Amy Hilliard

Amy Hilliard, a native Detroiter and honors graduate of both Howard University and the Harvard Business School, is the founder and CEO of The ComfortCake Company®, makers of “poundcake so good it feels like a hug!™” The Company also produces Sugarless Sweetness®, their proprietary sugar substitute for baking, as well as other baked goods and whole grain pizzas. Launched in 2001, ComfortCake® is distributed nationally through foodservice and retail channels and through their website (www.comfortcake.com). Customers have included United Airlines, 7-Eleven, Walgreen's, Jewel-Osco, Dominick's, Rush Medical Center and the Chicago Public Schools. The ComfortCake® Company is also an approved supplier to major QSR chains.

ComfortCake® has been featured on CNN, Fox, The Food Network, AOL, Home Shopping Network, Fortune, Black Enterprise, Essence and other national publications. After just two years in business, ComfortCake® was selected as the Emerging Minority Enterprise of the Year by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Company has since been honored by Jewel-Osco, Safeway and Chartwells-Thompson, a division of Compass Group.

Ms. Hilliard, was named a 2009 Business Leader of Color by Chicago United, was selected by The Clinton Foundation for their Entrepreneurship Mentor Program, and is a graduate of the Chicago Urban League’s nextONE program. Ms. Hilliard, the first African-American elected to the board of the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade, currently sits on the Multi-Cultural Advisory Board of PepsiCo and was recently elected to the Board of Trustees of Howard University.

Amy Hilliard is a former senior marketing executive with leading Fortune 500 corporations and entrepreneurial firms including Bloomingdale’s, Gillette, Pillsbury, L’Oreal and Burrell Communications Group. Additionally, Ms. Hilliard owns The Hilliard Group, a strategic marketing consulting, product development and speaking firm.

A proud mother of two young adults, Ms. Hilliard is an internationally recognized speaker and author of “TAP INTO YOUR JUICE” – Find Your Gifts, Lose Your Fears and Build Your Dreams, which has been endorsed by Michelle Obama.