CHG is a leading global bakery platform with over 5,000 employees and 30 manufacturing facilities across North America and Europe. With a 175 year heritage of quality and service — and the backing of Pritzker Private Capital — CHG is positioned for accelerated growth, operational transformation, and strategic expansion. The VP, GMBU owns the end-to-end commercial relationship with McDonald’s for the Bakery & Frozen portfolio across our global footprint (US, Canada, UK, Belgium, Austria and Germany). They will run our McDonald’s relationship like a “business inside the business” — driving profitable growth, building Joint Business Planning (JBP) from scratch, and orchestrating enterprise execution with a system-first mindset.

Key Responsibilities

• Relationship ownership and governance
  • Serve as the enterprise channel owner for McDonald’s; lead top-to-top engagement and relationship health across regions.
  • Translate complex system issues into decision-ready options; drive fast alignment and follow-through.
• Commercial stewardship (pricing, contracts, negotiations)
  • Set and execute pricing strategy; ensure disciplined price realization and value articulation.
  • Lead partnership agreements, strategy and negotiations; protect long-term economics while strengthening partnership equity.
• Build and run Joint Business Planning (JBP)
  • Establish the operating cadence: weekly operating reviews, monthly scorecards, quarterly business reviews, and annual JBP.
  • Create multi-year strategic roadmaps that align with McDonald’s priorities integrating innovation, productivity, and sustainability; translate into executable plans.
• Cross-functional orchestration and executive reporting
  • Align R&D/Innovation, FSQS/QA, Supply Chain/Operations, Finance, Sustainability, and Customer Service/Forecasting around one integrated plan and clear ownership.
  • Provide clear reporting to the CEO: performance, risks, opportunities, and actions.
• Supply assurance and escalation leadership (bakery/frozen)
  • Drive assured supply consistency through proactive robust risk management, scenario planning, and disciplined recovery execution when disruptions occur.
  • Partner with McDonald’s supply ecosystem and logistics partners to strengthen resilience and decision velocity.
• FSQS leadership
  • Sustain and improve food safety and quality performance; lead transparent, root-cause corrective action and prevention.
  • Ensure rapid, high-integrity issue response and closure with clear stakeholder communications.
• Innovation + productivity execution
  • Ensure scalable, operationally feasible commercialization across regions; advance the pipeline with speed, discipline, and accountability.
  • Deliver productivity: simplification, cost-to-serve improvements, capability upgrades, and reliability gains.
• Talent leadership
  • Build and develop a high-performance team (4 direct reports + matrix); strengthen bench depth and succession readiness.
  • Foster a collaborative, high‑accountability, high‑engagement team culture.
  • Develop succession and elevate capability across the function and enterprise.

Scope:

• Stakeholder coverage includes all key McDonald’s groups: Supply Chain, QA/FSQS, NP/Menu, Sustainability/Social Accountability, Finance, Operations, and system partners.
• Balanced mandate: innovation + productivity + execution reliability; sustain and improve positive FSQS trends.

Key relationships:

• Reports to: President & Chief Executive Officer
• Direct reports include:
  • Director Technical Services
  • Director, McDonald’s Business Unit North America
  • Commercial Manager
• Critical Internal CHG Stakeholder – matrixed influence
  • Executive leadership team
  • R&D / Innovation / Culinary
  • Operations / Supply Chain leadership
  • FSQS/QA and Regulatory
  • Finance (pricing, profitability)
  • Customer Service / Forecasting
  • Sustainability, Marketing/Insights (as applicable)
• Critical external stakeholder – McDonalds system
  • Supply Chain
  • QA/FSQS
  • NP/Menu Development
  • Sustainability/Social Accountability
  • Finance / commercial governance
  • Operations leadership
  • System partners (e.g., logistics/distribution/planning)

Competencies Of the Ideal Candidate

• Must-haves (what good looks like)
  • P&L & commercial acumen: runs the customer like a business; disciplined pricing, mix, cost levers, and ROI trade-offs.
  • Strategic business planning: builds multi-year roadmaps integrating innovation, productivity, and sustainability; drives cadence and accountability.
  • Supply chain & FSQS: translates commercial plans into assured supply consistency; protects food safety, quality, and continuity.
  • Executive influence & communication: credible with senior stakeholders; converts complexity into clear implications and decisions.
  • Cross-functional orchestration: aligns enterprise teams around one integrated plan; drives clarity of ownership and follow-through.
  • System-first mindset (Three-Legged Stool - corporate, franchisees, suppliers): acts in the best interest of the McDonald’s system; avoids short-term self-gain.
  • Well-connected across McDonald’s stakeholders and supplier ecosystem; able to mobilize decisions and resources through influence, not authority
• Differentiators (what great looks like)
  • Innovation & commercialization leadership: bridges insights, capability, and operational feasibility to scale platforms efficiently across regions.
  • Digital & data literacy: uses analytics/dashboards for forecasting, traceability, and performance storytelling; improves decision quality and transparency.
  • Decision quality under ambiguity makes timely, balanced decisions with incomplete data; steady judgment in high-visibility situations.
  • Developing talent & teams: builds bench strength; coaches’ leaders; promotes shared accountability and succession readiness.

Potential KPI scorecard:

Category

Measures (examples – targets TBD)

Commercial

Net sales growth; price realization

Relationship Health

McDonald’s stakeholder feedback / relationship health (trust, responsiveness, issue closure)”

Escalation closure cycle time / repeat issue reduction

Execution / Supply assurance

OTIF/fill rate; forecast alignment; disruption frequency and recovery cycle time; launch readiness.

FSQS / Risk

Zero food safety events; audit outcomes; complaint rate/severity; corrective action closure and repeat issue reduction.

Innovation + Productivity

Pipeline progression (concept to scale); on-time/on-spec commercialization; cost-to-serve/productivity delivery.

Leadership

Engagement/retention; succession coverage for critical roles; cross-functional effectiveness feedback.

Ideal candidate Profile:

• 15+ years progressive leadership experience in food manufacturing/distribution, foodservice, or adjacent supply-intensive environments.
• Education: Bachelor’s required; MBA preferred (or equivalent executive business leadership experience).
• Extremely strong McDonald’s system experience and relationships across Supply Chain, QA/FSQS, NP development, and Operations.
• Proven executive customer leadership: negotiations, governance, escalation management, and cross-functional execution at pace.
• Operational fluency sufficient to influence capacity, continuity, and service outcomes without direct line authority.
• Strong financial and digital fluency (pricing, analytics, planning tools/CRM); crisp communicator with commanding presence and managed ego.

• Demonstrates leadership DNA:
• Relational Leader: Builds deep trust across all levels; clear, transparent communicator.
• Disciplined & Accountable: Drives performance rigor with a positive leadership style.
• Player‑Coach: Hands‑on, humble, low‑ego, and able to flex between strategic and tactical.
• Driven: Sets ambitious but achievable goals; fosters a continuous‑improvement mindset.
• Forward‑Thinking: “Sees around corners”; anticipates risk and opportunity.
• Integrity & Professionalism: Unquestioned ethics; commands internal and external credibility.

• Values based: Willing to demonstrate, promote and exemplify CHG’s Core Values.

At C.H. Guenther, we value transparency in compensation. By providing the salary range for this role, we aim to promote fairness and help candidates make informed choices about their career. The salary range for this role is:

$1.00 - $1,000.00

Actual compensation may vary based on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience, as well as geographic location.

C.H. Guenther & Son will never offer or pay a wage or salary that is not compliant with applicable local, state, or federal pay laws, including minimum salary thresholds.

We also offer a variety of benefits, including health and disability insurance, retirement savings options, flexible spending accounts, employee assistance programs, educational assistance, parental leave, paid time off, and company-paid holidays.​

For additional information about our company, go to www.chg.com.

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All offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of the pre-employment screening process which includes a drug screen and review of criminal background and other records as required.

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