Organically Grown Company

THE COMPANY:
In most workplaces, throwing tomatoes at your boss would be frowned upon. At Organically Grown Company, we have a day set aside each year to do just that – the world knows it as the Tomato War, we call it group catharsis. The organic produce industry is not for the faint of heart but will steal yours if you aren’t careful. We work really hard every day to bring the best organic produce to market from hundreds of awesome farms. Our aspirations are simple: To actively cultivate a diverse, sustainable and engaged organic trade from farm to marketplace. It’s through this mission that we continue to pursue our vision of an equitable and regenerative organic agricultural system for global health.

In 2018, we transitioned our ownership to a Sustainable Food & Agriculture Perpetual Purpose Trust (SFAPPT). Our trust’s main purpose is not to extract a profit, but rather to help OGC and other like-minded businesses fulfill the mission of serving sustainable food and agriculture communities. We look for people who share our passion for organic agriculture and sustainable business practices; who value teamwork, candor, transparency and an egalitarian workplace; and who engage others with joy and gratitude. Our products are “just in time,” need careful handling and change by the season. Our coworkers embrace that challenge and strive to provide exceptional customer experiences while in pursuit of operational excellence. We do all this with gratitude, integrity, collaboration, resiliency and grit. We believe in doing things a little differently here at OGC and living our values authentically.

THE POSITION:
OGC seeks a visionary and innovative Head of Stakeholder Strategy. This role would report to the CEO and be responsible for leading transformational strategy and initiatives serving OGC’s mission and primary stakeholders: coworkers, growers, customers, investors and our community. This will require collaboratively working with and through all departments, and with external partners to create buy-in, execution and accountability.
Stakeholder Strategy
• Develops and stewards a purpose-focused roadmap to envision, prioritize and emphasize work that serves OGC’s mission, business goals and the principles of the SFAPPT over a variety of time horizons.
• Leads innovation in expanding, creating, or participating in programs to serve and engage OGC stakeholders, including the development of educational events, conferences, programs, materials, services, and tools for growers, customers, coworkers and OGC’s communities.

Communication, Marketing and Education
• Identifies opportunities for impactful collaborations with trade partners in support of creating a more just, equitable and diverse trade.
• Creates vision for stakeholder partnerships, public and community relations strategies.
• Leads vision in creating and growing innovative programs to serve and engage stakeholders, including the development of education, conferences and events, programs, materials, services, and tools for OGC growers, customers, coworkers, investors and the community.
• Oversees stakeholder communications and marketing team, which is responsible for:
o Brand management on fleet, facilities, packaging, activations, apparel and visual communications
o Digital outreach, creative engagement and promotional initiatives to support daily transactional sales and build visibility for our expertise and passion for produce
o Public relations to raise visibility for OGC, AOA, policy work and community outreach
o Issues Management in partnership with food safety and compliance
o Supporting for regional and national sales with tools for engaging new and prospective customers
o Organizing OGC’s participation in industry trade shows, in-store demos and customer-focused farm tours and events
o Storytelling/education/reporting to stakeholders via writing and video and digital channels
o Website and social channels management
o Video/photo asset management
o Trademark management

Supply Chain & Trade Advocacy
• Partners to lead vision and strategy for OGC’s engagement in advocacy and supply chain initiatives that further the company’s mission and benefit stakeholders.
• Ensures OGC has well-developed and thoughtful policy, legislative and trade issue positions by monitoring trends and incorporating the diversity of stakeholder needs.
• Determine OGC's participation in coalitions, boards, policy/advocacy initiatives, media and public relations, and sponsorships to support our strategy for engagement.
• Determine where to dedicate OGC resources to supply chain partnership projects, garner additional external resources to support such projects (e.g. grants, additional partners, investors).
• Represent OGC in media and advocacy arena.

Sustainability Initiatives
• Leads vision and execution of OGC’s sustainability programing, including undertaking programs and
projects in a way that collaboratively engages stakeholders in co-ownership, and advances business goals with measurable triple-bottom-line results.
• Evolves OGC’s sustainability goals, benchmarks, and framework for assessment, including goals around climate change and packaging.
• Serves as a public spokesperson for sustainability work.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE:
Successful leaders at OGC are humble, lifelong learners who are excellent listeners and teachers, and value deep, authentic collaboration with cross-functional teams. They also aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo. They are motivated to be the CEOs of their business areas and are able to both set vision and simultaneously roll up their sleeves. They are innovators who prioritize achievement and continuous improvement for growth that is grounded in data, analytics and holistic root cause understanding. They must be able to demonstrate and coach teams in effective problem understanding and solution creation/implementation, be creative out-of-the-box thinkers and, above all, value mentoring and empowering coworkers at all levels. They believe that their own success is measured not by personal accomplishment, but by how their team is growing and contributing, both as individuals and as a whole. Also, this leader must truly and deeply care about high-level social and economic issues, including the future of sustainable, organic agriculture, social equity, environmental issues and corporate responsibility.

The right leader for the Head of Stakeholder Strategy role will have a deep passion for and experience in the organic produce trade, organic policy, trade advocacy, and sustainability, and be deeply committed to stakeholder engagement, advocacy and education. They should have a long-term commitment to growth and innovation in sustainable food systems. They must have an entrepreneurial and innovative orientation to developing this exciting new role.

The ideal candidate can clearly articulate their experience in:
• Organic policy and experience influencing state and federal policy; trade advocacy. Leadership in acting as an organizational and trade change agent, visionary, doer and servant leader.
• Crafting and articulating a vision for strategy and execution of mission-deliverables in an organization.
• Prioritizing an egalitarian approach and broad coworker empowerment and engagement.
• Partnering with other leaders to create strong organizational development plans for a multitude of roles and levels within an organization so that everyone at all levels is connected to mission delivery.
• Mentoring of leaders in their growth journey.
• Development and implementation of grant and loan programs.
• Presenting and public speaking in a variety of large and small group settings.
• Envisioning marketing and communications strategy and experience supporting related programs.
• Envisioning and creating educational initiatives for internal and external stakeholders.
• Leading community outreach, public relations; and event and programing development, planning and execution.
• Understanding policies and practices in the organic trade, particularly as they relate to produce and distribution.
• Identifying and crafting plans to respond to the needs of an organization’s stakeholders, particularly organic growers, produce retailers and coworkers.
• Developing broad resource networks and collaborations within the organic and produce trades, and with likeminded companies who prioritize sustainability.
• Creating and driving successful cross-functional change initiatives and projects.

Further qualifications include:
• 10+ years in progressively responsible roles in growth-oriented and/or mission-based enterprises.
• Investor relations and community development experience.
• Direct responsibility for program development and people leadership.
• Stellar listening, summarization, and communication skills; ability to take on complex or contentious issues communicating with multiple stakeholders. Strong editing skills.
• An established track record of working as a hands-on partner with leadership teams (boards, executives, managers and supervisors) to implement short and long-range strategies, plans, policies and practices that align with and support the company’s goals and dreams.
• Passionate personal alignment with OGC's mission, core values and aspirations.
• Demonstrated capacity for creative problem solving, proactive partnership and willingness to collaboratively push boundaries.
• Experiencing leading and partnering to achieve P and L responsibilities in food production, retail, distribution, manufacturing, transportation and/or logistics industry required.
• Experience serving on an executive team and reporting to a board.
• Experience serving on a board and/or advisory group.
• Understanding of farm labor issues and Fair Trade programs (domestic and international).

About Organically Grown Company: Founded in 1978 by a few gardeners, small-scale farmers, hippies, environmental activists and dreamers living near Eugene, OR, today Organically Grown Company buys, aggregates and distributes fresh, organically grown produce to retailers and eaters across the Pacific Northwest region. Learn more at www.organicgrown.com

To apply for this position, please submit your resume to apply@organicgrown.com
In your cover letter indicate your professional qualifications, why you are interested in and a good fit for the role, your favorite food-related memory or experience, and at least one area in which you consider yourself a passionate activist (does not have to be work-related). Organically Grown Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer.