2024 Star Women in Grocery Award Winner Amanda Knauff (Q&A)
Amanda Knauff
Vice President of Sales - Retail Canada/Northeast U.S.A.
Taylor Farms
How did you get your start in the food business?
My exposure to the grocery business began with my father working for Cadbury. I would present his latest launches to my elementary school show and tells and learned how to negotiate candy for trades at lunch hour. In university, I picked up a part-time job merchandising for CPG companies that led to a full-time role with Nestlé in sales, calling on the convenience and gas channel. Over the past 13 years, I've had the privilege of embarking on a diverse and enriching career journey spanning nine distinct roles across renowned companies such as Nestlé, Kraft Heinz, and now on the produce side with Taylor Farms.
What is the best part of your job?
At Taylor Farms, we cultivate a culture of autonomy, where individuals are empowered to make independent decisions and take complete ownership of their responsibilities. This sense of empowerment is deeply gratifying, especially in an environment as dynamic as ours where change is a constant. Whether it's navigating through unpredictable weather patterns, balancing supply and demand forecasting, or managing the challenge of a 16-day shelf life for our products, each day presents its own set of hurdles. It's in this environment that adaptability and resilience become paramount and make me proud to supply Canadians with fresh healthy foods such as our famous Dill Pickle Salad!
How would you describe your leadership style?
My leadership style is best characterized as adaptive, as I need to be flexible in my approach when working with cross-functional teams to navigate diverse challenges and opportunities across the U.S. and Canada. I enjoy being a liaison since I get to learn from experts in their field and encourage others to work together towards achieving a common goal. Transparent communication is vital as a leader to build trust with all stakeholders.
What is the best advice you've received in your career?
One specific piece of advice I received—and always keep with me—is eliminating the phrase “I think” from my communications and presentations whenever feasible. It seemed I was using it as a natural crutch to protect my ideas or fill in gaps during nervous moments in a presentation. As a woman paving her way, I was glad to have someone help me to step into my confidence and open me up to receive critical feedback when needed.
How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
You can find me playing in a beach volleyball league with my friends or decompressing from work travel with a hot yoga class.
What is a fun fact about you?
Solo, unplanned, travel is one of my favourite adventures to take. Some recent memories from my trips have been eating local foods in Taipei such as oyster omelettes or pork bone broth soup at the night markets, and visiting distant relatives in a small town in Germany where I learned to cook their favourite local dishes.
Anything else you'd like to add?
We just celebrated one year of launching the Women’s Produce Network that fellow industry friend Leah Hardy and I kickstarted to strengthen and champion females in our industry. It’s been one of the most rewarding points of my career to date and we are just getting started in driving change forward.
Click here for the full list of 2024 Star Women in Grocery award winners.