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| Senior Manager of Customer Service April Thomas, second from right, is the newest recipient of the Marvin Schwan Excellence Award. She received the award from CEO Dimitrios Smyrnios, left, Vice President of Operations Lil Schroeder and Schwan's Food Service President Jacob Berning. |
Oct. 2, 2019 — In a surprise ceremony, April Thomas was recently presented with our most prestigious honor — the Marvin Schwan Excellence Award. The award is given to those who exemplify the company’s values and the “How We Work” cultural statements that are part of our Desired State business plan.
April, who is the senior manager of customer service for Schwan’s Food Service, received the swan-shaped Marvin Schwan Excellence Award, a plaque and a monetary award during Food Service’s national sales meeting.
The award was presented to April by CEO Dimitrios Smyrnios and Food Service President Jacob Berning, who both discussed the importance of the award and commended April’s achievements since joining the company nearly 15 years ago.
April was nominated for the award by several of Food Service’s sales directors. Jacob said he was not surprised by April winning the award because she always shows authentic leadership, a willingness to go the extra mile to work through service challenges, and an urgency to find solutions for customers.
“Whether it is evenings or weekends, (April) acts with a sense of urgency to do whatever she can to minimize customer issues when we cannot keep up with demand,” Jacob said, quoting April’s nomination form.
Jacob said April’s contributions have been numerous. In a few recent examples, he said she played a key role in getting a major school set up as a customer under a tight deadline, helped establish prioritization guidelines for customers, and helped guarantee that specific products were positioned at the right warehouses during an important initiative.
April will be the last person in 2019 to receive the Marvin Schwan Excellence Award. Consumer Brands employees Gary Apon and Melissa Vit received the award in July and Global Supply Chain employee Dave Olafson received the award in August.
The Marvin Schwan Excellence Award was created in 1994 to honor the memory of our company’s founder and to preserve the ideals, qualities and core values that are the foundation of Schwan's.
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