Mary Burich receives the 2025 Women in Supply Chain Award

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

November 17, 2025

GREEN BAY – Mary Burich said her career in supply chain began after she “answered a call from an acquaintance” regarding an open human resources role at a logistics and transportation company.

Twenty-four years later, Burich – who serves as the vice president of human resources for Schneider National – is being honored with the 2025 Women in Supply Chain Award, presented by Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive, for, according to Schneider, her “accomplishments in building Schneider’s talent pipeline and driving workforce development.”

“Over the years, I’ve worked in different industries – [including] banking, food, manufacturing, insurance – and I have really found that [supply chain] is important not only for the company you work for, but the industry that you’re in,” she said.

When nominations opened for the 2025 Women in Supply Chain Award, Kara Leiterman – Schneider’s public relations manager – said company leadership “thought Mary would be a really great candidate.”

“We thought Mary would be a really great candidate for everything that she’s done at Schneider, within her career, her being a leader amongst women in supply chain, also her work with the Schneider Women’s Network and mentoring,” Leiterman said. “So, that’s really what it came down to.”

Burich said the “absolute honor” is humbling to receive.

“It’s really an honor to receive an award for something that you absolutely love doing each and every day,” she said. “People ask me all the time, ‘When are you going to retire?’ And I say, ‘I’m not – I love what I do, I love working and I love this organization.’”

The journey from HeRe to tHeRe

After double-majoring in business and communications with an emphasis in economics and obtaining her undergraduate degree from St. Norbert College, Burich said she “literally fell into an internship in human resources.”

“I got into HR through work that I was doing at St. Norbert College at its Center for Leadership Development,” she said. “About four years into my career, I thought, ‘Oh, I’d better do something from an HR-education perspective.’ So, I went back to school, got a Master of Science in management and organizational behavior from Silver Lake College, and then later on, went to get my MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.”

A self-proclaimed “bit of a learner,” Burich said she’s maintained a mentality of continued education throughout her career and into her work at Schneider.

“It’s a foundation for me,” she said. “I [need to] have that open mindset, that growing and learning mindset, and I’ve really kind of taken that into my work. I had an opportunity to work in HR in banking, then I worked for a food manufacturer, then an insurance company and then answered a call from an acquaintance, which brought me to Schneider 24 years ago.”

After literally answering the call, Burich said she was drawn to work at Schneider because of the company’s values – values that she said have fueled the near-quarter-century she’s worked in and on the organization’s workforce.

“One of the things in my 24 years here at Schneider that I really appreciate and embrace is we’re founded on our values,” she said. “What we’ve been able to do as an HR team is really craft our initiatives around our values, and that’s how we built our talent processes.”

Centering the company’s values in every HR and workforce initiative, Burich said, has allowed Schneider’s culture to flourish.

“We’re really leveraging the skills and strengths of our associates to serve one another to ensure we have a really great culture internally, but then turning around and servicing our customers,” she said.

Teamwork makes her dream work

Per the press release from Schneider, Burich stood out for the Women in Supply Chain Award because of “several high-impact initiatives” she’s led at the company – including Schneider’s High Potential Development Programs – as well as her “reimagined change management approach that empowers leaders to guide their teams through transformation.”

“That foundation of our values helps us build even our change management methodologies,” she said. “As they say, ‘change is constant.’ But how do we continue? I think our methodologies and the engagement of our leaders across the enterprise make us a really special organization.”

Working in a continuously evolving industry, Burich said, keeps the work interesting – even with her tenure.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s been nearly 25 years, because this organization grows and changes,” she said. “One of the things I talk to my team a lot about is progress versus perfection and the idea [that] continuously improving, continuously innovating, continuously growing is core to our culture. So, I think one could say it’s [been] a really long time, yet I look at it and it feels like it’s new every year.”

However, Burich said “the cool part” is she’s now in a position to help employees discover and reach their maximum potential – and, in turn, have an impact on the industry.

“I get to help people see their strengths, put them to work and ultimately make a huge difference – both internally to our associates, but then to our customers and our industry [as well],” she said.

At Schneider, Burich said she’s surrounded by “great leaders” she works for and “fantastic people” she works with – all of whom have contributed to her receiving the 2025 Women in Supply Chain Award.

“Personally, I just feel so fortunate, one, to be in this industry, but two, to be among all of these fantastic people at Schneider,” she said.

And though her name will adorn the award, Burich said “success in life is about who is around you,” and attributes her recognition to the hard work of her company and its employees.

“I’m just so proud of the work my team has done in putting together processes that our leaders and our associates leverage to continue and grow our associates, to develop them and really to be effective in creating opportunities for our organizations and solving problems for our customers,” she said. “To me, these are those foundational items that when really leveraged, it’s a win all the way around – for individual associates as well as the organization as a whole.”