David Banks, Bell Flavor and Fragrances (aka Willy Wonka)
Mar 01, 2022
Meet David Banks, Bell Flavor and Fragrances
With over 25 years of marketing experience, Banks has held a number of leadership roles focusing on insight, market research, brand/product management and innovation. In his career, he worked for such CPG companies as Coors Brewing, Sara Lee and Meadwestvaco and was responsible for creating proprietary tools and approaches to assist with short/long term business strategies, customer targeting and sales forecasting.
Banks also has over ten years of flavor and fragrance experience working for such companies as Givaudan, Mane and Kerry, where he served as its director of market research and consumer insights. Most recently, he served as Aimpoint Research’s VP of global strategy, innovation and food and beverage, where he connected consumer insights to the agriculture industry.
His LinkedIn profile says more:
My family calls me Willy Wonka. In my world the consumer is the Golden Ticket.
I am a consumer behavior and insights expert with proven experience translating the voice of the consumer into successful sales and growth for products and services.
After 25 years I continue to work alongside stellar leadership in strong companies revolving around my passion for food and beverage. I collaborate with exceptional colleagues and continue to strategically construct and deliver business and marketing plans that produce rewarding results benefiting both the company and the consumer.
I’m continually asked the question 'If you had it to do over again would you choose a career in food and beverage?' Each time the answer is a resounding, yes.
I love people. I love to observe and get down to the core of what makes us all tick. I’m a popular culture anthropologist, a storyteller, blender of data using technology and market research methods to build fact-based platforms to help businesses grow. Every day it's about going beyond the data and answering the question of why we do the things we do. Answering the ‘What's Next?
If you can identify what drives the consumer success and results are inevitable and predicting the ‘What's Next' sets you apart from your competition. I help companies achieve this.
I've led teams and initiatives for numerous Fortune 500 companies and worked with over 100 major brands solving complex problems around product sourcing, manufacturing and go-to-market strategy.
The majority of these platforms have led to product and service concepts exceeding $100M in sales and are still on the shelves and in place today simultaneously delivering over 400 million smiles to date.
22% of Generation Z respondents (ages 13 to 27) say they have no friends.
This is a worrisome number, according to professor of psychology and public health George Everly Jr.; a key element of resilience is our relationships with other people.
Can Rotary, Interact and Rotaract Help? Let's build our membership by creating a pipeline of future Rotarians!
Source: 2019 YouGov poll
The 7 C’s of Resilience -to share with the people around you.
Connection: Human connection is one of the most important elements supporting resilience. Find meaningful opportunities to connect with friends, family, colleagues, and your community.
Competence: Knowing how to handle stressful situations and face challenges will make us more resilient. Stress reduction is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and improved to increase our social skills and build resilience.
Confidence: When we’re confident, we know that falling down isn't a failure — but not getting back up is. Adopting a positive attitude will change our perspective on failure.
Character: Always showing integrity, ethical conduct, and personal accountability will increase our self-confidence and our resilience.
Contribution: When we contribute to our communities, our neighborhoods, and our families, the appreciation we receive drives our self-confidence and boosts our resilience.
Coping: Strong social skills and the know-how to reduce stress prepare us to tackle life’s challenges. These skills can be taught to children, teens, and adults.
Control: When we take responsibility for our decisions and actions, we begin to make choices that enable us to feel like we’re in control of our lives and able to overcome challenges.
• This story originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of Rotary magazine. Learn practical tips to strengthen your resilience, and how to instill resilience in others
The Rotary Club of Northbrook 2022 Spring Raffle is up and running.
All we need now is YOU! Each spring, our major fundraising drive of the year is dependent upon your participation for its success – and without you, we wouldn’t be able to monetarily support our community, our friends, and our neighbors. The Raffle is the way to raise money to help:
Youth Services of Glenview/Northbrook fund services for youth in crisis
Gratitude Generation build a new generation of service
North Suburban YMCA provide vocational training and employment opportunities
Northbrook Symphony Orchestra continue to provide music
Northfield Township Food Pantry feed those who are food insecure…and the list could go on and on.
Without you, we can’t be successful. Without you, we can’t help the needy. Without you, we aren’t Rotary. We need YOU!
Actual raffle tickets will be available for you to sell as of February 15th, but until then, direct your friends, your family, your contacts to:
"A Reporter's Journey: How I learned to tell a good story and how Title IX made it possible"
Join us on MARCH 8th for this incredible story!
Bio: Melissa Isaacson has been a fixture on the Chicago sports media landscape for more than 30 years. An award-winning sports writer and author currently on the faculty of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, her most recent book "State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation," was featured in the New York Times and L.A. Times Best-of-2019 Holiday Gift Guides, in "Sports Illustrated" and on NBC's "Today Show."
Isaacson was the Chicago Tribune’s first woman general sports columnist and the first woman principal beat writer to cover the Bulls and Bears, most notably the Michael Jordan–led Bulls over their six NBA titles.
She was interviewed on the documentary "The Last Dance," seen this summer. Among other publications, she has been on the staffs of the Orlando Sentinel, USA Today and ESPN.com, covering every major U.S. sports championship, Grand Slam tennis tournaments and the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The author of three books, including "Transition Game: An Inside Look at Life with the Chicago Bulls" and "Sweet Lou: Lou Piniella, A Life in Baseball," her latest book "State" -- published in 2019 and out in audiobook and paperback -- chronicles Title IX's first-generation and the tale of her Niles West High School team's 1979 Illinois girls basketball state championship. It is currently included in Glenbrook North's freshman curriculum and in classrooms throughout the Chicago-area.
Melissa Isaacson was a longtime sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune, where she was the first woman to be the principal beat writer on the Bulls and Bears, as well as the first woman general columnist. Now she is a full-time faculty member at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
An author of three books, the latest, "State: a Team, a Triumph, a Transformation" a coming-of-age story of the first generation of Title IX girls and specifically her 1979 Niles West basketball team, one of the first girls state championship teams in Illinois.
Isaacson will take the audience through a nearly 40-year career in sports journalism made possible by a law enacted 50 years ago this summer.
She will talk about her Book "State," inspired by one of the first girls state basketball champions in the state of Illinois years; her years as a sportswriter in Chicago covering the Bulls and Bears, and how my life has been changed by Title IX.
Wednesday, March 2nd the Rotary Club of Lake Forest/Lake Bluff invites you to their annual Economic Update with Charles Evans, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Information and tickets at this link.
The Northern Illinois Food Bank
Here is the link for a service project through Gratitude Generation
Volunteer + Service Opportunities - slots may go quickly!
MAR 11 - The Northern Illinois Food Bank (see Gratitude Generation above)
APR 23: Save-The-Date: Ak ‘Tenamit trip, April 23-May 2, 2022 -- Join Rotarians from District 6440 and 6450 in Guatemala this Spring. Sixteen people have signed up, six spots remaining. Contact Dr. Bob Steinberg, rotarydrbob@comcast.net or 847-650-3668.
Save the date for our District 6440 Conference May 20-22, 2022 at Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva. More details to come!
Join Zoom meeting on the good old-fashioned telephone!
+1 312 626 6799 Meeting ID: 295 416 335 Password: 726580 for telephone only
Please note - Meetings are no longer recorded. If you do not attend on zoom or in person you will miss the fun! Meeting dates and times, or virtual access may change, always check our website for updates. In-person meetings are held at Hilton, 2855 Milwaukee Rd., Northbrook or other locations as announced, and the club Covid protocol must be followed.
We have hybrid-meetings. Join us! Contact RotaryNorthbrook@gmail.com to join us.
NOTE: The 3/22 meeting with Brad Schneider will be in the evening, location TBD.
The 3/29 meeting will be at the North Shore Senior Center
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