WHO WE ARE

Baldwin Richardson Foods (BRF), one of the largest black family-owned companies in the United States, is a full service organization providing consumer insights expertise, innovation, product development, procurement, manufacturing and logistics to some of the most iconic foodservice and CPG organizations globally. They are driven by their ambition to build long-lasting, strategic partnerships with their customers and suppliers. BRF combines its deep experience in food science with flexible and continuously evolving manufacturing capabilities as a custom ingredient manufacturer. They help their customers translate brand growth opportunities with innovation concepts and capabilities that create a competitive advantage with consumers and the marketplace. Iconic, global food brands entrust Baldwin Richardson Foods as their partner to deliver the highest quality products that exceed industry standards. The Company also manufactures and markets Mrs. Richardson’s Ice Cream Toppings and Nance’s Mustards and Condiments. Baldwin Richardson Foods has manufacturing locations in Macedon, NY and Williamson, NY; Corporate Offices in Oakbrook Terrace, IL and Food Innovation Center Westmont, IL. This role is primarily reporting to the Macedon, NY location.

WHAT WE NEED

At BRF, we are experiencing a period of rapid growth as a result of successful relationships with existing customers and a rapid influx of new customers. To enable continued growth, we have expanded our executive team and functional capabilities, initiated new partnerships, and engaged in a significant operational transformation, touching everything from the way we look for and at commercial opportunities to the way we manufacture and deliver products for our existing customers. To support our growth, we are looking for a highly qualified Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President of BRF. From day one, the Chief of Staff will positively impact our trajectory by serving as a thought partner to the President, streamlining strategic initiatives, overseeing initiative progress, communicating objectives between departments, and manage through influence. The CoS will often help the President manage their time effectively while acting in an advisory role for important decisions about the business. The ideal candidate will have experience advising executives, leading significant strategic initiatives, and fostering interdepartmental collaboration.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Serve as an extension of the President by acting as liaison between executives, senior leaders, and the President to help drive strategic objectives for the President.
• Advise the President on strategic and tactical decisions, acting as an unbiased thought partner.
• Anticipate the President’s needs and questions to coach leadership teams on preparing for meetings to ensure effective use of time.
• Build and develop relationships with all employees for increased efficiency and effective responsiveness, and help to define new operational strategies, working with President and other executives on special projects.
• Support daily operations through collaboration with senior management and department leaders, performing an array of tasks from leading strategic initiatives to generating correspondence and tracking follow-ups.
• Remove roadblocks and connect synergistic initiatives; provide workstream leaders with direct coaching on strategies and tactics to achieve their targets
• Improve current processes and coordinate organizational procedures for optimized efficiency and productivity; design and implement methods for holding workstreams accountable to deliver to their plan, while creating an environment where owners are encouraged to ask for support when needed.
• Review, design, and execute on improvements to organizational structure; find knowledge and skills gaps and help address them.
• Develop methods and cadence for consistently communicating progress to leadership and Board stakeholders.

• 
  Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, or related Master’s degree in Business Administration or similar field strongly preferred
• Prior experience as a Chief of Staff, in an executive management role, OR
• Minimum of two (2+) years at a top-tier consulting firm with experience advising executives.
• Demonstrated track record of leveraging analytics, critical thinking, and creativity to solve complex business and operations problems
• Manufacturing industry experience strongly preferred.
• Proven experience organizing and directing multiple teams and departments

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Demonstrated critical and strategic thinking skills.
• Effective at balancing multiple priorities, simultaneously, including a high-volume workload and time sensitive issues as they arise; ability to constantly reprioritize.
• Ability to manage by influence.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills with ability to confidently interface with a variety of stakeholders, developing and maintaining positive working relationships with all levels of the organization.
• Ability to exercise sound judgement and make decisions that takes into consideration the needs of the business while minimizing risk.
• Ability to act with uncompromising integrity, professionalism, and cultural awareness.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Customer service skills including exceptional interpersonal, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills.
• Due to SQF regulations, all employees must be able to fluently read, write, and converse in the English language. Required for every posting
• Computer Skills: Intermediate experience MS Office Suite with strong knowledge PowerPoint, Excel and MS Teams.
• Language Ability: Ability to read, write and interpret documents in English.

Generous benefits package, including low premium and out-of-pocket medical/dental/vision costs, vacation, sick, 401k with matching, holiday, birthdays off, designated holidays and floating holidays.