Jeff Kester
About
Jeff Kester is from Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area. Jeff works in the following industries: "Consumer Goods", and "Food Production". Jeff is currently Logistics Operations at Blue Buffalo Co. In Jeff's previous role as a Director, Global Sourcing Operations & Capabilities at General Mills, Jeff worked in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area until Aug 2021. Prior to joining General Mills, Jeff was a Director, North American Logistics Operations at General Mills and held the position of Director, North American Logistics Operations at Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to that, Jeff was a Director, North American Warehousing & Replenishment at General Mills, based in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area from Dec 2014 to Jun 2018. Jeff started working as Director, Customer Supply Chain Development at General Mills in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area in Jun 2013. From Oct 2008 to May 2013, Jeff was Senior Manager, Customer Supply Chain Development at General Mills, based in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area. Prior to that, Jeff was a Senior Manager, Logistics, Pillsbury Division at General Mills, based in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area from Mar 2006 to Oct 2008. Jeff started working as Senior Manager, Logistics, Betty Crocker Division at General Mills in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area in Nov 2004.
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Jeff Kester's current jobs
Jeff Kester's past jobs
Deliver Source-to-Pay capabilities, Ops support, and Data and Analytics strategies for Global Sourcing.
Led Warehouse and Transportation Operations across North America; accountable for $1 billion operational budget. • Significantly improved network reliability and visibility; drove record weekly network throughput, Dry CPLH improvement of 14%, and record On-Time for key customers. • Delivered record cost-savings for 2 years ($68M and MY LE $80M) through relentless focus on reliability, transportation bid strategy, optimized product flow, touches and customer realignment. • Created “one team” culture with common mission and metrics, removing silos across Logistics Ops. • Launched Performance Mgmt process with site-level metrics, WDS visibility, 3PL incentive structure; enabled weekly capacity commits to Sales.
Led Warehouse Operations across North America, for Dry, Refrigerated, and Frozen networks; accountable for $300 million operational budget; led product Deployment strategy across the networks. • Led network-wide transformation efforts: 3PL partnerships and KPIs; defined site missions (2-Tier DCs, Near/Plant DPS, RM/bulk); drove site consolidation and RFPs; delivered $10M annual savings. • Created a new Replenishment Strategy team to centralize Product Flow and Deployment; led regional execution across Transportation, Warehousing, and Plant Logistics; saved >$2M annually. • Advanced Product Safety through Site Critical Task Lists for DCs and DPS, creation of cross-functional Steering Team prioritization, and systems to enable positive-release for deployed product.
Developed End-to-End Supply Chain capabilities from plants to Customers’ shelves, and built strategic Customer partnerships to drive sales growth. • Created new Customer SC capabilities, generating $66 million in GMI profit growth over 3 years, through SC savings, category captaincies, baseline sales and customer merchandising investments. • Rated by Retail customers as #1 CPG Supply Chain for 2013 and 2014 in Kantar PowerRankings. • Received Champions Award, General Mills’ highest honor, for GEOS development and leadership.
Established SC partnerships with US Retail Customers to drive sales growth for GMI and Customers. • Facilitated Process Mapping Events with key customers; delivered $10M annual productivity across SC/Efficient Replenishment and Sales budgets. • Developed Multi-vendor DSD, DC-to-Store Inventory Modeling and Optimization, Shelf Simulation, Rapid Replenishment / OSA correlation, Temp DSD profitability, and other capabilities to drive sales.
Led Logistics Operations Planning for Pillsbury Division ($130 million Logistics budget). • Pioneered GMI Sales and Operations Planning process to align Marketing, Sales, Finance, and SC. • Reduced finished product write-offs by 30-40% and reduced raw material write-offs by 70% via improvements in Inventory strategy, DC practices, and Marketing & Sales programs.
Responsible for Logistics Operations Planning on critical platforms during major acquisition activities.