Executive Search Success Story: Building a Global Leadership Team for a Plant-Based Food Company

How JRG Partners ran a confidential, multi-role search for a plant-based food company expanding into European and Asia-Pacific markets.

The Challenge

A high-growth plant-based food company had succeeded across North America and was preparing for expansion into European and Asia-Pacific markets. It needed global leadership to manage international growth and supply chain complexity. Leadership identified several pressures:

• International market expansion requirements
• Increasing manufacturing and distribution complexity
• Growing demand for global supply chain leadership
• A need for stronger commercialization expertise
• Competition for executive talent within the plant-based sector
• Succession-planning concerns among senior leaders

The company set out to recruit a leadership team spanning President, Chief Supply Chain Officer, VP International Sales, VP Operations, VP Product Innovation, Director of Global Procurement, and Director of Strategic Partnerships. It needed a partner with deep plant-based and global food expertise.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

After evaluating several search firms, the client chose JRG Partners for four key reasons:

Deep Plant-Based & Global Food Specialization

Our dedicated practices span plant-based food, global supply chain, international commercial, and product-innovation leadership. We understand the specific quality, cold-chain, and regulatory challenges inherent to alternative proteins.

Real Access to Passive Talent

Many of the strongest global food leaders are not actively looking. We drew on long-standing relationships and proprietary market intelligence to reach leaders invisible through conventional channels.

Confidential Search Execution

With international expansion at stake, we ran a discreet process that protected continuity and market confidence.

Global Reach

The search targeted and mapped candidate networks throughout major consumer product and manufacturing hubs in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Leadership Assessment

We worked directly with the CEO, board, and executive team to map organizational gaps, succession risks, growth objectives, and the competencies the business would need as it scaled. Profiles were built against the company’s long-term strategy rather than legacy job descriptions.

Phase 2 — Market Mapping

Our market map covered plant-based food companies, alternative protein organizations, consumer packaged goods companies, global food manufacturers, and high-growth food startups.

Phase 3 — Engagement

Our consultants discreetly engaged leaders with proven records in international food expansion and global supply chain management. Only candidates with measurable impact advanced.

Phase 4 — Assessment & Selection

Each finalist went through extensive evaluation covering strategic and functional capability, leadership and team-building, cultural alignment, and long-term retention.