Vice President of Sales

In 1889 the Clover Leaf brand was first introduced to Canadians when the company began operating the first commercial salmon cannery on the Fraser River near Vancouver, British Columbia.

Over the last 137 years Clover Leaf has grown to offer a variety of seafood products including canned tuna, salmon, sardines, oysters, mussels, clams, and shrimp. Clover Leaf is consistently voted by Canadians as the #1 most trusted brand for canned seafood. Today, canned seafood is bought by 75% of Canadians. Clover Leaf is the #1 brand in the category, with over 40% share of the market and 90% brand awareness. Clover Leaf Seafoods markets under the Clover Leaf and Brunswick brands. Brunswick is the #1 brand of canned sardines in Canada. Our International division, Bumble Bee Seafoods International, exports to over 40 countries around the world, and Brunswick is the #1 brand of Sardines in the Caribbean region.

Clover Leaf Seafoods, along with our U.S. affiliate, Bumble Bee Foods, forms one of North America’s largest branded seafood companies. In 2020, Clover Leaf Seafoods, along with Bumble Bee Foods, was acquired by our long-time partner, FCF Company Ltd. FCF is a privately held company and one of the world’s largest marine trading companies, with over 50 years of experience in the supply of tuna and other seafood. With FCF as a strong strategic owner, Clover Leaf Seafoods is well-positioned for future growth.

Our Beliefs and Purpose

Delicious, protein-rich, versatile, convenient, and affordable. We believe seafood is one of the greatest foods on the planet.

Our Purpose:

Feeding people’s lives through the power of the ocean.

Our How:

Trusted brands offering seafood products that are delicious, nutritious, and accessible.

As a company of seafood lovers, we have made it our mission to discover new, innovative, and more sustainable ways to source foods from the ocean for our family of brands and help others discover seafood goodness. We offer the largest range of certified-sustainable seafood in the Canadian canned seafood category.

Our Company Values:

• Focus Forward – With passion and urgency, we create the future we desire.
• Come Together – Unified in purpose, exceptional in action.
• Find a Way – With relentless focus and decisive action, success is inevitable.
• Act Right – We operate with absolute integrity and own our part.
• Show Care – We care deeply about our collective success and the teams who make it possible.

Vice President of Sales (Canada)

The Vice President of Sales (Canada) is accountable for profitable growth, customer strategy, and the performance of the Canadian sales organization. As a member of the executive team, this leader sets the national sales agenda, strengthens customer partnerships, and ensures the team owns its business end-to-end, from strategy, forecasting and investment decisions through execution and financial delivery. This role also leads the modernization of sales ways-of-working by simplifying processes, using data and technology to reduce administrative burden, developing AI-ready talent, and mobilizing sustainable change across the organization. Reporting directly to the SVP & GM Canada – International, this role is a key member of the executive leadership team.

• Lead the national sales organization of 15 people (5 direct reports) including account leads and sales operations and across all channels (retail, e-commerce, and foodservice) and provide strategic oversight of broker relationships.
• Set and achieve sales, volume, revenue, and market share targets with the account team
• Manage trade investment and profitability outcomes, with proactive management of opportunities and risks.
• Build a high-accountability culture in which customer teams understand and manage the full commercial and operational performance of their businesses.
• Act as a visible change leader who challenges established practices, removes barriers to selling and builds adoption of new processes, tools, and capabilities.

What You Will Do Here:

Develop and Execute the Canadian Sales Strategies:

• Set and communicate a clear multi-year sales strategy aligned with company growth, brand, customer, and profitability goals.
• Partner with Revenue Management, Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain and Procurement to build the annual operating plan, including volume, net sales, market share, trade investment, and profit targets.
• Translate strategy into customer-specific priorities, joint business plans, measurable commitments, and disciplined operating rhythms.
• Anticipate risks and opportunities, decide corrective actions quickly and maintain a forward-looking view of the business.

Own End-to-End Commercial Performance:

• Establish clear accountability for the complete customer business, including revenue, margin, trade spend, assortment, pricing, promotion, forecast accuracy, service, deductions, and fines.
• Ensure account leaders operate as general managers of their customers, connecting customer decisions to enterprise P&L outcomes.
• Create consistent performance scorecards and business reviews that identify gaps, assign owners, and drive timely follow-through.
• Maintain rigorous governance over pricing, customer terms, trade investment, and commercial commitments.

Build Strategic Customer and Cross-Functional Partnerships:

• Build trusted, senior-level relationships with key Canadian retailers, brokers and industry partners, positioning Clover Leaf as a strategic category and growth partner.
• Lead high-stakes customer negotiations and executive engagements with a clear focus on mutual value, fact-based influence, and sustainable profitability.
• Create strong alignment with Marketing, Revenue Management, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement and Sales Operations so commitments are executable and decisions are made at the right level.
• Represent the company in relevant industry groups and forums like Food, Health and Consumer Products Canada and strengthen understanding of retailer strategies, market shifts and regulatory or code-of-conduct expectations.

Simplify Work and Protect Selling Time:

• Lead ongoing review of sales processes, meetings, reporting and administrative work to eliminate duplication, clarify ownership, and increase customer-facing capacity.
• Work with Sales Operations and cross-functional teams to standardize workflows, establish practical RACI agreements, and resolve recurring hand-off issues.
• Measure whether process changes deliver real business value, including reduced rework, faster decisions and more time focused on customers and growth.

Champion Change and Organizational Transformation:

• Act as the executive sponsor for major sales transformation initiatives, clearly defining the case for change, desired outcomes, decision rights, and measures of success.
• Build stakeholder alignment across functions.
• Ensure changes are supported by practical communication, training, and coaching.
• Balance urgency with thoughtful implementation, maintaining business continuity while holding teams accountable for adoption.

Lead Technology, Data and AI Enablement:

• Maintain a strong curiosity about emerging technology and continuously identify practical opportunities to improve selling, planning, communication, and decision-making.
• Champion responsible use of approved AI, analytics, and digital tools, with appropriate human review, data protection, and commercial judgment.
• Build clear adoption roadmaps, success measures, and governance for new tools, so innovations move beyond pilots and become embedded in daily work.

Build Talent and Future-Ready Capabilities:

• Attract, develop, coach, and retain high-performing commercial talent, with clear expectations, regular feedback, and succession plans for critical roles.
• Assess current and future capability needs and deliver structured development in strategic selling, negotiation, financial acumen, category leadership, forecasting, analytics, technology, and AI literacy.
• Create an environment of continuous learning, experimentation and knowledge sharing while maintaining high standards for results and behaviour.
• Develop leaders who can make decisions, lead change, and hold themselves and their teams accountable.

Build the Future: Drive Category, Market, and Innovation Leadership:

• Acting as a Seafood Consultant provides category leadership to retailers, identifying, prioritizing, and pursuing opportunities for category growth; persuasively conveys this vision for category growth to the senior leaders of our retail partners.
• Continuously assess market dynamics, consumer/shopper behaviour, customer priorities, competitor activity, and channel evolution to identify growth opportunities and plans to address any risks.
• Use syndicated, customer and internal data to turn insight into clear customer stories, category and assortment recommendations and commercial actions.
• Partner with Marketing and cross-functional teams to drive best-in-class execution of innovation at retailers.

What You Bring to the Team:

• Enterprise-minded commercial leader with strong strategic judgment, executive presence, and the courage to make difficult decisions.
• Demonstrated success leading transformation, changing established ways of working and sustaining adoption through ambiguity or resistance.
• Strong people leader who creates clarity, builds trust, coaches directly and establishes a high-performance, high-accountability culture.
• Deep knowledge of Canadian grocery, customer negotiation, and branded CPG growth levers.
• Advanced business and financial acumen, including customer and enterprise P&L, pricing, trade investment, mix, margin, and return-on-investment decisions.
• Strong command of forecasting and demand-planning to help drive strong customer service.
• Data-literate and technology-curious, with the ability to translate business problems into practical improvements using analytics, automation, and approved AI tools.
• Change-management capability, including stakeholder mapping, communication, training, adoption measurement, and reinforcement.
• Ability to simplify complexity, clarify decision rights and design operating rhythms that protect selling time and improve execution.
• Clear and compelling communicator who influences effectively with customers, peers, executive leaders, and teams.
• Humble, hungry, and people-smart, with the tenacity and continuous-improvement mindset to deliver results.
• Leads with integrity, treats others with respect, and models consistent values in every interaction.
• Ability to travel as needed for customer meetings, team meetings, industry events, and regional market visits.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, finance, or a related field; an advanced degree is an asset.
• Minimum 15 years of progressive sales or commercial leadership experience, with significant responsibility in Canadian branded CPG and national retail customers.
• Proven record of delivering profitable growth, leading customer negotiations, and managing complex commercial P&L outcomes.
• Experience influencing and negotiating within the executive level at the top five grocery retailers in Canada.
• Experience across retail is required; foodservice, e-commerce, omnichannel and broker-management experience are assets.
• Demonstrated experience leading organizational change, process redesign, capability building.
• Experience leading and developing multi-level teams, including succession planning.
• Practical experience using customer, syndicated and financial data to shape decisions; knowledge of NielsenIQ is expected.
• Experience with Revenue Growth Management, trade-promotion management, and enterprise systems; exposure to SAP, Power BI, Microsoft 365, and AI tools is strongly preferred.

Why Work for Clover Leaf Seafoods?

• For a commercial leader ready to make an enterprise-wide impact, this role offers the opportunity to influence strategy, strengthen customer partnerships, and shape how Clover Leaf grows.
• Lead the next chapter of growth for an iconic Canadian brand with strong consumer trust and category leadership.
• Collaborate closely with the executive team in an agile organization where leaders are empowered to make decisions and translate strategy into action.
• Transform the sales organization, develop high-performing talent, and deliver sustainable, profitable growth.
• Partner across the business with curious, solutions-oriented teams focused on simplifying work, improving execution, and accelerating growth.
• Lead in a people-focused culture where collaboration, accountability, integrity, and care guide how we work and succeed together.

What We Offer:

• Career development through learning opportunities, the GROW program, and tuition reimbursement.
• Comprehensive health and wellness support, including employer-paid health and dental premiums, an Employee Assistance Program, and access to virtual health care.
• Recognition and rewards programs that celebrate employee contributions and bring our company values to life.
• A company-matching pension plan that supports long-term financial wellbeing together with the opportunity to contribute to responsible and sustainable business practices.

Clover Leaf Seafood fosters diversity, inclusion and belonging within and across our organization. We welcome all to apply, including women, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and persons of any sexual orientation or gender identity.

Clover Leaf Seafood is an accessible employer. If you require accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know, and we will collaborate with you to meet your needs.