A proven thought leader on the platforms of marketing, leadership, entrepreneurship and the business case for diversity, Amy Hilliard is Principal of The Hilliard Group, a strategic consulting firm that has represented Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial businesses for over twenty years. The firms’ clients have included Nielsen, IBM, American Express, HBO, the Art Institute of Chicago, Ford Motor Company, PepsiCo and others. With a unique background of senior corporate experience and as an established entrepreneur, Ms. Hilliard is the former President of Fashion Fair Cosmetics, the largest cosmetics company focused on women of color in the world. She was instrumental in strengthening the brand’s equity in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. A native Detroiter, she is an author and honors graduate of both Howard University and the Harvard Business School.
Prior to joining Fashion Fair, Amy Hilliard was Founder/CEO of The ComfortCake® Company, makers of “Pound Cake so Good it feels like a Hug®“. The Company commercialized Ms. Hilliard’s own recipes for a variety of pound cakes, and now produces a gourmet pound cake mix and Sugarless Sweetness®, a patent-pending proprietary sugar substitute. Launched in 2001 and now managed through brokers, the company gained national distribution and customers have included United Airlines, the Chicago Public Schools, Walmart, Jewel, Safeway, 7-Eleven and Home Shopping Network among others. The ComfortCake Company also achieved status as an approved supplier for McDonald’s.
An avid community volunteer, Ms. Hilliard was selected for the Urban League’s nextONE Program and The Clinton Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Mentor Program. Her prior board memberships have included the Pepsi Cola Multicultural Advisory Board, the Women’s Business Development Center and Ford Motor Company’s Diversity Board. Ms. Hilliard was the first African-American elected to the board of the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade, she also served on Illinois Governor Quinn’s Women’s Advisory Board, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Howard University.
A former buyer for Bloomindales and a senior marketing executive with Fortune 500 corporations, including Gillette, Pillsbury and L’Oreal, Amy Hilliard raised two young adults as a single mother and is author of “TAP INTO YOUR JUICE –Find Your Gifts, Lose Your Fears and Build Your Dreams” – a motivational book endorsed by First Lady Michelle Obama, and “Mother Wit” for the NY Times bestseller, Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul.
Ms. Hilliard will be live on our show tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific. She will be talking about Entrepreneurville – Lessons Learned From The Real Land Of Oz.
To catch the conversation live, please click on the following link live tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific: Firetalk – The Dr. Vibe Show™ Channel.
You can connect with Ms. Hilliard via:
