A Spanish-English bilingual international economic development professional with over 15 years of experience working on innovations in sustainable public-private partnerships across international food and agriculture supply chains. She has worked with over a dozen domestic and international firms improving sourcing operations of responsibly sourced segments of the food and agriculture industry. Jennifer has led socially responsible business models for farmers, processors, traders and manufacturers in the cocoa, coffee and other tropical food supply chains. She has led new business development initiatives in multiple countries and diverse local economic contexts. Jennifer currently manages a portfolio of innovation programs across various agriculture and manufacturing initiatives for the Mars Advanced Research Institute, an innovation incubator for the global food, confection and petcare company, Mars Inc. Prior to joining Mars, Jennifer developed and implemented economic growth programs in Latin America on behalf of the US Agency for International Development. She served as the Director of Operations and Communications for the Peru Cocoa Alliance in Lima, Peru from 2012-2014. She holds an MBA from UC Davis and a Masters in Local and Regional Development from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in Quito, Ecuador.
Top Skills:
Enterprise strategy and development in Latin America
Responsible sourcing in agricultural supply chains
Value chain evaluation and improvement in emerging markets
Program design, engagement, and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation/ impact assessment
Strategic and cross-cultural communications
Partnership formation and management in cross-cultural, cross-sector contexts
Gender equity strategy in rural, urban, domestic and international arenas
Supply chain strategic cost management
Non-traditional financing structures (impact investing, crowd funding, micro-lending etc.)