Company
Chicago-based Merisant is a leading global tabletop sweetener company. Its primary brands include Equal) and Canderel. Merisantwas formed in March, 2000 when the business was purchased from Monsanto who previously acquired the business from G.D. Searle in 1985. Wayzata Investment Partners, an investment firm which leverages private equity and hedge fund strategies, is the current majority owner of Merisant.
Merisant is truly a global organization, employing more than 500 worldwide with operations in more than 80 countries. More than 60% of the company’s $300 million in annual sales are generated internationally. The company has manufacturing facilities in South America and the Czech Republic. In addition to the company’s core brands, Merisant also produces private label sweetener products and has been aggressively developing, commercializing and marketing innovative sweetener products such as PureVia (as part of a partnership with Pepsico) and Sweet Simplicity.
Search
The Vice President of Global Operations provides the leadership for the overall operations function and team at Merisant. Reporting to the company President and CEO, the Vice President of Global Operations has a broad scope of responsibility – managing the manufacturing, procurement, quality, product development and supply chain processing and planning functional areas of the company. Additionally, as an officer of Merisant, the Vice President of Global Operations is a key member of the company’s global executive leadership team and a critical contributor to setting and leading the implementation of the overall strategic and tactical plan for the company.
Merisant retained Walter Rach, Managing Director of Cook Associates and head of the firm’s Food & Beverage practice, to conduct the Vice President of Global Operations search. “Cook Associates has a unique position in the executive search marketplace, as a preferred partner with private equity companies seeking C-suite executives for portfolio companies,” said Mary Kier, CEO of Cook Associates Executive Search. “And Walter has nearly 30 years of specialized search experience in the Food and Beverage industries. The combination was a catalyst for success in this search.”
Merisant President and CEO Paul Block commented, “We chose to work with Cook because we wanted a more custom approach and we wanted a process that was specific to our needs.” He added, “I have worked with search firms before both as a client and a candidate and I believe Cook brought a much more hands-on approach to executive search. Theirs was a custom approach, not cookie-cutter like most of the big search firms.”
Client Situation
Merisant required an individual with a progressive and accomplished senior operations leadership background as well as strong experience in Lean Manufacturing. This kind of pedigree is often found in executives working in large and sophisticated companies. Equally important was finding a close cultural fit to the organization – a strong, mature leader with high emotional intelligence who could effectively work as a key global executive contributor in the company’s decisive, fast-paced and energetic environment. According to Mr. Block, “Merisant required a mix of entrepreneurial skills and high process orientation/discipline. We needed a blend of both skills, which can be challenging to find.”
Solution
After meeting in person or speaking with the entire corporate executive team of Merisant and all of the Vice President, Global Operations’ direct reports to gain clearer insights into the position requirements and company culture, Cook Associates began search execution. A position description was crafted, incorporating the position’s challenging specifications and target companies – progressive operating companies in food, CPG and industrial manufacturing where Lean Manufacturing was commonly utilized – were identified. Careful recruiting was then done to identify the proper background and culture fits necessary for success in a private equity owned environment.
“I have found that many executives coming from large publically traded or privately held companies desire to shift their careers towards smaller, faster-paced private equity owned organizations.” said Walter Rach. “But only a very select group of these people can successfully transition their skills and personalities to private equity owned companies because the environments and company cultures are so very different from what these individuals are used to experiencing.”
A further complicating matter was identifying those prospective candidates who also had experience and success operating internationally.“This individual needed to be able to effectively lead across many different countries and cultures,” Mr. Rach said. “He/she needed to be empathetic and listen well but still be able to effectively lead and deliver results.”Qualified candidates were further vetted through personal interviews and reference checks by Walter Rach and a finalist slate was presented to Merisant.
Successful Candidate
Cook Associates placed Richard Mewborn in the Vice President of Global Operations role at Merisant, and he started with the company in October, 2010. Mr. Mewborn has 28 years of progressive and accomplished senior operations leadership experience in the food and consumer packaged goods industries. He was most recently the Senior Vice President, Global Operations for the Alberto Culver Company and had previously been employed by Reckitt & Colman, Inc, Frito Lay, Inc. and Miliken & Company. Walter Rach commented, “Rich brought to Merisant a skill set of best operational practices developed in larger organizations – both domestically and internationally.” He added, “Rich also exhibited a personality and style that I believed would mesh well with the Merisant culture. I felt that he would be able to work well with Paul, the other key executive peer level leaders and with his direct reports.”
Merisant was pleased with the search and the outcome, and Mr. Mewborn has been able to impact the organization favorably in his role as Vice President of Global Operations.
“Walter delivered everything we had anticipated. He was sensitive to the nuances and served as a good advocate and coach to me along the way,” Said Mr. Block. “Walter really took the time to understand our needs, matching those against the skills of the candidates. We required a marrying of entrepreneurial with process, and we were very pleased with everyone we met. In the end, we couldn’t be happier with Rich.”
About Walter Rach
Based in Cook Associates’ Chicago office, Walter Rach has over 27 years of executive search experience. He has conducted executive search assignments for companies in the Food and Beverage Industries, and his client base has included Fortune 500 companies, mid-sized organizations and small manufacturing firms. Walter has experience working with public, private and private equity-owned organizations. Founded in 1961, Cook Associates is the nation’s only combined retained executive search and M&A Advisory services firm.