FTI Consulting Inc. is announcing the expansion of its Food, Agriculture & Beverage practice with the appointment of industry experts Polly Ruhland as a senior managing director and Cassandra Oliveira as a managing director within the firm’s Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment.

Ruhland is a business strategy expert with more than 25 years of leadership experience, including as chief executive officer of both the United Soybean Board and the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion & Research Board. Throughout her career, she has led business growth and transformation initiatives for organizations across the agriculture industry to drive innovation, strengthen consumer demand, enhance product quality and improve sustainability.

In her role at FTI Consulting, Ruhland will advise food and agriculture clients on strategies to improve supply chain resilience, durability and innovation, optimize efficiency and enhance sustainability. She will help clients understand the needs and requirements of the food value chain’s supply side while also strengthening relationships and value for key stakeholders.

“The agribusiness industry has experienced volatility from social, political and economic crises in recent years, exposing weaknesses in the food supply chain,” said Keith Cooper, leader of the Food, Agriculture & Beverage practice within the Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment at FTI Consulting. “Polly has the industry experience and the business acumen to help our clients enhance stability across their operations in order to drive value.”

Ruhland said, “A direct critical relationship exists between supply-side challenges and demand-side profitability, particularly in agribusiness. I look forward to joining my FTI Consulting colleagues as we bridge the gap between producer and consumer to improve resilience, durability and efficiency of the entire food supply chain.”

Oliveira brings a combination of experience across agricultural inputs and agricultural equipment, with expertise in strategy development through tools such as scenario planning, risk assessment and business feasibility analysis. At FTI Consulting, she will help agricultural and food industry clients with M&A commercial diligence, organic growth initiatives and commercial transformations.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Oliveira was a product manager at John Deere, supporting the development of customer value proposition and business feasibility of various advanced engineering concepts. Prior to that, she supported multiple multinational clients for an agricultural strategy consulting firm, including several years of business development in Latin America.

The appointments of Ruhland and Oliveira expand FTI Consulting’s business transformation and strategy capabilities within the Food, Agriculture & Beverage practice, following the recent additions of Nathan Ramsey as a senior managing director and Brandon Banner as a managing director. Professionals in the practice support stakeholders from domestic agribusinesses to multinational organizations as they address political, economic and sustainability trends impacting a variety of agricultural sectors.

Source: FTI Consulting Inc.