Louise O’Sullivan is a familiar name in the foodservice equipment and supplies community. So familiar that a roar of applause and cheer instantly spread through the ballroom on first mention of her receiving the 2024 Lifetime Achievement award during the FE&S Dealer of the Year & All-Industry Awards Gala on May 18, 2024.
“We reserve this award for rare individuals, and Louise is so deserving of this recognition,” says Maureen Slocum, publisher of FE&S. “Her distinguished career broke through barriers as she rose through the executive ranks. She has been an inspiration to many women and men in this industry. Louise has had a tremendous influence over my own career.”
O’Sullivan rose through the ranks in the industry at a time when few women achieved that kind of success. Today, she serves as a consultant, coach and corporate speaker. She encourages companies to expand their opportunities for young leaders and openly shares her experiences rising through the ranks of a male-dominated industry. Her career, however, started in a largely female-dominated segment: elementary education.
The Early Years
After earning a master’s degree in child guidance, O’Sullivan taught third grade for many years. The child guidance degree has come in handy throughout her career; she says she uses it more in business today than she ever did in education.
“As a schoolteacher, you have to constantly be thinking on your feet,” O’Sullivan says. “You cannot let anything that comes your way throw you. I know this has helped me in business.”
O’Sullivan strongly believes that EQ (emotional quotient) can take people further in business than IQ. “EQ is empathy, but also the ability to read the room,” she says.
Case in point: One time she was standing at the front of a room getting ready to present to a group of male executives seated at a long conference table. “Everyone was looking at me except one man who had his seat turned and was pointedly staring out the window,” says O’Sullivan. She quickly put her “read the room” hat on. “I went and stood between him and the window to start off my presentation,” she says. “He smiled, I smiled, and he turned back to face the front.” A simple, yet effective strategy.
Making the initial switch from education to the foodservice industry was easy for O’Sullivan. An uncle told her about a part-time copy editor position at Groen, which interested O’Sullivan because it meant she could drastically upgrade her paycheck while also working from home. At the time, she was juggling the professional world and small children at home.
The Groen job meant interviewing customers and writing testimonials about equipment. Eventually that transitioned to an in-house role as an advertising writer. O’Sullivan also credits her father for instilling in her a strong work ethic at an early age. “I started working for my father when I was 12 in the service department at his automobile dealership, sending out postcards to customers and advising them of their next service appointment,” she recalls. “He was perennially optimistic; never met a person he didn’t like and had a great sense of humor.” Not surprisingly, O’Sullivan says her father was her biggest cheerleader and supporter.
Rising the Ranks
O’Sullivan almost went back to teaching at one point, when a kindergarten teacher position became available. It was the commitment from her boss at Groen at the time that made her realize her love of the business world. “He told me I was smart and creative, and that I could be president of the company someday,” she recalls. “I was pretty shocked, thinking ‘what does he see in me that I don’t see?’”
O’Sullivan remained at Groen and never looked back. Her decision to remain a businesswoman quickly led to the goal of earning an MBA. Her intent was to enroll at a local university, but Groen surprised her and offered to pay her way at the University of Chicago. Her textbooks went on the road with her; she was a sales manager with Groen at that time. After earning her MBA and finding success in sales, she was promoted to vice president of sales, marketing and engineering (1981), and then president in 1985. She served as president of Dover Corporation’s Groen Division, an original equipment manufacturer of commercial foodservice and industrial processing equipment, for 12 years.
While she clearly found success climbing the corporate ladder, O’Sullivan notes that not everything came easily for her during the 1980s and ’90s. “One story I tell in my speeches is the first time I called on a big New England dealer,” she shares. “I walked in with our manufacturers’ rep for the territory, and the dealer was sitting at this big desk with a huge picture of his father on the wall behind him. I introduced myself. He said, ‘Well, Louise, I’d like to get to know you better: Do you have a family?’ And I said, ‘Oh yes, I have two small children at home.’ And he said, ‘Well, why aren’t you there baking cookies?’”
That was a time when some still did not completely accept women in the workplace, O’Sullivan says. She recalls her response was a short and swift one: “Well, someone has to earn the money,” and then she simply moved the meeting along. That dealer, she notes, became both a great customer and a friend. “You can’t fall off the floor — that is what I always say. Whether it’s going after a customer who has previously rejected you or building a whole new business, never stop trying or innovating,” she adds.
O’Sullivan prefers to focus on her accomplishments during her leadership at Groen, which she describes as a “world-class heavy equipment manufacturer.” Her accomplishments of note include growing both the team and the business. “We made two acquisitions, one in ’86, and one in ’87, and it was the growth of the company and the people that was the most exciting part of everything for me,” she says.
As her career grew, so did O’Sullivan’s ability to lead others. “Managing by example is not enough,” she says. “I used to wonder why employees didn’t respond the way I did or take action the way I would, but I eventually realized it was that their training wasn’t complete. A sign of the best trained staff is your employees know what you would do or say when you’re not there.”
During her tenure at Groen, O’Sullivan became heavily involved with the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers. She served as director of NAFEM’s education committee in 1987 when that committee created the Certified Foodservice Professional (CFSP) credentials. The certification program includes an education component, an exam, and also recognizes the individual’s industry experience.
That experience led to other committees, and eventually, O’Sullivan ultimately served as the association’s president in 1991.
In 1997, O’Sullivan parted ways with Groen. That same year she created the first buying group for manufacturers, which she describes as one step back in the channel from traditional dealer buying groups in the industry. O’Sullivan founded Prime Advantage as a family company: daughter-in-law Laura O’Sullivan served as vice president of marketing and co-founder, and daughter Sheila O’Sullivan served as chief strategy officer. Prime Advantage launched with 13 members and 6 suppliers. O’Sullivan leveraged her many strong relationships in the industry developed through her work at Groen and leadership within NAFEM to expand membership and thus build the collective power of the buying group.
“We ended up 20 years later with about 2,000 members and 135 suppliers concentrated on raw materials, components, services and supply with the biggest commodity being metals,” O’Sullivan says. The biggest source of growth for their suppliers, she says, came via Prime Advantage’s regional account managers. “They knew which buyer to call on for each supplier — those that were the true decision makers,” she explains. “And how to communicate their biggest pain points to our suppliers. That was really critical intel.”
Prime Advantage members eventually represented more than $17 billion in purchasing power before the company was sold to OMNIA Partners in 2017. O’Sullivan remained on as a consultant for a year during the transition before going off on her own one more time. “I always considered myself a builder,” she says of Prime Advantage’s success story.
Louise O’Sullivan accepted the 2024 Lifetime Achievement award during the FE&S Dealer of the Year & All-Industry Awards Gala on May 18, 2024.
New Chapter
After a seemingly momentary retirement following the sale of Prime Advantage, O’Sullivan reinvented herself as a business coach, consultant and corporate speaker. Her focus is to help young executives flourish in leadership roles and to assist leadership teams in empowering women in the workplace.
One piece of advice O’Sullivan often gives those looking to grow their career in business is to “truly visualize your future, in detail, every night before you go to sleep.” The idea stems from a book she received as she climbed the sales ranks: “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.” It was an influential book for her, and to this day she still believes that results come when you truly expect the best. “Use the power of your subconscious mind to visualize the best, and assume positive intent of others,” she says.
Once an educator, always an educator, O’Sullivan reflects on many “Lunch with Louise” one-on-one sessions that she held during her years at Prime Advantage. Younger team members were encouraged to ask any question, which she says helped grow the collective culture.
Most importantly, O’Sullivan credits and thanks her family for their love and support all along the way. “My late husband Bob was my partner in everything,” she says, also reflecting on how her mother and father would travel to industry conferences with her children. “I owe so much to all of them, and to my kids Danny and Sheila O’Sullivan, and Mike, David and Suzan Oslin from our blended family. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them.”
“Trailblazer” may not Suffice
The word “trailblazer” comes with the assumption that others will follow, but the path Louise O’Sullivan has forged to date seems unlikely to be repeated.
“Louise blazed so many trails — within NAFEM and the industry at large,” says Deirdre Flynn, CFSP, executive vice president of the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers. “She was instrumental in raising the professionalism of the industry with the creation of the CFSP program, she significantly raised exposure for NAFEM members with the operator community, and she championed servant leadership and professional development within the industry. Not only was she the first female board member, officer and president of NAFEM, she has served on countless industry boards and advisory councils, and has long been heralded for her expertise, strategic thinking and progressive leadership.”
O’Sullivan has served on boards for numerous companies and has received many industry awards and accolades. NAFEM even changed the name of its President’s Award to The Louise O’Sullivan Award of Excellence.
Her story also extends well beyond the confines of one industry. O’Sullivan is referenced in numerous texts: “General Managers in Action” by Harvard Professor Frank Aquilar; “Managing Corporate Ethics” by Oxford University Press; and “Lessons in Leadership” by Charles Bernstein.
In 1987, Harvard Business School published a case study on O’Sullivan and her management growth at Groen as a female leader.
All told, O’Sullivan’s story is unmatched. And not yet complete. She continues to serve as a key influencer.
