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Anna Maria Medvid
Profile
When Anna Maria told her parents she wanted to go to college, they were very upset. She came from a cultural background that didn’t believe that women needed a college degree. Basically Anna Maria had to work two twenty-hour jobs a week just to pay for college. She wasn’t even allowed to go home in the summer. Anna Maria credits this adversity to making her stronger and more determined.
Anna Maria started college thinking she would be a ChE, but quickly transferred to IE. She liked the business focus of IE. When she graduated, she had two job offers: Pepsi (Pittsburgh) and Sun Health (Charlotte). She chose Sun Health because she liked the idea of working in the health care industry.
Anna Maria started with Sun Health as a management engineer and eventually transitioned to more of a sales role. With her sales background, she joined a startup company i-STAT which had a new technology for blood testing. This was the threshold moment in her career. She made an incredible amount of money and developed an entrepreneurial bug.
With the money Anna Maria saved from her work at i-STAT, she purchased four restaurant franchises from the Atlanta Bread Company which grew to annual sales of 4 million dollars.
She eventually sold the stores and returned to the corporate world becoming the Vice President of Member Development for Compass Group/Foodbuy. Compass Group is the 6th largest employer in the world and the 11th largest employer in the U.S. Compass serves 4 billion meals a year in businesses, schools, hospitals, and sports venues. Compass also serves meals for the U.S. Congress and White House. Anna Maria has responsibility for 3.5 billion dollars’ worth of Compass’ business in the U.S.
Anna Maria is especially proud of receiving the Franchisee of the Year Award from the Atlanta Bread Company and being named one of the top 25 business women in Charlotte.
Anna Maria sees another entrepreneurial venture as a possibility in the future, but for now she is focused on supporting her two twin college-aged daughters.
Bio
Anna Maria Medvid is the VP of Member Development for Compass Group/Foodbuy with national responsibility for the Healthcare Channel. She successfully manages and retains a results-oriented client management team that sell and manage the delivery of supply chain and procurement services related to food, facilities management and food service related purchases within the healthcare business sector.
Anna Maria’s more than 25 years of experience include a number of healthcare GPO business development and leadership responsibilities for companies such as Broadlane and Premier.
She also tapped her entrepreneurial side for nearly 10 years, franchising the first Atlanta Bread Company bakery cafes outside the state of Georgia. Growing this business from a startup along with her partner, Anna Maria was honored as the company’s “Franchisee of the Year” two consecutive years. During that time, she was also named one of Charlotte’s Top 25 Women in Business by the Charlotte Business Journal.
Anna Maria earned her bachelors in Industrial Engineering from West Virginia University, and lives in Charlotte with 17 year old identical twin daughters … and their goldendoodle Marge. In her free time she enjoys playing tennis and hiking.
