Lessons in leadership from Rudi’s CEO Jane Miller

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Lessons in leadership from Rudi’s CEO Jane Miller

15 Nov 2024

Joanie Spencer

Since 2008, Joanie Spencer has covered the retail and wholesale sides of the baking industry.
Serving associations such as the American Society of Baking (ASB) and BEMA, Joanie is also in demand as an industry presenter on bakery operations and trends. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Rockhurst University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.

When she’s not running or playing soccer, Joanie spends her time with her husband and 11-year-old son.

BOULDER, CO — Jane Miller isn’t afraid of a challenge. She lives by the belief that there’s something to be learned from every experience, whether it’s a success or a failure. As CEO of Boulder, CO-based Rudi’s Rocky Mountain Bakery, maker of organic and gluten-free baked goods, it’s safe to say she’s been around the block a time or two: This is her second stint in the position, and she has served in executive roles in food companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 global CPG brands.

In every case, she saw what makes this industry special … the love that comes with people feeding people.

“That’s certainly what I love about being in the bread business,” she said. “Yes, the food industry is sort of ‘steady Eddie,’ but it’s an integral part of our lives, especially bread. This is my fourth time working in a bread company, and the fact remains that every meaningful situation in our lives usually involves breaking bread with someone. It’s truly a fabric of our lives.”

Don’t be fooled; Miller doesn’t just live for the soft side of bread. She’s results-driven with a track record to back it up, including being named division president at Frito-Lay when she was just 36 years old. Then again, rising that high, that young, comes with a lot of lessons. Over her years in the industry, she’s collected those lessons — some happy, some harsh — and draws on them often as she leads companies and mentors young professionals.

Miller believes that education creates choices, and while sometimes that comes from textbooks, it doesn’t always have to. What’s most important in accumulating knowledge is that we must pass it on.

“I’ve learned that you don’t just put a person in a job; you still have to help them when they get there,” she said. “That’s really informed me as a leader. It’s not enough to provide the opportunity, but you also need to make sure they have a life jacket before throwing them into the proverbial deep end.”

Though she was the first person in her family to attend college, Miller began her education at a young age, doing weekly book reviews with her grandfather, Poppy.

“When Poppy and I would read and review books together, we weren’t reading Green Eggs and Ham; we were reviewing the second volume of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency,” she recalled. “It helped me early on gain not only a penchant for reading but also for emotional intelligence. The dialogues we would have around those books would be very deep.”

“This is my fourth time working in a bread company, and the fact remains that every meaningful situation in our lives usually involves breaking bread with someone. It’s truly a fabric of our lives.” — Jane Miller | CEO | Rudi’s Rocky Mountain Bakery

Those conversations became foundational for the type of leader and mentor she wanted to — and would — become. To this day, she guides young professionals by educating them through the life lessons she has learned on her way up the corporate ladder.

Education and emotional intelligence are critical for upward mobility, but the baking industry also requires a sense of operational excellence and financial savvy, too. This bundle of qualities has guided not only her career but also the path that led her back to Rudi’s.

Returning to the helm of a company can be unnerving, to say the least. But so much has changed since Miller served as CEO for Rudi’s, which was the first to have a national clean-label bread brand. The first time Miller was in the role was in 2008, and she stayed for six years before The Hain Celestial Group acquired the brand in 2014. During that time, she led with such passion that people often confused her for the founder. What a compliment … of sorts.

“It was flattering,” she said. “But at the same time, I would think, ‘I know I’m old, but this company started in 1976 … how old do you think I am?’”

All jokes aside, returning to Rudi’s after almost a decade away has been serendipitous in that “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” kind of way.

This story has been adapted from the October | Q4 2024 issue of Commercial Baking. Read the full story in the digital edition here.

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