Linda Eatherton
Partner and Director
Global Food & Nutrition Practice
Linda Eatherton joined Ketchum in 2001 to lead the firm’s worldwide Food & Nutrition Practice, which represents clients including: U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, Frito-Lay, Horizon Organic, US Potato Board, ConAgra Foods, and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. She has extensive branded and commodity food experience, leading marketing communications and reputation management programs. Linda’s 25+ years of branded and commodity food experience brings a unique breadth and depth of senior leadership to Ketchum and its Food & Nutrition clientele.
Prior to joining Ketchum, Eatherton served as the vice president of public and industry communications for Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), which manages $18 million in marketing, research, technology and education programs for the American Dairy Association and the National Dairy Council. Responsible for product, industry, crisis and shareholder/member communications, Eatherton acted as spokesperson and strategist, developing positions on critical issues and managing crisis situations related to food safety, animal health and production quality.
On the agency side, Eatherton advised major branded and commodity food clients in her own consultancies and other leading agencies. Nutrition and food experience intertwined early in her career when she supervised accounts such as NutraSweet, Ore-Ida Foods, Butterball, and Entenmann’s.
Leveraging agency experience and applying it to corporate situations, Eatherton joined Kraft Foods’ corporate communications staff to lead the Frozen, and Retail Cheese Division internal, external and marketing communications. At Kraft, she served on the corporate communications crisis strategy and response team, handling issues ranging from product safety and quality, to nutrition concerns about fat substitute technology and obesity, to plant and labor-related situations. Later posts expanded that experience base to include issues management for industry and across allied agricultural constituencies.
Eatherton graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. She is a member of PRSA, is president of the Society for Nutrition Education Foundation’s Board of Trustees.