Our client is a a privately held North American fresh produce sales, marketing, and distribution organization with a long-established footprint across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The business functions as a centralized commercial, logistics, and distribution organization, managing customer relationships, operational execution, quality oversight, and end-to-end distribution across a complex supply network.

The organization has the majority of its sales into the U.S. market and the balance across Canada. Its operating footprint is geographically diversified, supported by multiple facilities across North America and an extensive network of third-party logistics partners.

The business has historically performed well; however, recent shifts in the trade and regulatory landscape have materially increased operational complexity. As a result, leadership is placing renewed emphasis on operational discipline, standardization, and execution rigor to strengthen consistency, reduce risk, and support long-term stability.

The organization is creating the Chief Operating Officer role to address long-standing gaps in operational structure, leadership, and execution. Historically, operations, supply chain, and distribution functions have been managed through capable but functionally siloed leadership,



without a senior executive providing integrated oversight and direction.

As market conditions have become more complex and margin pressure has increased, this operating model has proven insufficient. Leadership has identified the need for a senior operations leader who can professionalize processes, challenge historical ways of working, and drive consistent execution across all sites and functions.

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Operating Officer will assume end-to-end accountability for distribution, warehousing, quality, supply chain, logistics, planning, maintenance, and operational compliance. The role will oversee senior functional leaders across Operations and Supply Chain and provide unified leadership across the organization’s multi-site footprint.

Given the CEO’s significant involvement in other parts of the broader enterprise, the Chief Operating Officer will operate with substantial autonomy and influence, serving as the primary day-to-day operational leader for the commercial business.

The mandate requires an executive who can balance strategic perspective with hands-on leadership, ensuring that operational improvement initiatives move beyond design and are successfully embedded into daily practice.

📌 Chief Operating Officer (Windsor)
🏢 Osborne Search Partners
📍 Windsor