three year strategy for continuous improvement program implementation and delivered $1M savings. In 2008, they returned to General Mills as an Operations Business Manager, leading cross-functional project teams to deliver roughly $59M cost savings.

In 2011, Latasha moved to a Training Manager role at General Mills, where they led the development of a cross-functional strategic plan to address a skill gap created by mass retirements, and enhanced and expanded a new hire training program that trained seven wage coordinators to manage a more efficient and cost-effective program. In 2012, they held a Graduate Assistant role at the Kelley School of Business, co-founding the Eddie C. Brown Professional Development Summit.

In 2013, Latasha joined ConAgra Foods as an MBA Brand Intern, where they recommended a cohort strategy to take advantage of a $440M retail segment in a different grocery aisle. In 2014, they moved to an Associate Brand Manager role, leading the development of licensing partnerships to grow volume by 9% and grow net sales by $12MM.

In 2016, Latasha joined Tyson Foods as a Brand Manager, Jimmy Dean Innovation, launching a margin accretive new product, working with outside agencies to co-develop whitespace innovation items, and managing one direct report. Latasha then moved to a Senior Associate Brand Manager role. In 2021, they joined Crystal Farms Dairy Company as a Sr. Brand Manager, spearheading a re-branding campaign for a $240MM portfolio, leading multiple agencies and two Sr. ABMs, and increasing new users and goal completions in the first 2 months. Finally, in 2022, Latasha joined Mielle Organics LLC as an Associate Director New Product Development.

Latasha Napper (Watkins) received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing and Management from Indiana University - Kelley School of Business between 2012 and 2014. Latasha also received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign between 1993 and 1998.

Links

Previous companies

General Mills logo
Conagra Brands logo
Tyson Foods logo