New Board Member: George Hiller
I am honored and excited to join the UICA Board of Directors and to take part in contributing firsthand to the remarkable work this organization does for our beloved University.
In January 1978, I decided to transfer from the small college I was attending to the University of Iowa. I still remember driving past Mayflower and into Iowa City, feeling overwhelmed and wondering about what I had just done. However, by the time I left the University in the Spring of 1982 and reflecting back still today on the many opportunities it had given me and the ones I had chosen to pursue, I believe transferring to Iowa was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Very simply, I would not have achieved the professional success I have had if not for my decision. That is why my wife, Jayne, and I are so passionate about supporting the University in every way we can. She feels the same connection, having also transferred to Iowa from a small school.
George Hiller has 44 years of executive experience in business development, strategic selling, marketing, negotiation strategy, management, and entrepreneurship, with a strong record of delivering measurable, sustainable results. For the past 20 years, he has served as CEO of Hiller & Associates, the beverage consulting firm he founded to advise restaurant, hospitality, entertainment, and convenience companies on national soft drink agreements. The firm is the largest beverage consulting practice of its kind in North America, with negotiated contracts totaling more than $10 billion in combined deal value. Its clients include some of the nation’s largest restaurant and foodservice companies as well as emerging chains. Hiller was also engaged by one of the world’s largest food products companies to design and implement a sales training program for its sales team. Before founding Hiller & Associates, he spent more than 15 years as a PepsiCo executive, leading a senior team responsible for fountain new business development across a 20-state region and Canada. Earlier, he served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the world’s fifth-largest fluid ink packaging company and as Director of Sales for the nation’s second-largest domestic spice company. He began his career in Procter & Gamble’s fast-track management program, widely recognized as a premier training ground for sales and marketing professionals.
Hiller holds a BBA in Marketing and an MBA in Management from the University of Iowa. He has taught as an adjunct professor of salesmanship at the University of Cincinnati and of marketing at the University of Iowa and Normandale Junior College in Minneapolis. He serves on the Tippie College of Business Advisory Board and the Executive Committee Board of the Community Foundation of Central Iowa. He delivered the commencement address for the Tippie College of Business Class of 2018, has been a guest speaker in marketing classes at the University of Iowa and Drake University, and was named the Tippie College of Business Alumni of the Year for 2025. He has also spoken and facilitated sessions at the Restaurant Finance & Development and Market Vision conferences. Previously, Hiller served on the Executive Leadership Board for the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy.
George and Jayne Hiller, also a University of Iowa graduate, have been married for 42 years. They split their time between Des Moines, Iowa, and Phoenix, Arizona, and have three daughters and five young grandchildren.
