Q + A

Hear more from our conversation with Brandi in the Q&A section below.

• What did you enjoy most about working with Aramark as a college student?

  For me, the ability to work on campus and in this location, in particular, was really at the heart of campus [at East Carolina University]. It was really like being in the middle of the scene of the student activity, because it was the biggest retail location in the heart of campus where everybody had to walk by and the academic core of campus, across from the bookstore. It really helped you feel like you were even more attached to the school, right as an undergraduate. You just felt like you were in the middle of it.

• What is it about Higher Education that makes it such a special place to work?

  I joke, I feel like I never left undergrad. I did graduate, but I feel like I never left. And it certainly, in my perspective, has kept me forever young. So, the energy is real, and I still get very excited. What I think just naturally happens a lot in Aramark and Higher Ed is the nurturing of people to achieve whatever their goals are. There were people above me and below me who were absolutely a part of me being who I am today and the role that I am in today. It was this, this commitment of support and energy and excitement and development that made all those things happen. And I feel it every time I walk on a campus.

• What about Aramark has kept you with the company?

  To be able to work in a place where folks really, genuinely align with what you are trying to do and have the same goal. Aramark’s goal is to exceed guest expectations. Your goal as an individual is to exceed whatever your day was the day before. You just have this alignment, and you have the right people supporting, encouraging, and being willing to help me see things that I probably wouldn’t have seen for myself. I think that represents a uniqueness of leadership and organizational dynamic.

• What is one of your favorite Aramark memories?

  Early on in my career, I was in the southeast, so hurricane relief was very, very real. We had two hurricanes back-to-back – Fran and Bertha – and then, we ultimately culminated within a couple years with then 100-year flood of Hurricane Floyd in North Carolina. The hurricane relief effort that I saw Aramark’s response to has always stayed with me. It’s a pretty challenging situation because you don’t know what you’re going to do. You’re staying. You’re not evacuating. Sometimes, you have commitments to serve the clients and the community, because of where you are, what you do at the campus, or for relief organizations. Early on in my career, in the hurricane relief days, I really saw Aramark’s people putting into action all the things we talk about and all the things we read about. We were the team on the ground, and we were the first ones to make sure that our guests and clients were served.

• What comes to mind when you think about the way that Aramark approaches diversity and inclusion?

  What started to resonate with me in the last 10 to 12 years was the information that you would get from a business perspective that showed the more diversity you have on your team, the better your business outcome. For me, the Women’s Food Service Forum experience really started to crystalize, and I started to help me understand and gain that education and awareness. Aramark has always been on them; you can look back at the awards that Aramark has received about that diversity, equity, and inclusion commitment. We’ve always been purposeful. You’ve always had the lens of trying to build your most diverse team, but with anything, the more you focus on it, the more you target it, the more you embrace it and nurture it, the better your outcome is going to be.