WFFC Cincinnati Presents: Lunch & Learn with Amy McDonald, President of MANE

Ever wonder how C-Suite Leaders navigate to the C-Suite? They make it look so easy and we wonder what are the secrets that evade us despite doing amazing work.

Join us as Amy McDonald, President of MANE shares her career journey and valuable insights that helped her to get to the C-Suite. Make the investment in yourself and join us for a Hybrid event on Thursday, September 29th from 12:00-1:00 Eastern Time. When you register, you will have the option to join via Zoom or at MANE at 2501 Henkle Dr, Lebanon, OH 45036. We look forward to sharing this amazing event with you!    

This event is only open to members of the WFFC.  Join today to have full access.

Presenter

Amy McDonald is an experienced food industry executive and award-winning global leader in business growth and culture. In May 2022, Amy was named President of MANE, Inc., and she is responsible for Flavors in North America. 

Amy’s 30+ years of experience have focused on the flavor, food ingredient, and pharma/biotech markets. For more than 20 years, she has led multimillion-dollar companies at the executive level. Most recently she has held positions as CEO and President of Starwest Botanicals, LLC, a platform investment by Incline Equity Partners and prior to that was CEO and President of CBD company, ALTWELL (Alternative Biologics). Before working in these direct-to-consumer businesses, Amy was President of FONA International, a company where she spent 13 years and helped to build the company from $20 million in revenue when she first joined, to well over $100 million by the time she left.

Amy is a scientist by background and began her career in the laboratory. She worked for Unilever/Quest International at the onset of her career and grew there through roles with increasing responsibility for 17 years. In her capstone role at Quest, she led overall P&L for the ingredients business in North and South American in seven product areas, as well as the global pharma business in proteins and pharmaceutical grade excipients. Amy later joined FONA International, a relatively small independent flavor business at the time. At FONA she grew the business from $25million to over $100million in revenue and in 2017 became FONA’s President, the first non-family member appointed to this position. Under Amy’s leadership, the FONA team delivered all-time company records in both revenue and EBITDA growth.

Amy consistently delivers. She has a proven track record of spear-heading new business relationships and executing on opportunities.
In 2018, Amy was individually awarded Fortune’s Great Workplace for ALL Leadership Award, a national recognition for her achievements. In 2019, she was named to Crain’s list of “Notable Women in Manufacturing”. Company awards under Amy’s leadership include: Forbes Small Giants, Fortune’s Great Places to Work (overall top 50 award for small and medium companies, #3 in Manufacturing and Production for companies of all sizes; Great Places to Work for millennials and for women).

Amy has a deep commitment and passion to help other business leaders learn and grow. She orchestrates and influences the practice of strong mentoring relationships both inside and outside her organization. This business acumen has led other entities to seek her expertise. Amy served as the President for a Partner Advisory Board for one of the top global confections companies and was also a member of the Board of Advisors for one of the largest scientific workforce solutions companies in the nation. Since 2013 Amy has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Wisconsin School of Business, Center for Professional and Executive Development. Here she teaches executive and sales leadership and has developed multiple custom learning programs. She shares her expertise through speaking engagements such as Business Today’s International Conference and Judson University World Leaders Forum, among other venues.

Amy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology (Chemistry minor) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech.) She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She also has an Executive MBA from INSEAD in France (2002, Young Managers Programme). She has co-patented two inventions associated with natural inhibition of pathogenic microorganisms.

*This event is free to all members, but we are asking for any donations to our WFFC charity