A Continued Education Journey with Alex Pusey, Senior Manager of Strategic Planning and Business Operations
Quality, community, and innovation. Those are the first things that come to mind when I think of Thorne.
We have a brilliant and close-knit team here. Sharing ideas and forging the path for our industry is truly remarkable. Thorne thrives on not just growing its business but on promoting the well-being of its employees.
At every level and life stage, there is immense value for our employees who work here, and that is something I have experienced firsthand.
My name is Alexander Pusey, and I’m the Senior Manager of Strategic Planning and Business Operations.
My unique application strategy
My introduction to Thorne was through a professor at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, when I was a cadet student studying business and supply chain. This was right after Thorne had moved its manufacturing facility from Idaho to a brand-new facility in Summerville, South Carolina. After researching the company, it was clear that Thorne’s value proposition was quality. I met with a representative from Thorne at a recruiting fair at The Citadel, which enriched my excitement about Thorne, so I applied to multiple open positions on Thorne’s website.
Perhaps this was a naïve strategy, but it worked, and I was given a screening interview. I was asked why I applied for so many positions I was unqualified for fresh out of college, with my only experience being internships. So, I was honest, and I told the interviewer about my strategy to gain attention from recruiters. My honesty ended up getting me a second meeting. Shortly after this I met with Kenzie Goer, now Thorne’s Vice President of Supply, who interviewed me and offered me the job of Expeditor. I was responsible for pushing urgent documentation through the inventory management system while managing our back-order levels. After a few months of this, I began to receive ad-hoc tasks from Thorne’s Chief Operating Officer, Tom McKenna, on various analysis and planning initiatives.
The benefit of continued education
During this time, I learned about Thorne’s Employee Continuing Education Tuition Grant Award Program. This merit-based tuition grant is awarded to eligible Thorne employees who wish to continue their post-high school education. Individuals who utilize this program further their educational journey by learning a new skill. Ultimately, this puts them in a better position to advance at Thorne.
I applied for the tuition grant and was selected to receive it, which allowed me to pursue my Master of Business Administration at The Citadel by taking night classes while working for Thorne during the day. For two years, my weeks consisted of getting to work at 7:00 am, leaving for class at 5:00 pm, heading to the library at 9:00 pm, and heading home at 10:30. These long days paid off, and as my responsibilities with the Planning department grew, I was promoted to the Manager of Business Planning and Operations. In this role, I lead Thorne’s Environmental, Social, Governance team and ultimately owned our strategic planning process.
The hard work paid off, and I received my MBA from The Citadel in 2022. Around the same time, I was promoted to my current role of Senior Manager of Strategic Planning and Business Operations, where I maintain the Business Analysis and Program Office departments.
A day in my life
The most exciting part of my role here is that no two days are the same. One week I could be working on due diligence for corporate decision-making, another day I can work on facility expansion, then the next shift I’m figuring out a supply chain emergency. On any given day, I could be working on updating our planning models and determining what risks it presents to our business and how best to overcome them. Because the supply chain world is constantly changing, we know how to stay agile and overcome challenges through teamwork, communication, and transparency.
One of the exciting parts about being a member of the Thorne team is that we are leading the way in ushering in a new manufacturing era in the nutritional supplement industry.
What does that look like? We have engaged in strategic construction projects to expand Thorne’s Summerville campus, to put us in a position to meet customer demands for the next decade.
From the initial recommendation to expand Thorne’s campus, to planning the new facility to meet our needs, I have been involved in every stage of development. Our new building is 360,000 square feet — 88,000 more square feet than our original South Carolina manufacturing site. The new facility, on an adjoining parcel of land, is within walking distance of the original building. The new facility has enough space to accommodate Thorne’s warehousing needs for the next decade and will allow us to increase efficiencies in the manufacturing of our products, specifically our mixing suite. In addition to the new facility, we are also expanding the original manufacturing site, an initiative that will add 74,000 square feet to the facility and triple our production capabilities to allow us to meet demand for the foreseeable future.
The growth of our facilities demonstrates how Thorne invests in its overall vision of having the highest quality in every sense of the word; both in the nutritional supplements we manufacture and the employees who make that happen. There is so much opportunity for growth, both professionally and academically, through education and certifications. Since the day I started at Thorne, I see firsthand that everyone’s ideas have weight, and everyone’s voice is heard. It is very rewarding seeing Thorne employees succeed, furthering their careers and reaching goals they set for themselves.
