Jake Kalnitz

Reported to the CEO, led a team of 160 employees, and developed and executed a transformational set of corporate strategies targeting short-term cash management, cost recovery, and growth. Served as a key-leader across all three enterprise work-streams and drove tens of millions of value across the P&L and Cash Flow statements.

Reporting to the CEO, led a team of 100 employees, and assumed the additional responsibilities of leading the business’ inventory management and pricing functions. Spearheaded plans and short-term operational initiatives aimed at enhancing True Value’s inventory efficiency and customer experience.

Reporting to the SVP of Merchandising, Inventory and Pricing, led a team of 40 employees with the responsibility of building an innovative and profitable product assortment across 2,800 vendors and over $2B in annualized wholesale sales.

Quickly progressed and was promoted three times in three years. As the Director leading the Safety organization, oversaw the procurement of Grainger’s Safety portfolio that accounted for over $1.2B of COGS across 1,400 national brand and private label vendors while leading a team of 17 employees. Led the critical COVID procurement workstream for Grainger that enabled access to key PPE and Cleaning products to serve key Government, Healthcare and essential Manufacturers. Collaborated across all commercial and operational functions to effectively negotiate with vendors and maximize allocations to Grainger.

Responsible for leading the Corporate Finance function including providing direct support to the CFO and Operating Partners accountable for the Option Care business.

Responsible for the service and inventory efficiency for 170 local branch locations leading a team of 6 employees.

Joined Grainger through their Financial Leadership program and earned rapid career advancement over five years in the Finance function. Was awarded the Finance Leadership Award in 2014 for transformational support of Grainger’s Customer Service Evolution project. Key highlights include: • Responsibility for providing global financial support for the Global Export business. Budgeted and provided decision-making support for a $100M P/L. Key programs I supported included the rebuild of the business’ pricing strategy and conversion of local branch business in Costa Rica to Global Export. Led a multi-national team both in the United States and India. • Provided financial support for the Customer Service Evolution project to capture significant expense savings through scaling the customer service network. Developed key financial modeling that drove and supported the consolidation of 270 call-taking branch locations to 3 national call centers without negatively impacting customer service levels. • Re-designed the financial models determining how Grainger would execute its retail investment strategy leading to both consolidation of branches and the targeted selection of new openings in high-value markets such as North Dakota.

Executive MBA