Steve Venenga

Steve Venenga is the vice president of marketing for Grocery Products for Hormel Foods in Austin, Minn. Hormel Foods is a global branded food company with over $9 billion in annual revenues across 75 countries worldwide. Its brands include Planters^®, SKIPPY^®, SPAM^®, Hormel^® Natural Choice^®, Applegate^®, Justin’s^®, Columbus^®, Wholly^® Guacamole, Hormel^® Black Label^® and more than 30 other beloved brands. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, was named on the “Global 2000 World’s Best Employers” list by Forbes magazine for three straight years, is one of Fortune magazine’s most admired companies, has appeared on Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s “The 100 Best Corporate Citizens” list for the 12 years, and has received numerous other awards and accolades for its corporate responsibility and community service efforts.

In his role, Venenga is responsible for managing all brand-building marketing activities, including the associated marketing budget and new product development activities. He also manages the profit-and-loss statement of the Grocery Products division and develops a staff of marketing product managers. He assumed his current role in 2016.

Venenga joined the company in 1996 when he joined Jennie-O Turkey Store as a product marketing manager. He subsequently held several marketing positions within the company. With more than 20 years of combined experience in food-product marketing at both Hormel Foods and Jennie-O Turkey Store, Venenga was involved with the brand integration of the Jennie-O Turkey Store^® brand and a number of retail product launches, including Jennie-O Turkey Store^®Oven Ready™ turkeys and Jennie-O Turkey Store^® turkey burgers. In 2011, Venenga was named vice president of meat products marketing, where he successfully led the segment to achieve strong growth for brands such as Hormel^® Black Label^® bacon, Hormel^® Natural Choice^® meats and Hormel^® pepperoni, and oversaw the successful launch of Hormel^® REV^® wraps.

Venenga was the founding chairman of the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Council and is a member of the board of directors for Jennie-O Turkey Store and MegaMex Foods, Inc.

He earned a master’s degree in business administration in marketing and finance from the University of Iowa (Iowa City, Iowa) after graduating from Simpson College (Indianola, Iowa) with a bachelor’s degree in management and economics.

He and his wife, Kimber, enjoy spending time with their two children.