Rising staRs
Melanie Mcelligott
Corporate Bakery in-store sales Manager, Big Y Foods Thanks in large part to McElligott’s efforts, Big Y’s in-store bakery departments grew 3 percent over the previous year, with double-digit bottom-line improvement. Her knowledge of the bakery enabled the company to make strategic changes to the variety it offered in stores, helping reduce labor costs while improving waste. She increased social media activity by targeting event days and flash sales specific to key bakery items. Enjoyed by customers and associates alike, these exciting events helped to create excellent profitable sales. McElligott received an Outstanding Achievement award from Big Y.
KaRissa atwood Manager, Procurement, C&s wholesale grocers
Atwood, who has been in her current role since March 2016 after holding various roles of increasing responsiblity, led several transformational improvements, including the development of a new inbound logistics strategy. She developed a new planning and execution process for key quarterly promotions and helped C&S Wholesale Grocers achieve significant year-overyear improvements in service levels and inventory. An outstanding leader and team builder, with a competitive drive that fuels success, Atwood played a central role in her team’s development, which led to several promotions both within and outside the team.
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KaRen Rossetti
Pat shewChuK
Manager of Marketing services, Big Y Foods
Rossetti led strategic communications in an all-new market for Big Y, using all forms of media. She continued to develop Big Y’s social media team, helping the retailer grow its Facebook fan base to nearly 130,000 through such means as flash sales. She additionally built the company’s successful click2card coupon program from the ground up and worked with a large variety of departments, companies and vendors to bring the initiative to fruition. My Big Y, a new branding campaign for which Rossetti developed radio and television ads and redesigned all supporting media, received multiple awards.
director of leadership and engagement strategies, Big Y Foods
Shewchuk’s oversight of Big Y’s training and development area was instrumental in preparing and designing materials for technical, systems and product knowledge training, as well as for leadership workshops.
Brand Manager, seasonal and Fresh Raw turkey; digital Community Manager, Butterball llC Welch led the Butterball brand to gain No. 1 dollar share in whole turkeys for Thanksgiving 2016, with more sales than all store brands in the country combined.
She helped secure a $217,000 Massachusetts Workforce Training Grant, which enabled Big Y to expand its training and workshop offerings to several key areas within the company.
Her public relations efforts around Thanksgiving, which included the ability to send text messages to the Butterball Turkey Talk Line for the first time, helped generate more than 3 billion consumer impressions during the holiday.
Shewchuk played a key role in the development and introduction of Big Y’s first employee resource group, Women L.E.A.D. (Leaders Engagement in Action and Development), and became a member of its executive board.
Welch is involved in Business and Professional Women/ Triangle and serves as a board member of FACES (Family and Community Empowerment Services), a local nonprofit that helps people deal with financial challenges.
BaRi gReensPhan
CaRMela hindeRaKeR
Manager, Procurement Projects and Productivity, C&s wholesale grocers
director, Business Continuity, C&s wholesale grocers
Greensphan led several key initiatives within procurement, including the development and rollout of a new business intelligence platform, the transition of two divisions to a new financial system, and business startup for several new customers.
Hinderaker led the responses to 18 separate business-disruption events that included adverse weather and a prolonged IT connectivity outage, helping to minimize company damage and making sure that customers continued to receive service from C&S.
She built her team from scratch into a group of four employees who leveraged continuous-improvement principles to build the process used to manage all projects and ensure the clear definition, scope and delivery of project goals.
She drove a multidepartment, multiregional planning effort to develop a business continuity plan for a newly acquired company, and integrated 30 new leaders into the company business continuity plan.
Greensphan used her background in mechanical engineering to serve as an important resource and subjectmatter expert at C&S.
ReBeCCa welCh
Hinderaker co-led the development and implementation of a company charitable and in-kind donation plan to support communities affected by large-scale disasters.
| Progressive Grocer | Ahead of What’s Next | June 2017
Megan JanK
supervisor, Procurement, C&s wholesale grocers
Jank led her team through the busy holiday season, exceeding customer service level performance by 20 basis points, a feat accomplished with an understaffed team at a critical period. She continued to foster and grow talent on her team. Jank’s projects and performance served as a model for the way C&S Wholesale Grocers approaches other customers within the procurement department, and earned her a reputation throughout the company as a leader: She’s developed into a key player for warehouse, transportation and other operational partners within the company, acting as a go-to person for project details and issue resolution.