Leading with Passion: Cheryl Grishkewich

As VP, Control Brand Marketing at Loblaw Companies, Cheryl Grishkewich proves that loving your job brings out your best performance. After taking a career breather to decide on her next move, she found a role that taps into her passion for food.

Whether dealing with the daily demands of your job or looking to make a big move up the ladder, you’ll be better equipped to meet any challenge that comes your way when you’re at your optimal health. That’s why we’ve partnered with SHOPPERS LOVE. YOU.—Putting Women’s Health First—to provide tips and advice that will help you achieve health and balance in mind, body, and spirit. Because you’ll be at your best, in your personal life and your career, when you LOVE.YOU.

By Liz Bruckner | Photography By Kourosh Keshiri

In the realm of careers worthy of emulation, Cheryl Grishkewich’s is a standout. A graduate of Brock University, Cheryl has held senior leadership positions with some of the country’s most successful and innovative companies, and has a history of securing roles that line-up perfectly with her passions and values. The past three years have been no exception. Positioned as Vice President, Control Brand Marketing for Loblaw Companies, Grishkewich is excited to have found a role that incorporates her love of food with her marketing and leadership expertise.

“I’ve always been careful about the kinds of work I involved myself in, and throughout my career I’ve learned that taking time to understand what you want is incredibly important,” Cheryl says. It was this belief that led Cheryl, after nearly 20-years in the advertising industry, to take a career breather. “People told me I was crazy,” she recalls, “but I’d worked in all the agencies I had set out to, achieving many noteworthy goals, and I just came to a point where I had to allow myself a moment to think about what would come next—to focus on what I really wanted to do.”

During this break in her career, Cheryl took some time to create a cookbook of family recipes, the perfect way to reconnect with her love of all things food. Having grown up on a farm in Niagara, Cheryl had always been a food enthusiast and by taking the time to focus on this passion a whole new career trajectory unfolded before her. Her suitability and love for the culinary industry became increasingly apparent and led to her current position with Loblaw. “What made it such a great fit from the beginning is that it combines brands that I love, an organization I’ve been a fan of for years, and my passion for marketing and food. I couldn’t have asked for a more ideal circumstance.”

And then there’s the variety—the spice of Cheryl’s already flavourful life. “I really do thrive on the fact that my job changes on a daily basis. Two days are rarely alike,” she says. “One day I may be in meetings that focus on President’s Choice and No Name brands and the next I’ll be knee-deep in all things Life Brand. Another day could be a combination of the two, or something completely different.”

It’s Cheryl’s willingness to take on extensive, cross-functional business challenges that made her a perfect fit for the Loblaw brand. That and her love of problem-solving. “When I started, President’s Choice was already a large brand and one of Canada’s most loved, so my first objective was to look at how we could continue to grow it, but also to determine how the brand could be contemporized,” Cheryl says. Her winning approach: a repositioning of the line, the introduction of a new campaign, and further significant brand-wide changes.

Cheryl also has a fervour for cultivating talent which has come in handy in this role. Having a long-standing commitment to training and understanding the skill sets existing within a group, she makes a point of looking for opportunities to build on those factors while moving brands forward. “My team was such a passionate group to begin with,” she says. “They all have a real sense of entrepreneurship, which I love. And so, what I wanted to do was help ignite that zeal even further.” Cheryl says she’s incredibly proud of her group’s accomplishments.

She’s also proud to be part of the work culture that Loblaw has mastered, and credits the company for setting an example of how workplaces should foster community. “Loblaw has a very entrepreneurial, fast paced approach that challenges the status quo, but there is also a great deal of emphasis on our culture,” she says. “Yes, there’s a focus on what we need to get done, but equally on how we do it. How we treat each other in the process, collaboration, and mutual respect along the way. This has created a positive, energized, results-yielding culture that’s truly wonderful to be a part of.”

SHOPPERS LOVE. YOU. – Putting Women’s Health First – is our commitment to helping you stay focused on being your best in body, mind and spirit. It shares the expertise of our partners and connects you with others in support of local, community-based Women’s Health initiatives across Canada. Find one that moves you and join our journey to strengthen Women’s Health across Canada!

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