John Orozco

Career Sales and Marketing Executive

John Orozco is a graduate from the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in business administration.  John was hired immediately after graduating in 1982 by the Colgate-Palmolive Company and had various roles throughout the U.S.  While at Colgate-Palmolive, John earned his MBA from California State University in Dominguez Hills.

John held several executive management roles with Colgate, PepsiCo, ConAgra Foods and Glaxo Smith Kline.  John led sales organizations at Walmart, Kroger, and other top tier Grocery customers.  John spent time with ConAgra Foods in their Food Service sector selling bulk Movie Theatre Popcorn to distributors around the world.  John called on customers in Argentina, Europe and in the UK and held market share leadership in those markets and the U.S.  John was responsible for the P&L for this line of business and provided guidance and leadership for the supply chain group to ensure product availability for both retail and the movie theater customers.

John also spent time with the Nielsen Company leading a team of analysts at the Target Corporation in Minneapolis. John worked with Target Guest Insight teams to develop insights and implications for growth initiatives.  John interfaced with Senior levels of Buying, Marketing and Stores at Target to increase the Nielsen team penetration in this customer. A key initiative John worked on was the testing, validation and subsequent roll-out of Super Targets which was the main driver of Target Corporation growth from 2008 to 2010.  John was the Nielsen Retail VP of the year in 2009.

John has returned to Tucson and now runs his own Farmers Insurance Agency. John has been able to take his 30+ years in Marketing and Sales Management to open his own business and to work with UofA students for future success.

John is married and lives on the east side of Tucson.  John and his wife have four children who live in Minneapolis, Fullerton, California, and Scottsdale.  John’s oldest daughter Sofia just graduated from the Eller School Business and will begin at Vanguard Financial in Scottsdale in July.  Sofia is a third-generation UA graduate after her dad and her grandfather. 

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  • Help mentees learn and grow from their peers through group discussions.
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  • Help mentees gain career skills for their industry of interest.