Provide weekly business education to our ever-growing community of 185+ local food and beverage entrepreneurs on Chicago’s West and South sides, enhancing their general business acumen for sustainable growth and lasting community impact. Collaborate with industry leaders across F&B, banking, manufacturing, etc. to secure specialized guest training sessions, fostering connections and enabling one-on-one meetings between instructors and GFA vendors. Authored numerous grant proposals to secure program funding from diverse sources, including government agencies, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Partner with a family-owned urban farming organization to translate the 300-page Wholesale Success farmers’ manual into Spanish, expanding GFA’s reach to more ethnically and professionally diverse communities in the city. Revamped organizational contact database to improve communication with 550+ entrepreneurs and volunteers in our community. Utilized this platform to design and disseminate new GFA Monthly Newsletter, highlighting entrepreneurs and community events.

Coordinated the cradle-to-grave execution of 8 supplier transitions, the largest involving a move of $10MM incumbent spend. Drove 12 RFP processes through vendor research, negotiations, and selection to reach $1.5MM expected savings. Built and nurtured hundreds of supplier relationships through frequent communication and Ariba database management efforts. Analyzed key strategic opportunities for cost savings and designed efforts to address them, including collaborating with Logistics/Transportation and IT teams to implement a Bill of Lading change that led to $200k expected savings. Delivered continuous administrative and general support to the team, including meeting/event planning, invoice reconciliation, in-depth report generation.

Oversaw work order flow throughout the company supply chain to ensure the product reached its destination on time. Created purchase requisitions for components from international vendors through Oracle, amounting to $250k purchased water fountain components as an intern. Conducted an 8-month research project with 50+ global vendors to reduce procurement lead times, reducing lead times by up to 3 weeks. Built Power Query tool in Excel to automatically gather and analyze past-due work order totals of US-based plants, resulting in 4-5% past-due work order reduction.