Food Business Finance Advisor

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Position Title:

Food Business Finance Advisor

Job Category:

Academic Staff

Employment Type:

Regular

Job Profile:

Project Program Manager (Inst)

Job Duties:

The Food Business Finance Advisor supports the Food Finance Institute’s mission by helping food and farm businesses strengthen their financial decision‑making, prepare for growth, and access appropriate capital. This role combines client‑facing consulting work, finance‑forward training delivery, and collaboration with partners across the food business ecosystem.

This position is ideal for a professional with applied experience in food or farm businesses, finance, lending, consulting, or impact investing who is comfortable working directly with entrepreneurs and financial information—and who is eager to grow their influence as a trusted advisor and emerging thought leader in food business finance.

The Food Business Finance Advisor works with food brands, value‑added farms, processors, and food systems enterprises across Wisconsin and beyond, supporting businesses at various stages of growth. In addition to coaching and training, the role contributes to the development of high‑quality content, tools, and programs that advance FFI’s finance‑forward approach to business sustainability and capital access.

This position reports to the Director of the Food Finance Institute and plays an important role in advancing the guiding principles and impact goals outlined in FFI’s Strategy Framework Summary (ffi.pub/Strategic).

Key Job Responsibilities:

Food Business Finance Coaching and Consulting:

• Provide expert consulting for food businesses across the value chain:

  • Food brands

  • Value-added farms

  • Food system enterprises (e.g., food hubs, integrated community projects)

• Support businesses in understanding their financial position, growth options, and capital needs.

• Assist clients in preparing financial projections, proformas, and materials needed for financing conversations.

• Help businesses assess and structure potential capital stacks in alignment with their business model, growth plans, and values.

• Coach entrepreneurs on capital readiness, lender and investor expectations, and financial decision making related to growth.

• Track and support data collection and reporting to inform FFI learning and impact measurement.

Food Business and Financial Content and Training:

• Deliver finance focused training to a wide-array of scaling food and farm businesses through workshops, cohort based programs, and other learning formats.

• Leverage experience to develop content to support food and farm businesses; Contribute to the development, refinement, and updating of curriculum, tools, and resources related to food business finance.

• Support program design, evaluation, and continuous improvement to enhance participant experience and outcomes.

• Contribute ideas and insights to FFI’s broader program and training strategy in service of creating financially viable businesses

• Manage and contribute to program design, overall process improvements, and positive client experience.

Program and Partnership Development:

• Build and maintain relationships with food business service providers and ecosystem partners, including lenders, consultants, extension staff, and economic development organizations.

• Assist in identifying opportunities for new programming, partnerships, sponsorships, or contracted work in coordination with FFI leadership.

• Identify programming opportunities, products, or content and ongoing ways to enhance overall FF impact

• Generate awareness and referrals for FFI and the Office of Business and Entrepreneurship (OBE)

• Support fundraising efforts including generating revenue through new contracted work or programming ideas and recruiting program sponsors to contribute cash and in-kind support for our work

• Participate in cross program collaboration and OBE organizational initiatives as needed.

Other duties as assigned.

Department:

The Office of Business & Entrepreneurship (OBE) helps entrepreneurs, businesses, and economic development professionals across the state to achieve their goals through expert consulting, educational resources and training, technical assistance, economic reports, and a dynamic statewide network.

Through our four distinct program units, OBE helps Wisconsin businesses perform at their highest levels. We help ideas and innovators succeed. We’re Wisconsin’s hub for specialized resources — many at no cost — to help business owners grow.

• The Wisconsin Small Business Development Center (SBDC), serves and supports startups and existing businesses in every county in Wisconsin. The SBDC offers consulting, education, and referrals to other needed business resources
• The Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC) guides small businesses and innovators as they develop innovative products, connect to investors across Wisconsin, and apply for federal funding. Support is given through programming, counseling, and funding support.
• The Food Finance Institute (FFI) leverages and supports a collaborative network of professionals focused on building and funding profitable businesses in the food, beverage, and value-added agriculture sector.
• YourEconomy reports economic trends, dating back to 1998, by industry and establishment, for each geographic region in Wisconsin.

Compensation:

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience managing and/ or owning a food or farm business through startup and growth phases. 

• Hands‑on experience working with financial information for businesses, such as budgets, projections, financial statements, or capital planning.

• Experience advising, supporting, or coaching entrepreneurs or clients through financial decision‑making.

• Working understanding of financing mechanisms commonly used by food and farm businesses, including loans, grants, equity, and mission‑aligned or impact capital.

• Strong communication skills and the ability to clearly explain financial concepts to non‑financial audiences.

• Experience writing and reviewing business plans and financial models

• Demonstrated understanding of:

  • Different growth trajectories and business models available to food-focused businesses

  • Different capital structures and financing mechanisms for food and farm businesses

• Ability and willingness to meet in-state and occasional out-of-state travel requirement.

Preferred Qualifications:

• A Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) with emphasis on business, marketing, agricultural economics, or finance

• Experience working with impact investment and/or equity raises

• Project finance expertise

• Natural or climate-smart food and farm business experience

• Experience managing or delivering client-serving programs, including client engagement, recruitment, delivery, and results

• 10-15 years or more of relevant experience in food or farm businesses, finance, lending, consulting, economic development, impact investing, or a related field.

How to Apply:

To ensure full consideration, please submit application materials as soon as possible. Applicant screening will begin immediately and be ongoing through 11:59 pm, Friday, May 29, 2026. However, applications may be accepted until the position has been filled. 

Contact Information:

Questions may be addressed to: Sarah Haen, HR Manager, at s[email protected].

Accommodation Request

If you need to request an accommodation because of a disability, you can find information about how to make a request by contacting [email protected]. 

 

Criminal Background Check and Reference Check Policy

This offer of employment is conditional pending the results of a criminal background check and a reference check process that includes questions regarding employee misconduct, sexual violence, and sexual harassment. If you have prior work history within the past 7 years with the Universities of Wisconsin, your personnel file will also be reviewed for employee misconduct. If the results are unacceptable, the offer will be withdrawn or, if you have started employment, your employment will be terminated.

 

Employment Authorization

Please note that successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e., a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of employer sponsorship) on, before, or after the effective date of appointment.

 

Confidentiality

The Universities of Wisconsin will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. §. 19.36(7). 

Benefits Information

Universities of Wisconsin employees receive an excellent benefits package. To learn more about the benefits package, review the Faculty, Academic Staff & Limited Appointees  or University Staff Please see this link for total compensation information: Universities of Wisconsin Health & Retirement Contributions Estimator to provide you with total compensation information. 

Clery Act information 

The Universities of Wisconsin provides statistics on campus crime in its Annual Security Report. For more information on university campus statistics see https://www.wisconsin.edu/compliance/clery/.

UW is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other bases protected by applicable federal or State law and UW System policies. We are committed to building a workforce that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills, and encourage all qualified individuals to apply.