Jason Dumo is a 1996 graduate of the Illinois MBA and a graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. Immediately following his undergraduate years he worked for the Laborer’s Union in Chicago as a translator and interpreter on construction and demolition sites.

Upon completion of business school, Jason became an assistant brand manager and was later promoted to brand manager at National Beverage Corporation on the Everfresh juice and LaCroix water businesses. Having earned his “brand manager stripe,” Jason went on to work at Kraft Foods, Inc., executing marketing and business management in the food services division.

A hard core “foodie,” Jason has continued to apply his passion for food to his trade of marketing and innovation management. He is currently the director of marketing for Griffith Laboratories, a global food seasoning and flavor company. He stated, “The Illinois MBA helped give me a baseline of analytical framework to bring structure to chaos. The Illinois MBA also reinforced that business is first and foremost about people.”

Jason’s responsibility at Griffith Laboratories is to create and execute the marketing strategy. He is also charged with driving collaborative global innovation cross-functionally to deliver differentiating and distinctive seasoning and flavor systems. He says, “I am a food architect who gets paid to eat and make food taste better for the sake of my customers.”

Jason mentioned his favorite part of living in Urbana-Champaign was the serenity of the open spaces. He lived in both Champaign and Urbana during his tenure at the University of Illinois and enjoyed both cities, especially during the fall with all the colorful foliage, the pumpkins, and the apples from the nearby farms.

Jason lives in a suburb of Chicago with his wife and two children.