Meet Our Leaders

Wendy Pickett

Lorain Operations Manager

What is your background and career path at Heidelberg? (Year started at HDC, major milestones)
I began my career in April of 1990. My original career path was to be a high school history teacher. I was taking a break from my third year in college as my husband I were building a new home and I just had my second child. It was the first job I interviewed for and almost 31 years later, here I am. I was hired in administration, mostly hand keying salesmen orders, the year Goodman Beverage purchased Mid-Ohio Wines. The Goodman family merged the two operations together and opened a new building in Norwalk. A year later, I became the admin/operations manager. A few years after that, I became the admin/ops manager for both Goodman Beverage in Lorain and Mid-Ohio Wines sharing time between both companies. Eventually, I became vice president of operations to assist sales, admin and ops to become more cohesive. We were purchased by Heidelberg in 2008 and I was given the opportunity to continue my career in admin and ops. As Heidelberg grew and so did my responsibilities, we then hired an administration manager and my focus remained in operations.

What are your job responsibilities and priorities?
My biggest responsibility is our 65 operations associates. Trying to make the best decisions every day to help keep them safe, happy and healthy. Keeping the wheel turning in this recession and pandemic proof industry can be challenging at times but also very rewarding. What makes it easier is the great team we have in Lorain!

Any recent accomplishments or notable projects from you/your team?
Having a background in admin has helped us in our efficiencies between the two departments. Setting procedures for operations goes smoothly when you understand how that procedure will affect admin down the road. The transition to driver iPads is an example of this. Our drivers did a great job working through the process and helping me test functions and how it flowed through to sales, inventory and recon.

Who do you interact with on a regular basis – suppliers, retailers, management, HDC “wheel” teams?
To run efficiently, an ops manager needs to interact with everyone but most of my time is spent interacting with my op’s management team, my GM, admin manager and my director. I have a great team of managers that work well together to take care of business every day and a GM and director who are very helpful and supportive.

What are you looking forward to in the upcoming year?
I am looking forward to some sense of normalcy in 2021 as I am sure most of us are.  2020 was a challenging year dealing with this pandemic and the changes it has brought to our everyday life. 

How has the business and/or company changed since you joined Heidelberg?
Being part of a small family owned business for 20 years then moving to a large company with over 1600 associates has brought many changes and challenges in my career. I think the thing I appreciate the most being a part of the Heidelberg family is to have others to share ideas, procedures and projects with. You think you know just about all there is to know until you start hearing what others are doing. I love being able to reach out to my counterparts and collaborate with them.

How do you like to spend time when you’re away from work (family/hobbies)?
John and I have three children, Tricia, Brittany and “lil” John who are all grown and out on their own. We also have two granddaughters Anastin and Francesca who are 14 and 12. I love spending time with all of them. I also love to garden, read and jet ski, which I plan to spend a lot of time doing when I retire in two years!