Emily J. Reilly
Business builder · Food industry

A cross-industry business builder with deep food industry expertise.

I understand food, I understand business, I see what's coming, and I know how to fix what's not working.

I identify opportunities, solve problems, build systems that people can actually use, and turn good ideas into measurable results. After 25 years across a dozen-plus industries, from food and agriculture to technology, apparel, alternative healthcare, financial services, and music, I'm looking to invest that experience in one food company, as a permanent, full-time business-building and operating partner.

Start a conversation See the work
Emily Reilly standing in a warm home kitchen, wearing a navy blazer over a white top
Emily Reilly · Seattle, WA
Selected results
$100K+in annual savings for each of three clientsThrough costing-system audits, uncovering unallocated expenses, correcting pricing issues, and improving business systems.
50%Annual growth at my own catering company, Genevieve Catering, entirely through word of mouth; no advertising.
3×Sales growth for a wholesale dessert company via shelf-stability reformulation and West Coast distribution.
21% / 8%Beverage-program revenue growth: 21% in one year for one restaurant client; 8% annually for another.
$3.5MPre-money valuation for my own food startup, backed by the financial models and investor materials I built for its two capital-raising rounds.
What makes the difference

Food expertise, business range, and the ability to fix what's broken.

I understand food, I understand business, I see what's coming, and I know how to fix what's not working.

I identify opportunities, solve problems, build systems that people can actually use, and turn good ideas into measurable results.

There are plenty of restaurant consultants and specialists in the food industry. My experience and perspective are different.

I bring cross-industry business experience, an MBA, and hands-on culinary and commercial food experience, with capabilities spanning finance, operations, technology, marketing, product development, organizational change, and strategy. I bring ideas, technologies, and operating approaches from other industries into food businesses, and I understand food across production, wholesale, retail, and dining, with current knowledge of where each is heading.

I welcome the opportunity to demonstrate the difference.

Problem solving

I don't just find what's not working. I fix it.

I like being on the ground solving problems, finding bottlenecks, streamlining workflows, and making systems work better. I don't stop at identifying a problem or recommending a solution. I develop it, implement it with the people who use it, and check that it actually improved the business.

Diagnose

Identify operational and financial problems, inefficiencies, and bottlenecks.

Design

Better workflows and processes, with the personnel and management systems around them.

Build

Technical systems and databases, and the technology implementation behind them.

Implement with people

Build buy-in, train, and reinforce, so the change becomes everyday practice.

Measure

Confirm the solution improved the business, in numbers.

How I work

Three strengths, working as one.

Know the industry

Food industry intelligence

I'm a passionate food enthusiast, keenly attuned to the pulse of the food industry across wholesale, commercial food production, retail, and contemporary dining. I follow emerging products, culinary trends, restaurant concepts, consumer preferences, and food technology because it genuinely fascinates me, not because a client asked.

I read the New York Times food and restaurant coverage, and I dine out three, four, or five times a week, watching the experience as both an enthusiast and a business-minded observer. I scan the shelves for new products every time I grocery shop, and I cook from scratch because I genuinely love food. I'm happiest when I'm welcoming people into my home and feeding them.

I enjoy connecting the dots and recognizing patterns, which gives me an instinctive feel for where the industry is heading and an eye for opportunities before they become obvious. It also helps that I understand food from the production level up.

Build the systems

Business building and systems thinking

I get on the ground, learn how a business actually runs, and design better ways to operate: financial and costing systems, production and workflow, personnel and management, technology platforms and databases, sales and marketing, and the processes that tie them together. Then I measure whether the change actually improved the business.

An exampleRunning Genevieve Catering, I was losing hours developing and costing menus by hand. In 2008 I designed and built a database of 430 menu items, organized by season, cuisine, and dietary requirement, so one query could pull, say, seasonal summer produce, Mexican, vegetarian, and gluten-free. I see a problem, picture a better way, and build it.

Make it stick

Implementation and organizational change

Systems don't succeed simply because someone designs them or installs software. They work when people can successfully use them. I engage the people closest to the work, build buy-in, communicate changes, work through resistance, train people, answer questions, and reinforce new practices until they're part of everyday operations.

Implementation is both technical and human. I can design the solution and work with the people who need to make it succeed. I don't just design solutions that look good on paper. I work alongside the people who need to make them successful, and I keep reinforcing new practices until they stick.

Embedded leadership in practice

One embedded role, many functions

Embedded CEO partner

Commercial Strategy, Technology & Product Transformation

Regulated food processor · approx. $11M annual revenue · 18 months working directly with the CEO

Context
A highly competitive market. The company needed stronger wholesale sales and marketing capabilities, a more effective technology foundation, and a refreshed flagship product.
Contribution
Worked day to day with the CEO on regulatory compliance, wholesale sales and marketing systems, technology, product development, and broader business improvements. Helped develop a new wholesale-client sales and marketing system; helped rebuild the technology system from the ground up after the initial approach needed reworking; developed new recipes and helped implement a product-line overhaul and rebrand of the flagship product.
What it demonstrates
The ability to work as an embedded leadership partner, connect multiple functions, and move between executive priorities and practical execution. I have also managed day-to-day operations across four concurrent business lines for a serial entrepreneur, and I bring 15 years of consulting across approximately a dozen other industries.
Selected work

What I've built and led

Nine areas of hands-on work, from costing systems and technology to events, product, and beverage programs.

01

Systems Diagnosis & Financial Recovery

ChallengeUnderperforming systems that hid where money was actually being lost — costing gaps, POS pricing errors, labor or managerial misallocation.

ContributionBuilt custom costing tools for several wholesale food producers, including a bakery supplying Whole Foods, PCC, Nordstrom Cafes, and QFC, that caught unallocated labor, delivery, and packaging costs. Ran POS audits that recovered thousands in annual pricing errors.

OutcomeThree clients each achieved more than $100,000 in annual savings, through costing-system audits, uncovering unallocated expenses, correcting pricing issues, and improving business systems.

02

Brand, Digital Systems & Technology

ContributionDesign and manage full digital infrastructure — ecommerce, wholesale portals, and brand systems — for growing ventures, including my own. Built my own record label's platform to serve as both a 50-year archive and a direct-sales engine, supporting growth in streaming revenue. Built my own apparel company's full ecommerce and wholesale stack from the ground up.

CapabilityCurrently manage hosting and security across 9 production sites.

03

Events, Logistics & Food Operations at Scale

4,500guests at an off-grid event, with full power and water planned from scratch

ChallengeUnfamiliar kitchens, untested infrastructure, and lean staffing.

ContributionPlanned full power and water from scratch for a 4,500-person off-grid event. Scaled events from 200 up to 4,500 guests, with lean staffing and full scratch-cooking.

CapabilityDemonstrates the ability to plan and execute complex operations under demanding real-world conditions.

04

Recipe, Product & Menu Development

ChallengeAs the person handling contracting, sales, and price negotiation, I was losing hours per client pulling menus together by hand.

ContributionIn 2008, built a database of 430 dishes, compound-searchable by season, cuisine, and dietary restriction at once — "Italian, seasonal fall produce, gluten-free" — which my clients could also search directly. Reformulated products for shelf stability for a wholesale dessert company.

Outcome3× sales growth for the dessert company through reformulation and West Coast distribution. Menus calibrated to each audience, from nonprofit fundraisers and donor cultivation to union events and weddings; dishes finished close to service time rather than a day ahead.

05

Beverage Strategy & Revenue Optimization

ChallengeBeverage programs are where a lot of margin quietly gets left on the table.

ContributionDesigned custom cocktails and mocktails to raise check averages, not just round out a menu. Sourced distinctive, profitable wines for by-the-glass pours and built wine lists that work on two levels: food-pairing logic for the guest, margin logic for the business.

OutcomeBeverage sales up 21% within one year for a fusion restaurant. A beer & wine menu for a cafe that grew revenue 8% annually.

06

Teams, Training & Organizational Change

Lead teams across contexts — hired staff, volunteer chefs, event volunteers — recruiting people who match my own standard, not just whoever's available. Delivered consistent quality at every price point, without the shortcuts common in high-volume catering.

Cross-sector coalition building, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement are a throughline in my work outside the kitchen too — bringing together groups with genuinely different priorities and getting them to a shared plan, not just a meeting. That skill set extends to employee training design and implementation: involving the people closest to the work, building buy-in, and reinforcing new practices until they hold.

07

Consulting for Food Entrepreneurs

Hands-on consulting across the food industry: IP protection for an early gluten-free bakery, and recipe development to expand a power bar and granola bar company's product line.

Revenue diversification for a local farm beyond a single annual crop. Wholesale strategy and buyer communication tools that got products onto shelves at QFC and Safeway. For my own food startup, built the financial models and investor materials behind two capital-raising rounds at a $3.5M pre-money valuation.

08

Sustainability & Responsible Business

Local, seasonal, organic sourcing was the operating model at Genevieve Catering, years before it was standard practice.

Developed the methodology behind an environmental software platform I founded — a social and environmental impact scoring system — from initial concept in 2007 to a working proof-of-concept piloted with 8 Washington companies in 2015. The work anticipated what's now called True Cost Accounting.

09

Trend Forecasting & Innovation

Launched portion-controlled mini desserts ahead of the category's rise. Wrote a build-your-own healthy salad concept years before that model went mainstream. Served full plant-based wedding menus before that was standard practice.

Built the menu database itself — compound-searchable by allergen and dietary need — years before that kind of tooling was standard in catering.

Background

Food roots. Broader business perspective.

I'm a third-generation Seattleite who grew up around commercial food production and trained under a Parisian-trained pastry chef. I built and operated Genevieve Catering while completing my MBA, using the business's proceeds to finance the degree. I have also built and operated an apparel company of my own.

My 25 years span a dozen-plus industries: food, agriculture, technology, apparel, alternative healthcare, consumer goods, financial services, music, nonprofit, and government. Beyond the businesses I've founded and run, I've spent 15 years consulting for organizations across approximately a dozen other industries. That has given me a broader view of how organizations solve problems and build better systems, and I bring ideas, technologies, and operating practices from those industries back to the practical realities of food businesses.

Why food

It's the industry I love.

Food is the industry I follow when nobody is asking me to. I enjoy connecting the dots and seeing where it's heading before the direction is obvious.

I want to put my experience into one company, learn it deeply, and help build its future, not spread it across many.

The opportunity

One permanent hire, working alongside the owner or CEO.

I want to invest my experience in one food company, full-time and long-term, and help build its future. I'm looking for an in-house role close to ownership, where I can become deeply invested in a business: its people, products, systems, challenges, and ambitions.

I can help leadership think through what comes next, work on the ground to understand what is happening now, and move between those perspectives to improve performance and build lasting value.

I bring the perspective of a strategist, the instincts of an operator, the knowledge of a food professional, and the curiosity to keep a business moving forward.

The commercial food knowledge of an industry insider, the strategic and financial sophistication of a cross-industry business professional, the technical ability to build better systems, and the human understanding to make them work.

Start a conversation
Food is the foundation

A few dishes

Teaching

Teaching, because I love it

Teaching and training sit alongside the business work: see also Teams, Leadership & Training above.

Emily mid-teaching in her kitchen, gesturing while holding a dish, during a cooking class

A frame from the class itself · Watch on YouTube

A class I taught

During the pandemic, I ran a four-part plant-based cooking series on Zoom for friends who wanted to learn vegetarian and vegan cooking — filmed by a professional videographer. This is Class 3: tacos, plus a real conversation about the ethics of cooking food from outside your own culture.

Unpolished but professional — my actual kitchen, my actual friends chiming in on camera as we went. It's about 50 minutes long, so here's where to look first if you're short on time:

  • The tacos come together start to finish, home-kitchen pace
  • The ethics conversation — the part that shows how I think, not just how I cook
  • Friends jumping in on camera throughout — this was always meant to be a conversation, not a lecture