Baldor Specialty Foods recently announced the promotion of Thomas McQuillan to Vice President of Strategy, Culture, and Sustainability. McQuillan, who came to Baldor in 2015, previously served as the company’s Director of Food Service Sales and Sustainability. In that role, McQuillan pioneered the company’s industry-changing SparCs (scraps spelled backward) program, an initiative that reduced the amount of food trim and waste the company had been sending to landfills.
“Food waste is just a single component of Baldor’s overall business environment,” said McQuillan in a company press release. “In this new role, I’ll be able to help the company enact other impactful initiatives that change the way everyone here addresses their business challenges.”
An MBA graduate from St. John’s University in New York, McQuillan has over 25 years worth of experience turning around small/mid-sized businesses and launching new programs that improve operational efficiencies.
“Strategic planning plays a critical role in every aspect of our business,” said CEO TJ Murphy. “And the Baldor SparCs program fundamentally redefined how we, and the industry, look at food waste. In his expanding role, McQuillan will continue to identify other innovative ways for Baldor to play a leading role in sustainability and other ground-breaking initiatives with farmers, customers and consumers.”
The company noted that McQuillan has also developed a model for hosting zero-waste group dinners—recently helping a Greenwich, Connecticut non-profit throw a large fundraising gala which was entirely waste-free.
“It starts with looking at a challenge from a totally different angle,” said McQuillan. “And then getting others to adopt that perception, too. That’s when the magic happens and you can bring about real change.”
Congratulations to Thomas McQuillan on this new position!
