James V. Eade Email & Phone Number

Santa Monica, California, Us

Directs all on & off shore sourcing and inbound logistical activities for direct farm inputs, indirect supplies and MRO for the network of Sensei Ag greenhouses.

Monterey, Ca, Us

• Managed multiple departments including Receiving, Shipping, Warehouse Operations, Scheduling and Purchasing for a union plant including a team of 6 salary employees and 72 hourly employees with budgetary responsibilities including $720K in equipment and supplies and $500K in labor per year. • Developed strategies to reduce costs while simultaneously optimizing quality, customer focus, innovation, and supplier relationships to achieve vertical integration.• Led the implementation of improvement strategies focused on balancing quality, cost & capacities in the following functional areas: raw material ordering, yield management, order attainment, and supply chain waste elimination. • Managed the annual spend, issue, and trace of $65M of raw materials and $94M of packaging & ingredients for the Soledad facility. • Responsible for receiving, cooling & shipping operations of raw and finished goods coordinating seasonal equipment moves, balance maintenance events with harvest flow and plant capacities. • Drafted and implemented Covid-19 protocols for suppliers and third-party deliveries of raw materials and ingredients.• Implemented a spotter & drop trailer program for 25 daily loads of inbound materials and 30 outbound finished goods. Substantial coordination with Inbound and cooler groups, requiring multi-facility & carrier coordination. Reduced handling by 20%, improved internal issues of supplies to lines 25%. Increased flexibility for both carriers and warehouse operations. • Purchased $27K in racking eliminating a $140K annual spend on flatbed trailer rentals for outside corrugate storage

Salinas, California, Us

(𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡-𝑈𝑝 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ 𝐶𝑢𝑡 𝑉𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 - $95𝑀𝑀 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 – 225 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑒𝑠) • Managed all purchasing for the entire company, including MRO, packaging, and contractual obligations both short term and long term for the company overseeing a budget of $19.7M for operations and $4.9M for third party transportation and shipping services. • Responsible for the supervision of 6 non-union employees in purchasing, safety, parts, and inventory management. • Accountable for the standard cost budget and attaining the planned costs for ingredients and material and reporting costs to Finance.• Oversaw all vendor/supplier relationships, including preparing bids, evaluating/qualify potential materials & equipment suppliers, negotiating agreements, and monitoring overall performance.• Trained all new buyers in the art and methods of negotiating and purchasing commodity products and managing company repack and distribution center requirements, allowing the department to run efficiently and productively during periods of staff changes.• Identified new equipment & materials for improved operational efficiencies and reduced direct material costs. • Coordinated with legal, risk management, and Finance to ensure that new and updated supply agreements, insurance certificates, and food safety documents are in place for all key suppliers. • Decreased annual corrugate spend $300K through RFP process, price leverage and negotiations.• Optimized plant efficiencies by 5%, decreased annual labor & packaging spend by $250K implementing inline case printing, automated cases erecting, and pallet wrapping

• Complete responsibility for a $5.8M P&L reporting to the ownership group overseeing food safety/quality control, maintenance, human resources, operations, and Finance. • Hired and managed a team of 20 direct employees and 90 non-union indirect team members covering four 3PL cooler locations located in California and Arizona. • Built and maintained strong working relationships with local growers/shippers, retailers, and foodservice distributors, negotiating all 3rd Party Handling and Cooling agreements, and monitoring overall quality and performance.• Worked directly with Owner to understand financials and control costs in alignment with the fiscal budget while maintaining service levels.• Facilitated transparency and productivity by communicating cross-functionally with customers and serving as a key point of contact in providing information, solutions, and assistance.• Participate weekly in customer sales meetings, functioning as a point of contact for any operational or sales issues that may arise and ensuring proper labor coverage based on harvest estimates.• Expanded cooling and juicing capacity by 10M in Castroville, CA for a combined juicing program for Driscolls, Eclipse, and Beech Street. • Created a relationship with a food service distributor that expanded the business requiring additional cold storage spaced and dock doors.• Increased annual revenues by $300K negotiating and implementing cross dock programs for regional foodservice distributors

Salinas, Ca, Us

• Directed procurement and sourcing operations managing an annual spend of $35M for Ag Operations & Processing on supply agreements, leases, equipment, packaging, and services. • Developed cost and quality improvements in the various harvest and post-harvest systems for Spring Mix, Spinach, Iceberg, and Romaine. • Coordinated a new supplier agreement with corporate legal and risk management, managing vendor selection, qualification, negotiation of contracts, pricing, quality, and logistics

Étoy, Vaud, Ch

• Managed an annual spend of $100M for Ag Operations raw product supply, freight, and packaging, including overseeing new product development cycle for raw products with seed companies, growers & custom harvesters to support retail and foodservice launch programs. • Reduced spend for raw product packaging and freight by $ 9M across several different commodities packed, cooled, and shipped to five processing facilities in the U.S. Leveraged the RPC tote rental program, pay for it once use it twice option.• Qualified and implemented a cored in field harvest process that improved overall finished goods product quality compared to conventional sources at a regional level. • Coordinated the new product development cycle for packaging, leaf and vegetable varieties for retail and foodservice, interfacing with innovation, business development, and all production facilities for new product introductions, new concepts, and product changes.• Implemented several different conventional Romaine, Butter, Green Leaf, and Spinach harvest packs to improve yield and shelf-life performance at the regional processing facilities. • Developed a cored cabbage program for a national QSR chain and launched multi-leaf cultivars from Rijk Zwan seeds.

Étoy, Vaud, Ch

• Responsible for an annual spend of $75M managing all procurement activities related to plastics, condiments, and services leading cost reduction projects for all finished goods and raw material packaging.• Conducted negotiations of major contracts with suppliers, both domestic and adding substantial contribution to the bottom line.• Managed the RFP for the vertical form and fill roll stock spend of $35M for 5 processing plants.• Estimated value of materials and or services according to the knowledge of market price determine the method of procurement.• Coordinated the integration of Redi Cut & Fresh Advantage processing plants (4) into the Fresh Express procurement system. • Identified, implemented, and tracked national cost reduction projects providing spend visibility to • upper management within each commodity• Reduced spend for vertical form and fill roll stock by $3.3M while increasing machine efficiencies

Étoy, Vaud, Ch

• Managed a team of 5 direct employees and 20 indirect team members overseeing the raw product shipping and receiving functions for the Fresh Express raw product system in three regional growing regions. • Responsible for a $25M spend of all raw product containers, carton yards, and outside raw product suppliers on a national basis.

Étoy, Vaud, Ch

• Managed three procurement specialists, three-cycle counters, and four warehouse supervisors overseeing the procurement of all packaging materials and outside services for the processing plant.• Implemented a perpetual inventory system for finished goods, packaging, and components.

• Interfaced with livestock lending institution account managers with livestock valuations, budgets, and breakeven analysis.• Received and relocated 12K beef cattle for internal and external customers in California, Arizona, and Hawaii.