President And Chief Operating Officer (Coo)

About Fair Trade USA

Fair Trade USA is an internationally recognized, award-winning leader in the sustainable sourcing and conscious capitalism movements.

Founded in 1998, we are the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in North America. Our unique market-based model for sustainability links millions of farms and factories around the world to over 1,500 leading brands and retailers through more transparent, equitable trading partnerships. Impact is our North Star: to date, we have channeled over $1 billion in additional income to hardworking families and communities around the world.

Fair Trade has emerged as one of the most promising models of conscious capitalism today. We are recognized for improving the working conditions and living standards of farmers and workers while protecting the environment. At the same time, we strengthen global supply chains and enable sustainability to drive profitability for the business community. For the end consumer, Fair Trade is an easy way to align our values with our purchasing decisions, voting with our dollars for a better world.

Our model has incredible leverage: for every $1 that we invest in building the Fair Trade market and movement, we are creating $4 in increased income for farmers and workers. Because of this unprecedented 4x1 “social return on investment” and community impact, we are a four-time winner of Fast Company’s "Social Capitalist of the Year" award and have been recognized as a leading social venture by the Skoll Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative, Ashoka, and the World Economic Forum.

The Moment and the Mandate

Fair Trade USA has reached an inflection point in its impact journey. We are now at the threshold of dramatic growth, scale and impact. To guide our investments and strategies, we have developed a Business and Transformation Roadmap that will enable us to 10x our impact by 2030: we aim to deliver $1B in additional income to farmers and workers that year.

To achieve that goal, we are two years into a comprehensive digital transformation of our enterprise. This transformation will not only enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and profitability of our organization, but also substantively improve the value proposition of our service to the industry. Our future service will be rich in global supply chain data, insights and content, meeting the needs of companies to mitigate reputational risk, strengthen supply chain reliability and engage the consumer through impact storytelling.

Similarly, our Transformation Roadmap also encompasses numerous programmatic innovations and improvements. By simplifying compliance standards, streamlining audit and certification protocols, deepening our impact monitoring and evaluation, and reducing the cost of Fair Trade, we are evolving our core services for scalability.

We measure success across all of our key stakeholders: impact for farmers and workers (income and well-being); benefit for the industry (market size and share by product category); consumer recognition of the Fair Trade Certified seal and purchasing behavior; etc. Ultimately, we aim to measure, understand and improve the “win-win” or “shared value” proposition of Fair Trade for all of its key actors, enabling transparent, sustainable supply chains to become a source of benefit for all participants.

The Role

As a key executive-level leader in a dynamic and highly ambitious organization, the President & COO is our most senior operational leader. All C-Suite functional leaders, including Commercial & Marketing, Program Development & Operations, Finance, Digital Technology, People & Culture, report directly to this position.

The President & COO is charged with delivering the organization’s aggressive growth and impact goals. At the same time, they will oversee and ensure the success of the Business and Transformation Roadmap that is already underway. Enterprise-wide, they will be a champion of innovation and a transformational leader that drives change to optimize outcomes and scalability. The President & COO will be a trusted partner to the Founder & CEO, working closely together to ensure the achievement of the organization’s goals and mission. The President & COO is both a strategic visionary and an exceptional, hands-on operator who is obsessed with results. Understanding the vital importance of people and culture for the success of our enterprise, the President & COO will help evolve and strengthen our values-based, performance-driven culture.

Key Responsibilities

• Accelerates growth and impact measured by delivery of key impact goals including SROI (social return on investment)
• Leads and continually improves strong planning and systems for Fair Trade USA, to maximize growth, impact and financial success
• Advances cross-functional collaboration to achieve enterprise priorities, optimizing efficiency and performance
• Oversees successful implementation of multi-year enterprise and technology transformation plans to scale impact
• Drives programmatic innovation and change management across the organization.
• Leads organization in advancing Fair Trade USA’s share of market across key categories, demonstrably elevating the FTC brand with partners and consumers
• Leads the Executive Team and all key organizational functions; develops and drives a high-performing team and outcomes
• Owns fiduciary oversight. Delivers strong and sustainable growth, and fiscal health, measured by securing ROI on key investments, securing key revenue targets and delivering net income goals
• Oversees advancement of organizational health, capabilities, productivity and performance
• Leads, empowers and develops key leaders, driving operational excellence and optimizing talent potential
• Own development and implementation of enterprise strategic plan and annual operating plans
• Leads organization to meet or exceed annual goals, defined by Enterprise OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and other primary metrics

Key Competencies & Leadership Behaviors

• Mission aligned. Aligned with Fair Trade USA’s mission, vision and values.
• Values-based, performance-driven. Aligned with Fair Trade USA’s principles of equity and our shared values of Fairness, Transformation, Integrity, Community and Impact. Equally passionate about strengthening a culture of performance, efficiency and measurable results.
• Capability-builder. Demonstrated track record in successfully devising and implementing systems and processes that enable significant growth and operational effectiveness. Heighten team's capability to bring fact-based analysis & actionable insights to internal decision-makers.
• Action oriented. Strong bias-to-action and results. Ability to drive initiatives forward to successful conclusion. Leads decisively. Highly accountable, holds others accountable to drive positive results.
• Strategic Leader. Partners with the Founder & CEO to achieve synergies and drive results. Collaborates with and challenges C-suite leadership team to fuel accelerated growth & impact.
• Transformational Leader. Demonstrated acumen in scaling entrepreneurial and high-growth organizations. Proven ability to be an effective strategist and outstanding operational leader for enterprise-wide transformation. Leads & drives change. Monitors & measures return on major investments and role models sound fiduciary oversight.
• Cross-functional leader and partner. Highly collaborative role-model, effective in building relationships, influencing and instilling confidence in the board, management, and staff.
• Talent Builder. Demonstrated ability to build high-performing teams, drive functional competencies and heighten capabilities. Fosters diverse, equitable and inclusive culture.
• Curious and Learns Continuously. Demonstrates keen intellectual curiosity, appetite for learning, and commitment to developing a learning organization.

Experience / Qualifications

• Growth mindset and “organization-first” approach.
• Demonstrated acumen in business transformation and digital innovation. Has navigated organizational complexity and transformation with success
• Nimble and agile; can operate creatively and effectively in a resource-constrained environment and has demonstrable capabilities in leading change
• Multi-year executive-level experience required. Deep relevant executive level leadership at COO or equivalent with significant experience as both a strategic leader (financial, operational, strategic oversight) and in execution / implementation.
• Exceptional executive presence, business acumen and influencing skills
• MBA or relevant Master’s degree preferred. Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, accounting, or equivalent experience and/or relevant professional accreditations welcomed
• Excellent people management skills and abilities to lead large and globally distributed teams effectively, including building bench strength and succession planning at executive levels

Our Workplace

At Fair Trade USA, we are a mission-driven organization and are deeply committed to fostering an environment that is built on the principles of JEDI; a just, equitable, diverse and inclusive community for all. We are committed to upholding an inclusive workplace where all people feel equally respected and valued, and where we can all thrive. We are a proud equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants from every educational background, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, national origin and ancestry, veteran status, marital or family status and disability.

We believe in empowering our teams to choose to do their best work and grow at Fair Trade USA. We offer a comprehensive compensation approach including salary, performance-based bonus and employee recognition awards, and a generous and thoughtful approach to employee benefits.