Tom Barnes is the chief executive officer of Category Partners, LLC; a retail sector, business insights company founded in 2008, which specializes in driving growth by executing consumer and market research, data analytics and technology solutions.
Tom has successfully led Category Partners by developing strategic partnerships, proprietary data reporting tools and adding primary consumer research capabilities to Category Partners services. Since taking the reins at the end of 2016, Category Partners has more than doubled its annual revenue.
Prior to joining Category Partners in 2013, Tom held a senior position at Wada Farms Marketing Group leading a major retailer account group for more than 9 of his 13 years with the company.
Tom got his career start in the IT field. His IT background, coupled with his subsequent experience in perishables industry sales and marketing, has afforded him a unique and valuable perspective on the relationship between data management, business insights and success in the retail perishables arena.
He was raised in Pocatello, Idaho, and is a proud Idaho State University Bengal. Tom currently hails from Idaho Falls, Idaho where he and his wife are doing their best to raise their five beautiful children. Tom loves to run, coach sports of every kind, and simply be with his kids every chance he gets.
With over 10 years of experience in the agriculture industry, Aimee leverages her MBA in international business and her acquired analytical and project management skills to identify and pursue new business opportunities, manage customer relationships, and optimize sales and operations.
As a former manager of sales, production and grower relations, she has dedicated herself to learning, immersing, and managing: projects, processes, and implementation of technology and process flows to achieve business efficiency and go to market strategy in agribusiness. She continuously manage and execute a multitude of projects at the same time. Capable of learning new skills and nimble in a constantly changing environment. Her talents and resourcefulness ensure that working together will provide new strategic opportunities as the industry looks to bring new technology to fresh produce to fulfill consumer demand, achieve operational efficiency and sustainability for the future.