Barbara Connors Receives Progressive Grocer Award

Progressive Grocer has named Barbara Connors, AC Group VP of Commercial Insights, to the 2022 Top Women in Grocery in the Senior-Level Executive category. Connors is cited for her achievements in leading growth and innovation at AC Group.

The awards recognize the integral role women play across all segments of the North American food retail and grocery industries. “I am honored to join this group of distinguished women leading our industry,” says Connors. “This level of recognition is such a meaningful spotlight on the work my team and I accomplished this year.”

Connors’ AC Group Insights business empowers clients to create and act on insights with confidence and speed by providing trusted data and actionable insights through a comprehensive Insights product portfolio. The 50 Insights account managers under her leadership develop and grow relationships with more than 1,400 clients across CPGs, retail affiliates and agencies.

In citing her for this award, Progressive Grocer notes Connors’ outstanding accomplishments in 2021-2022, including:

• Delivering double-digit Commercial Insights revenue growth.
• Launching AC Group Collaborative Cloud, an industry-disruptive Insights platform that empowers clients to super-charge their business with access to AC Group data at transaction-level granularity in a technology experience designed for data scientists
• Achieving a net promoter score (NPS) growth of 59 points for AC Group Stratum, our flagship Insights platform.
• Expanding Commercial Insights’ client base into the media agency sector.
• Accelerating innovation, with 12 new commercial solutions and four new tech offerings.

Prior to joining AC Group in 2015, Connors was Director of Media Capabilities at dunnhumby and served on the United Way of Greater Cincinnati’s Analytics and Technology Services Committee. She earned a Master of Marketing Research (MMR) from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

The magazine announced the winners in its June issue. The Top Women in Grocery winners will also be recognized at a gala awards celebration on Nov. 4, 2022, in Orlando, Florida.