TED Community » Andrew Schultz

About Me

Growing up in Elkhorn, NE in the "Farm Belt" of the American Heartland agriculture has been in Andrews’s blood since birth. In fact, his farming roots date back to Andrew's ancestors in Starguard, Germany where his family raised horses and worked on family farm before they migrated to the U.S back in late 1930's. They ended up settling in York, NE where Andrew and his family still own 80 acres of farmland, where they grow corn every year and been doing so for past 70 years. "Midwestern Values" is a term that embodies no greater compliment; meaning hard work, integrity, honesty, trust, doing the right thing, and having an unparalleled work ethic. Farming is the greatest risk/reward profession where your credibility is earned and your reputation is everything. Andrew took these feelings of community and family to provide purpose and meaning into everything he does. These values have In fact, the link below and legendary Paul Harvey sums it up best in his own words what a "Farmer" stands for
Andrew’s work ethic manifested itself at an early age through organized sports. He won the National World Series, at the age of 10, defeating Hawaii in the championship game where he was voted MVP of the tournament. In high school he was an all-state quarterback and 2nd team all Nebraska behind future Heisman trophy winner Eric Crouch. While in high school, Andrew lost his best friend who committed suicide at the age of 16. It was a humbling experience that taught him that life is short and never take any opportunity for granted. That being said, he decided to attend Pittsburg State University where he received a full scholarship to play baseball. While at PSU, Andrew and his teammates took the team to levels that have never been reached before winning the school’s first Conference Championship in 1999. Performing well in school and athletics helped mold Andrew into the hard working, success driven person he has become today. Andrew took the ultimate risk and uprooted himself from his home in Nebraska and moved to San Diego, California in 2002. He did this to go and create something that would be his own that nobody could hand to him. This experience became a defining moment in Andrew’s life because it provided him with a “Sink or Swim” situation that pushed him out of his comfort zone and help transform him into the man he is today. DRS 2004-2011 Vice President of Produce for Subway. Through his eight years as the Vice President of Produce at Subway Andrew led to a total of 106% growth in domestic stores. When he started in 2004 Subway only had 12,000 stores In the United States and Canada. With Andrew’s leadership, Subway became a global leader in the Quick Service Restaurant Business by increasing their presence with the addition of 23.000 stores in 91 different countries. As the VP of Produce, Andrew was responsible for 10 Sku’s throughout 28,000 domestic Subway Stores. Over his eight years Andrew initiated a nutritional leadership program where he added 5 fresh produce menu items that created value for the company and consumer. The program coincided with Governor Schwarzenegger’s get healthy campaign. All in all, Andrew was responsible for maintaining Subways 400 million dollar supply chain, where under his leadership 100 million packages of produce were purchased, 2.8 billion pounds of produce was sold, and 2.2 billion dollars were spent on Subway’s fresh produce sku’s. DiMare Fresh Vice President of Strategic Business Development. March 2012 January 2013During his short time at DiMare Fresh, Andrew made a lasting impact on their business. He landed the largest revenue-generating national customers in company history. With new business revenues totaling 37 Million dollars Andrew was able to achieve a customer cost savings of 35% and record-low product costs of 1.77%. Through problem solving, Andrew was able to help customers in most impactful ways by creating shared value for all stakeholders through the "Win-Win-Win" paradigm. Andrew developed Dynamic "To Market" Strategies, and implemented dynamic national network of suppliers. Social responsibilityDuring his time at Subway Andrew teamed up with Rail Ex in order to find a way to make Subway’s Supply chain more environmentally friendly. Through the duration of their relationship Rail Ex shipped 3114 loads of produce for Subway. These changes from truck to rail transportation resulted in 29 million pounds of carbon emissions not emitted into the atmosphere. A total of 1.33 million gallons of diesel fuel saved, in addition to 8.8 million miles in total distance thanks to the higher efficiency in rail transportation. His total cost savings were 4.9 million dollars with the switch to rail transportation, and 5.32 million in fuel savings for a grand total of 10.2 million dollars saved.

Andrew also was an advocate for supporting local farms through his California Grown marketing campaign. This was where at his 2500 Sub