About Our Client
The company is a well-established mid-sized leader in the industry. As a family owned and managed Canadian business, they are a growing and well capitalized manufacturing company that has been successfully serving the foodservices and food processor markets in North America for over 40 years. Functioning as a full-service manufacturer, the company is driven by ambitious growth goals. Committed to delivering exceptional value, its mission revolves around being a trusted partner for its customers, with a focus on offering smart, safe, and sustainable packaging solutions.

Overview of the President Role
Our client is in search of a President to assume a pivotal leadership position within the organization. The President will lead all facets of the company's operations, encompassing sales, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, supply chain, finance, IT and human resources. The primary emphasis will be on fostering growth, profitability, and operational excellence. This role demands hands-on involvement, requiring the incoming President to cultivate a deeper understanding of the industry, company operations, and available strategies to sustain and propel further growth.

Key Responsibilities
People & Culture:

• Talent Development: Drive performance through collaboration, culture, and team development. Strategically investing in the development of key talent within the organization and planning for future leadership needs through succession planning.
• Inspirational Leadership: Provide visionary and motivational leadership that inspires employees to achieve their full potential. This entails fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where employees feel valued, trusted, and empowered to take initiative and make decisions.
• Cultivate Innovation Culture: Foster a culture of innovative thinking, continuous improvement, and accountability where employees feel empowered to challenge the status quo, share ideas, and explore new approaches to problem solving.

Sales:

• Sales Growth Strategy: Support development of an enhanced growth strategy with clear value proposition. Spearhead incremental growth with a primary focus on expanding the direct business segment, which currently represents 10% of total sales.
• New Product Development: Lead the evolution of our NPD strategy to focus on projects that optimize growth and capital allocation and strengthen our stage gate methodology to accelerate development and launch of new products.
• Partnership: Collaborate closely with the Vice President of Sales to optimize margins and enhance profitability by strategizing on pricing, product mix, and market positioning.
• Sales Pipeline Management: Optimize the sales process, identifying potential leads, nurturing relationships, and effectively managing sales cycles to ensure a steady flow of opportunities.
• Expansion & Diversification: Identify growth opportunities and potential areas for diversification or expansion within the food packaging industry.
• Relationship Management: Cultivate and maintain relationships with key customers, suppliers, and industry stakeholders for sustaining long-term success and competitiveness.
• Market Analysis: Identify emerging trends and market opportunities is critical for enhancing the company's competitive position and staying ahead of the curve.

Operational Excellence:

• Operational Excellence: Working with and leading the VP Operations to help set a clear vision and corresponding strategy for Operational Excellence in the context of the business’ overarching strategy and goals.
• Lean Manufacturing: Enhance and maintain lean manufacturing discipline focused on ensuring employee safety, reducing waste to achieve a globally competitive cost structure, and creating customer value through exceptional quality and industry leading service.
• Supply Chain: Support the continued evolution of our supply chain capabilities to ensure reliable supply to customers while optimizing inventory.
• Technology Partners: Foster strong partnerships with key technology partners to gain insights into technology and market trends, support our growth strategy and achieve best value.

Financial Management:

• Business Plan, Budget and Forecast: Lead development of company annual business plan including key financial and operational targets, strategic priorities, and corresponding demand forecast and budgets.
• P&L: Oversee company's Profit and Loss statement, which involves managing and analyzing all revenue streams, expenses and ratios.
• EBITDA Improvement: Develop and implement strategies to improve profit margins, and driving sales growth initiatives to ultimately increase EBITDA.
• Capital Investment: Oversee capital allocation involving evaluation of strategic fit, return on invested capital, margin analysis and discounted payback.
• Metrics and Measurement: Tracking and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative metrics to assess the company's financial and operational performance thereby identifying areas of improvement and implementing corrective actions as needed.

Key Requirements
As an experienced professional you will have…

• Education Qualifications: A bachelor’s degree in business administration, engineering, or a related field is required, with preference given to candidates holding an MBA or advanced degree.
• Proven Executive Leadership Success: Demonstrated success in executive leadership roles within the foodservice and food packaging manufacturing industry is essential. Preferably, candidates should have specific experience in plastics and packaging.
• Leadership Experience: A minimum of 10 years senior leadership experience in comparable industries with 5 years’ experience as President and/or CEO of a comparable business unit.

As the President, the successful candidate will demonstrate…
Professional Competencies:

• Strategic Planning and Execution: Proven ability to develop and execute strategic plans that foster business growth and enhance profitability.
• New Product Development Leadership: Proficiency in building and leading successful New Product Development (NPD) departments, with a track record of driving them to success.
• Risk Management and Adaptability: Ability to adeptly manage internal and external risks and challenges, ensuring resilience and adaptability in dynamic environments.
• Customer-Centric Focus: Strong commitment to prioritizing customer needs and satisfaction as core aspects of business operations.
• Financial Acumen: Demonstrated financial acumen and experience managing budgets, profit and loss statements, and financial performance metrics.
• People & Team Management Excellence: Exceptional leadership skills with proven ability to increase employee engagement and lead the development of high-performance teams.

Personality Traits:

• Effective Communication Skills: Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels effectively.
• Inclusive Leadership Style: A collaborative and inclusive leadership style, dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment.
• Integrity and Empathy: Demonstrated traits of integrity, humility, empathy, professionalism, and a commitment to ethical business practices.
• Tactful Expertise: A well-honed sense of tactfulness, encompassing adept negotiation, conflict resolution, and people management abilities.
• Collaborative Approach: Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and staff to create a results-driven, team-oriented environment.
• Curious Mindset: Possess a natural inclination towards exploration, inquiry, with a thirst for understanding, knowledge and continuous learning.

What you will get from this opportunity:

• Leading a diverse, broad committed and loyal team who strive to do better every day.
• Empowering environment that inspires great work, learning and development with a strong executive team.
• The opportunity to craft and shape the outcome of the company in the short and long-term.
• Competitive compensation with a long-term incentive plan measured on growth and adding value to the enterprise.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced President/CEO, who is a seasoned executive and business strategist. If you thrive in a dynamic, high-energy setting, where you can drive transformation and contribute significantly to organizational success, then this is a role you will be interested in.

Please apply directly and in confidence to this posting.