In
Jill Broschard
Profile
Jill liked the flexibility of an Industrial Engineering degree and chose WVU’s IE program to pursue her degree. Like many students she wasn’t sure how she wanted to use her degree.
Jill’s first semester in college was easy because she had great preparation from high school. As a result, the shock of the transition to college was deferred until the second semester in college. She started losing confidence, but her parents helped her keep everything in perspective. Jill comments that “you can’t let the challenges you face define who you are.”
When Jill joined Hershey, she quickly established herself and became the first woman to be on the plant manager’s staff. She was taken very seriously because she could do the computer modeling and analytical studies that aided the fact- based decision making that Hershey needed.
Later in her career, Jill became a production manager. She had 200 people working for her and was putting in 10/12 hour days. Her son was very young, and Jill felt she needed more time at home. She requested a transfer to a lower level job. Her boss tried to discourage her from doing this because she was in line for higher level positions at Hershey. But Jill took a step back.
Jill eventually felt she was ready for a more senior level position. Essentially she made a proposal to create her own job. She was able to create her own group. Jill admits she never overthought her career. But she was also made wise decisions about what she wanted to do and took the initiative to create opportunities for herself.
Jill is known as a leader who is approachable. She wants people who work for her to disagree with her, but they also need to support their thoughts with analysis.
The thing that she liked about her time at WVU was that the faculty got to know her. She also liked how all of the students in the IE program looked out for each other.
Bio
Jill Broschard is Vice President, Global Shared Services, for The Hershey Company. In this position, she is responsible for strategic planning and operations for Hershey’s global shared service capabilities. Located within five centers, the Shared Services organization is responsible for streamlining business processes and leveraging technology to deliver improved services across the company.
Prior to her current role, Broschard served as Vice President, Americas Supply Chain. She was responsible for leading our supply chain in Canada and Latin America managing all aspects of the regional supply chain including six manufacturing facilities, planning, logistics, engineering, and contracted manufacturing.
Broschard joined The Hershey Company in 1988 as an Associate Industrial Engineer. She has held a variety of leadership positions in plant and corporate engineering, production management, logistics and supply planning. Broschard led the implementation of Integrated Business Management, the business process used globally today to deploy the business strategy.
Broschard holds a master’s degree in business administration from The Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from West Virginia University.
