Rory Foster, Court Avenue’s new Executive Director of CPG + Retail, has been driving digital transformation across a variety of industries for the past 20 years. Building new digital properties for Chicago’s local media market led to his first executive management role and a 30 under 30 designation, before reinventing his career with a move to Adtech and followed by his own startup. Over the next 10 years he moved seamlessly between tech and media companies, merging the experiences to disrupt local media with game-changing innovations, including launching the first in-house DSP in 2013, an innovation that tripled the company’s digital revenue in less than a year. After another small exit he opened his own consulting practice focused on growth-stage startups in Chicago’s 1871 Incubator, including P&G Ventures’ launch of Tide Spin.

This engagement led him to sell the practice and move to Vermont, launching the first P&G portfolio DTC business with NewChapter.com, and winning BigCommerce’s highest award in 2018. After that successful assignment Rory was brought to HQ to lead P&Gs internal startup capabilities and reporting up to the Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard, including leadership of in-housing hands-on-keys media management, lean development, growth marketing, and the Startup Academy for fueling Disruptive Innovations. In his final P&G role he led all Digital Commerce channels for the Oral Care category, including multiple high growth megabrand DTCs, marketplaces, and e-retail to double digit CAGRs . He is proud husband to his incredible wife Missy, father to his son Hayden and daughter Violet, and their giant horse-puppy Gastón.