Leadership

Founder, Georgetown Business for Impact and Portion Balance Coalition

Bill Novelli is the founder of Business for Impact at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Busines and is a professor of the practice in its MBA program.

Previously, Novelli was CEO of AARP, a membership organization of nearly 40 million people ages 50 and older. Novelli was founder and president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, executive vice president of CARE, and co-founder and president of Porter Novelli, now one of the world’s largest public relations firms. Novelli began his career at Unilever, where he was an account supervisor at a New York advertising agency and later served as director of Advertising and Creative Services at the Peace Corps.

Novelli serves on several boards, including the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Cancer Society. In addition, he co-chairs the Care Culture and Decision-Making Innovation Collaborative of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), a national alliance dedicated to reforming advanced illness and end-of-life care in the U.S.

He received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and an M.A. UPenn’s Annenberg School for Communication, and pursued doctoral studies at New York University.

Sr. Director, Portion Balance Coalition

Laura is the Sr. Director of the Portion Balance Coalition (PBC) and Director of ESG Initiatives at Business for Impact (BFI). As a career entrepreneur, marketer, and program strategist, Laura is focused on the strategic growth and expansion of the PBC where she works collaboratively with the coalition’s nutritionists, scientists, global food brands, policymakers, and senior leaders to develop comprehensive, innovative strategies and public health campaigns.

Prior to joining BFI, Laura founded Good Company, a social impact consultancy focused on purpose brand strategy, public-private partnerships, programs, and innovation. Laura has spearheaded initiatives for major media companies such as NPR, PBS, Scholastic, Channel One Network, and Discovery Communications. Her purpose work includes public health, BIPOC accelerator initiatives, STEM education, financial literacy, and sustainability. She led strategies for the Partnership for a Healthier America, KaBOOM!, and Ashoka's "Start Empathy" campaign, and co-founded of Workbench Platform, an ed-tech company for K-12, acquired by Google for Education in 2018. Laura is an Adjunct Professor Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies, and receiving the 2022 Tropaia Award for Outstanding Faculty.

Laura holds a BA degree summa cum laude, from Trinity University and received an M.A. in Communications, Culture and Technology at Georgetown University.

Program Director, Portion Balance Coalition

Hope is the Program Director of the Portion Balance Coalition at Business for Impact. She brings extensive skills in consumer brand marketing, advertising, and strategy – on both client and agency sides – to uncover, strengthen, and activate organizations’ social and sustainability initiatives that encourage consumer action and positively impact business, stakeholders, and communities.

Previously, Hope led various CPG businesses – in particular iconic food brands – during her marketing tenures at Unilever, L’Oréal, Dannon, and Reckitt Benckiser. Her leadership encompasses development and implementation of consumer research, brand strategies, product innovation, design architecture, communication platforms, consumer activation, and retail promotion.

As adjunct faculty, Hope shares her passion and knowledge about CSR, Cause Marketing, and other Marketing topics via curriculum development, teaching and guest lectures. She imparts her expertise related to the intersection of brands, marketing and social good as writer, editor, and award judge.

Hope earned an MBA from Fordham University Graduate School of Business and a B.A. degree from Union College. She received an Executive Education certificate from The Center for Nonprofit Leaders at Fordham University.

Chairman, Portion Balance Coalition

Hank is a Senior Director of the Leadership Solutions for Health and Prosperity program at Business for Impact and chair of the Portion Balance Coalition. He is a regular contributor to Forbes on food industry matters pertaining to consumer health and well-being.

For over three decades, Hank was an executive at some of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, including President of Cadbury-Schweppes’ Sunkist Soft Drinks, Inc. He also worked for Coca-Cola USA, Anheuser-Busch and General Mills. He has served as Chief Executive Officer for several ingredient companies and, in 2000, was identified as a “Top 10 Innovator” in the Nutritional Foods industry. Most recently, Hank was senior fellow and director of the Food Policy Center at Hudson Institute.

Hank’s perspectives have been shared across media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, TIME magazine, CNN, NPR, the BBC, Good Morning America and CNBC.

Hank holds a B.S. degree Magna Cum Laude in materials science and metallurgical engineering from Lehigh University, and an MBA in marketing from the Wharton Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania.

Managing Director, Center for the Future of Aging, Milken Institute

Co-founder and Senior Advisor, Portion Balance Coalition

Diane Ty Co-founded the Portion Balance Coalition and is currently a Senior Advisor. Ty has expertise in marketing and business strategy and a long history of driving program innovation by working at the intersection of private, public, and nonprofit sectors. She also serves as a Director at the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging.

Previously, Ty was SVP of Strategic Market Development at AARP. She architected AARP’s under-age 50 initiative called LifeTuner, a 2010 winner of the Industrial Designers Society of America IDEA award (Gold) in the design strategy category, recognizing the best global product innovations annually. She was Managing Director, U.S. Programs at Save the Children, where she spearheaded the award-winning Ad Council campaign, “Do Good: Mentor a Child,” and led their millennial-focused start-up, YoutNOISE. Ty worked for over 10 years as a marketing executive with the American Express Company in NYC before her nonprofit work.

Ty received her B.A. from Duke University. As a Lauder Institute Fellow, she earned an MBA (Wharton School) and an M.A. at the University of Pennsylvania. She is married and has three children.

Executive in Residence, Portion Balance Coalition

Jeanne is an executive in residence at Business for Impact and formerly an Institutional Affairs Director for Ferrero U.S.A., Inc.

Jeanne joined Ferrero in 1993, where she worked in Bruxelles and Luxembourg, the international HQ for the Ferrero Group, until being repatriated in 2011. While in Europe, she served in various marketing and strategic planning capacities, gaining unique insights into global marketing and communications as well as brand re-engineering and strategic planning. Upon return to the U.S., she added government relations, public policy, and CPG safety and regulations—in particular toys–to her eclectic resume.

Jeanne spent the first half of her career in advertising account management, working at Grey Advertising and Ogilvy & Mather, both in New York City, on a variety of CPG categories: health and beauty aid products (Calgon, Aqua Fresh Toothpaste), soft drinks (Canada Dry), confectionery (Hershey), and coffee (Maxwell House).

Jeanne graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in American Studies and Communication Arts. A new resident of Sarasota, Florida, she aspires to become an avid golfer and also enjoys sailing, volunteering, and travelling.

Executive in Residence, Portion Balance Coalition

Dawn Sweeney is an executive in residence for the Portion Balance Coalition at Business for Impact. After twelve years of service, she retired in December of 2019 as President & CEO of the National Restaurant Association, the Washington, D.C.-based trade association for the nation’s $863 billion restaurant and foodservice industry. She has been named “Trade Association CEO of the Year” by two different national organizations and recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the most powerful women in Washington for each of the past five years.

Dawn serves on the boards of SITE Centers Corp. (NYSE: SITC), where she serves on the Audit and Compensation Committees; Save the Children, where she serves on the Audit and Executive Committees and previously chaired the Nominations & Governance Committee; MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital, where she serves on the Quality and Safety Committee; and on the Board of Advisors for the Hart School of Hospitality at James Madison University.

Dawn has lectured at Harvard Business School, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Government from Colby College and an MBA in Marketing from The George Washington University.