Vivian Martin

About

Vivian Martin is a distinguished alumnus and current adjunct faculty member of the Carlson School of Management.  

Vivian received her MBA in 1979, with concentrations in Marketing and Statistical Methods. She was named the Pillsbury Outstanding Marketing Student, selected by faculty. Later that year, she began a 35-year career with General Mills.

After spending 11 years in Marketing Research, Vivian was promoted to Director for the Betty Crocker Division in 1990 and subsequently served as Director for both the Snacks Unlimited and Big G Cereal Divisions. Some of her notable accomplishments include the introductions of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Total Raisin Bran, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, Multigrain Cheerios, and Basic 4. Vivian was also a founding member of the Snacks Division which was created in 1994 and instrumental in the establishment of Nature Valley branding.

In 1999, Vivian was named the Corporate Director of Diversity for General Mills. In this role, she launched the Flexible Work policy and championed initiatives to support working parents. In recognition of its strong programs to support diversity objectives, General Mills was named a recipient of the prestigious Catalyst Award in 2001.  

In December 2001, Vivian was named the Consumer Insights Director for the Pillsbury USA Division. She played a key role in the successful Pillsbury-General Mills integration and added the Baking Division to her accountabilities in June 2004.

Vivian was promoted to Vice President of the newly created Center for Learning and Experimentation in 2005, where she transformed the central Consumer Insights function into a catalyst for learning and experimentation across the organization.

In 2010, Vivian was named Vice President, Global Consumer Insights, International. In this role, she established global best practices, adapting leading-edge capabilities to both developed and developing markets. She was instrumental in generating significant cost savings by leveraging scale to integrate hundreds of local data contracts into regional solutions. The first truly global branding of Haagen Dazs is among the many growth initiatives she championed.  

After Vivian’s retirement in 2014, she joined the ranks of adjunct faculty for the Carlson School of Management, teaching Principles of Marketing and Buyer Behavior. Her Buyer Behavior class combines learning theory with hands-on experience in diagnosing a brand’s issues and opportunities in order to develop sound marketing strategies and executions.  

Vivian has served as a leader in the Arts, Social Service, and Education communities inside and outside of General Mills and has chaired the boards of Illusion Theater, the Minnesota Stroke Association, and the Brain Injury Alliance. She currently chairs the board of Saamarthya Foundation, which supports special needs children in India.