Claire LaBrunerie on Blogger

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Common Vertical Integration Models

Claire LaBrunerie is an expert in business management and finance who holds certifications in coding and project management, in addition to degrees from Stanford, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Currently, Claire LaBrunerie leverages over three decades of executive management and business experience as a consultant for firms such as Core Compliance Review Group, UNWomen, Suncoast Equity Management, and Traders Hill Farm.

Located in Hilliard, Florida, Traders Hill Farm (THF) produces high-quality, environmentally friendly food through a sustainable aquaponics model. At Traders Hill, Ms. LaBrunerie focused her efforts on helping to prepare for initial external fundraising and to write a winning grant proposal from the USDA to develop a more robust regional and vertically-integrated food production platform, or "hub" known as Farm2Fork Connection..

Vertical integration refers to a business model in which a company controls its entire supply chain. This typically includes control of suppliers, distributors, and retail as a means to improve overall efficiency while controlling costs. Vertical integration can be implemented in one of two ways: backward integration and forward integration. In backward integration, a company expands into upstream parts of the supply chain, such as a retailer expanding into manufacturing. Alternatively, forward integration involves companies expanding into the distribution or supply of products.

Founded in 2013, Traders Hill Farm is an established commercial aquaponics grower of leafy greens in Northeast Florida. THF understands the stability that a local food economy provides for both consumers and producers. The Coronavirus has exposed serious fragility in America’s supply chains -- and the agriculture industry is at the forefront. The Farm2Fork Connection pilot program has been extremely well-received, and this grant proposal won funding to expand this program to additional neighboring counties in Florida and Georgia. The Farm2Fork Connection initiative sources products from local producers in the region in order to reinstate a robust local farming economy. The essence of Farm2Fork Connection is encapsulated in the THF vision statement: "We Believe in the Power of Access to Local and Sustainably Grown Food - Healthy people, Healthy Planet. Today and Tomorrow."

THF currently sells its specialty leafy greens, fresh fish and selected value-added agricultural products (e.g., “Datil Sting Hot Honey” – a collaboration between Traders Hill Farm, a local honey producer and a St. Augustine, FL pepper grower) to food service customers, CSAs and retail outlets. Farm2Fork Connection is more than a food system. It will support a diverse and struggling base of farmers, as well as serve a number of food desert consumer communities, augment opportunity and reach for existing self-reliant small farmers and food distributors and provide sustainable employment opportunities while addressing the root of many community health issues. At its core, Farm2Fork Connection is increasing access to and availability of locally and regionally produced agricultural products and meeting the food needs of low-income residents, educational institutions, and select other food service channels, while increasing community farmers’ and food distributors’ self-reliance and expertise for years to come.

About Claire Labrunerie

A senior management consultant based in the greater New York area, Claire LaBrunerie works closely with C-suite executives of corporate, non-profit, and development organizations to design strategic plans that guide complex organizational process change while integrating financial, environmental and social considerations. Ms. LaBrunerie brings some two decades of corporate and capital markets experience to bear with her advisory clients and is thus able to work with management partners to structure innovative financing vehicles that align the interests of sponsors, operating companies, and investors alike. Ms. LaBrunerie has worked for such companies as Kidder Peabody, J.P.Morgan, Sumitomo Mitsui, PepsiCo, and SKY Harbor Capital Management. Combined with her formal education, this experience translates into a proficiency analyzing economic trends and conducting in-depth corporate financial analysis, while managing cross border projects that integrate practices of inclusivity, sustainability, and good governance.

Ms. LaBrunerie serves multiple clients as a management consultant at BrightPath Advisors, LLC. Clients with which Ms. LaBrunerie has worked operate across sectors and regions. Projects are equally diverse, ranging from mapping and costing gender architecture within a global development organization, to researching and writing successful grant applications for a CEA farming operation, to designing non-profit fundraising campaigns and an operating platform for intellectual property audits, to refining a distribution platform for an asset management company. In addition to her native English, Ms. LaBrunerie speaks Spanish, French, German, and some Portuguese -- and is able to work in those languages with clients that require local language skills. With some two decades of corporate advisory experience, including numerous overseas stations, Claire LaBrunerie is a frequent speaker and workshop leader at international conferences focused, variously, on leading multinational organizational change, launching innovative and inclusive financing initiatives, and implementing best practice compliance and sustainable governance initiatives. Over the years, Ms. LaBrunerie has shared some of this experience with others, teaching several courses in International Business, as an Adjunct Professor, at the business schools of Concordia College and Iona College. Likewise, Ms. LaBrunerie has served on the Board of Directors for Resilience Resources, ProjectExplorer.Org, and OceanGrants.Org. and has been a mentor with the Stanford Women's Network, and with NAFTE, an organization coaching teens to develop and pitch original business plans.

Ms. LaBrunerie graduated "with Distinction" from Stanford University, earned a Master of Arts in International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and completed a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Multinational Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Outside of her professional pursuits, Ms. LaBrunerie is a member of the Adirondack 46-ers, representing nearly thirty years of hiking upstate New York mountains, and enjoys competitive tennis, skiing, biking, SCUBA, and participating in triathlons.