Obituary: Peter Brennan, Former Daymon President
Peter Brennan, president of Stamford, Conn.-based branding firm Daymon from 1994 to 2006, died Feb. 6 at the age of 69. He had been suffering from a progressively debilitating disease for several years.
Born in 1947 in Detroit, Brennan joined Daymon in Cleveland in 1973, relocating throughout his career at the company until he joined its New York metro-area team and moved to Greenwich, Conn. He retired from Daymon in 2008.
“I was fortunate to meet Peter in the early ’90’s and have the pleasure of working with him and the Daymon organization for several years in my role of leading the retail practice at IRI,” noted Steve Frenda, managing director, strategy and development at the Path to Purchase Institute, a division of Progressive Grocer parent company EnsembleIQ. “Peter was always a consummate professional and a gentleman. Together, our respective teams at Daymon and IRI had a hand in changing the trajectory of the retail industry and the adoption of category management.”
PG sister publication Store Brands and the New York-based Private Label Manufacturers Association named Brennan one of the Private Label Hall of Fame’s 2017 inductees just prior to his passing.
Additionally, in the wake of his passing, Daymon is inaugurating the Peter Brennan Leadership Excellence Award. According to the company, “The recipient of this award is an associate who … builds effective relationships; connects people across the organization; [has a] high ability to motivate and inspire; [possesses] teacher/mentor capabilities; [has] high levels of confidence, enthusiasm and energy; and [has] high expectations for themselves and those around them.”
“Peter was the kind of person who never forgot a name, always had a kind word for everyone, and took a genuine interest in whomever he spoke to,” said Michelle Gallegos, Daymon’s senior communications manager. “He had a natural ability for bringing people together and inspired them with his confidence, enthusiasm and abundance of energy. He also took great pride in teaching our associates about Daymon and encouraged us to continually challenge ourselves to make the company even better for the future.”
Brennan was active in various professional organizations, among them the agribusiness program at Harvard Business School, and served as a member of the Private and Public Scientific Academic and Consumer Food Policy Group (PAPSAC).
A service celebrating his life took place Feb. 9 in Greenwich, with a Catholic mass held the following day.
His survivors include his wife, Andrea; three daughters and their husbands; four grandchildren; and a brother and sister.