The Tampa Bay area has no shortage of young talent. This ongoing special section seeks to celebrate the rising talent in our workplaces and the community.
We have selected another group of professionals to highlight, but don’t fret if you turned in materials, or were nominated, and don’t see your recognition yet. We will feature these quarterly and will continue to accept nominations on a rolling basis.
Selection is done internally and is based on both your nomination form and your letters of recommendation. Want to submit? Email Managing Editor Jo-Lynn Brown at [email protected].
Lauren Sweat
Manager, sales strategy and operations, Sysco
Sweat leads the development of standardized processes, and practices, to ensure consistency and effectiveness within Sysco sales teams, supporting business growth and improving the overall customer experience.
She has spent her entire career with Sysco, starting off as an intern during her last semester of college. Since then, she has held various positions in the organization with increasing responsibility. She received her bachelor of science degree in finance from the University of South Florida and is a Florida native.
What makes you a TBBW Up & Comer? Success in business through financial results, career growth, etc.?
This past year, I was chosen for the Sysco CEO Pinnacle Award, which is selected by Sysco’s president and chief executive officer, recognizing distinguished performance and breakthrough business impact. Sysco Pinnacle winners are part of an elite group of associates who have achieved significant, widespread and measurable impact for Sysco and have delivered exceptional performance in customer experience, innovation and transformation.
I was chosen for this award among the more than 57,000 Sysco employees through my work on a program that helped change, and define, our go-to-market strategy. This program is an exclusive service model in preselected neighborhoods of high-density independent restaurants. My team successfully designed, and launched, the pilot program in my backyard, downtown St. Petersburg. After tracking its results, the program has now successfully launched globally. Designed to grow Sysco’s market share and sales, this program prioritizes the unique needs of independent restaurants first.
In what ways do you give back to your community through volunteer work, advocacy, board service?
I developed a deep commitment of giving back to my community early in my career. I knew this was something I wanted to be part of my routine, whether it was a job description or not. Before college, I volunteered individually but now, I consistently look for ways to link Sysco with local partners or needs who have a purpose or mission that closely aligns with ours.
Most events, or projects, I lead are related to food insecurity or ways Sysco can help the community through food donations, cash donations and volunteer service. My efforts were recognized when our region was awarded Sysco Company of the Year for our community involvement in 2022. Sysco recognizes one site/company globally, at the end of each year, for its efforts to address hunger and other needs in the community, and we were that company.