Bridging the Gap: Finance Meets Operations in Agribusiness

The Client

Our client is a multi-billion-dollar agricultural enterprise headquartered in California’s Central Valley, among the largest global producers of almonds, pistachios, and grapes. In 2018, the company transitioned from being a major investor to directly operating approximately 40,000 acres of farmland. This shift required building out a full C-suite and supporting infrastructure.

As the business evolved, challenges emerged in integrating operations and finance, resulting in a lack of accountability, cohesion, and consistency in decision-making.

The Challenge

The new Executive Vice President role was designed to bridge operations and finance, creating a culture of accountability and mutual trust between the two groups. With multiple stakeholders, it was critical to clearly define what would drive success in the position.

The discovery process was two-pronged, involving both internal and external perspectives. Externally, auditors and suppliers, each with deep experience in large-scale farming operations, provided seasoned insight. Internally, leaders identified points of friction and associated costs.

The Solution

Thirteen stakeholders participated in two structured meetings. The first meeting focused on defining business objectives for finance and operations, and on identifying the specific performance outcomes required for each group to achieve these goals. Collaboration during this session produced a Performance Results Profile outlining what a successful hire “must do.”

The second meeting used AbilityMap’s framework of 31 capabilities to identify and rank the most critical and essential behavioral capabilities for the role.

From these sessions, performance requirements included establishing daily lines of communication, reducing the monthly close to three days, calculating and providing daily labor costs, and producing weekly pound-per-acre production estimates. The top personal capabilities identified were problem-solving, working with numbers, collaborating with teams, and leading others.

A broad search identified over 100 qualified candidates, including individuals from outside traditional farming through Boyden’s and Russ’s networks. The client sought a younger leader with growth potential, someone who could step into the CFO role within 5–7 years and remain with the company for a decade or more.

The Result

Boyden conducted the first-round interviews, with senior partner involvement throughout. Candidates were assessed with AbilityMap, generating quantitative Fit Scores for alignment with the role. Four finalists were presented; the client was so impressed with the quality that they ultimately hired two professionals.

The Impact

Three years later, both hires have been promoted within the organization, one to Chief Financial Officer and the other to Senior Vice President, Operations and Logistics, demonstrating the long-term success of the placement.