Michelle Gardner
Vice President
Human Resources & Safety
Michelle Gardner joined RFC in 1999, beginning her career and journey as a production supervisor in the Lima Pellet Facility. In 2000, Michelle was quickly promoted into the company’s HR team – and has since assumed roles of increasing responsibility over the past two decades, resulting in her promotion to Rudolph Foods Director of HR & Safety in 2012, and her promotion to the Vice President of HR and Safety in February of 2021.
In her tenure, Michelle has continued to evolve in offering innovative and competitive benefit packages, expanding training programs to include interactive technology tailored to our needs, enhancing recruiting solutions at all facilities to strengthen the HR/Safety functions and adding robust, manager-level talent throughout the organization, to bolster improvement in safety, training and HR administration.
Michelle, today, is considered one of the team’s strongest culture representatives, having led the culture and leadership development initiative for the company, including the implementation of the Rudolph Foods Leadership Academy. Michelle holds a BA in Organizational Management from Bluffton University.