Influential Woman · Food and Beverage

Sunny Najphak Kindschuh

Corporate Manufacturing Quality Auditor, ACH Food Companies, Inc.

Chicago, IL

1Award received

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree BS (Agricultural Chemistry) Degree MS (Soil Science) Degree MS (Soil Chemistry) Degree MBA Cert FSPCA Lead Instructor Cert ASQ Certified Food Safety Auditor Cert BRC Lead Auditor Cert ISO 9001 Lead Auditor Cert SQF Practitioner Cert Internal Auditor Member American Society of Quality Member Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance

Her Story

About Sunny

Sunny Kindschuh is a Corporate Manufacturing Quality Auditor at ACH Food Companies, Inc in Chicago, IL. Her expertise in quality, food safety, manufacturing, auditing, and training has led her to become a great quality and food safety auditor. Additionally, Sunny is a FSPCA Lead Instructor for Preventive Controls for Human Food, a course that is recognized by FDA. In her current role, Sunny is responsible for supplier quality approval program. She oversees 150+ suppliers (ingredients, packaging, distribution centers, co-manufacturing) to ensure they are capable of producing high-quality products for ACH Food by using a risk-based approach. She also works collaboratively with procurement, R&D, marketing, regulatory, manufacturing to support product commercialization process. She leads cross-functional teams to address supplier-related quality issues and drive root cause analysis and corrective actions. Most recently, she has been involved in a new ERP system implementation which is a challenging project.

Prior to joining ACH Food, Sunny held a quality management position at Kemin Industries, East Dubuque Nitrogen Fertilizers, Primo Water, Mondelez, and OSI Group LLC.

Sunny graduated with First Class Honours from Kasetsart University in Bangkok Thailand with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Chemistry. She then continued to earn her master's degree in Soil Science from Kasetsart University. In 2007, Sunny was invited by a soil scientist at USDA-ARS and a professor at Iowa State University to pursue her master's degree in Soil Chemistry at Iowa State University in Ames IA. Sunny is currently pursuing her MBA at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Sunny

01What do you attribute your success to?

Curiosity, Integrity, Resilience, Leadership, Courage, Kindness

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

Never forget the people at home. When I say "home", I mean your family around the world. These people are the foundation of your success. I often do a "reality check" with my husband and kids once a week to ensure everyone is happy with me. I also call my mom and sister in Thailand weekly. In my opinion, there is no point in being a successful leader with a lucrative income if you have nobody to come home to.

03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

Everything does not need to be perfect. I used to live in a world of perfectionism, beating myself up to be practically perfect in every way. I wouldn't stop working until someone I trusted told me it was perfect. While I was able to deliver exceptional results, it led to unnecessary stress and burnout. I am not suggesting you should be mediocre; you still need to set yourself apart, but it shouldn't come at the cost of your well-being.

04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

The biggest challenge I face right now is motivating people to do what is needed when I have minimal formal power or simply encouraging them to do the right thing. Because these individuals do not report to me, I lack the legitimate or coercive power to command them. However, you may have heard the phrase, 'Leadership is not a title.' That reflects my philosophy. I firmly believe you can be a leader without a title, provided you have the ability to influence and guide an individual or a team toward a shared goal. Attributes such as knowledge, trust, integrity, communication, and empathy are what truly define a great leader.

05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

I value integrity as the most important element of both my professional and personal life. It is not as easy as one might think. Integrity is the quality of being honest and maintaining a consistent, uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles. You can be honest 99% of the time, but the 1% where you compromise is what can get you in trouble. Those who know me well know they can always count on me to act with integrity.

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