Amy Emberling

Organizational missions, visions, and values are critical to the sustained success of any business. Few would deny that. But anyone who has tried to create a thriving organization that is also a fulfilling place to work knows that another crucial piece of that success equation is nurturing the individual.

keynote public speaker Amy Emberling

And yet, trying to find the balance between the needs of the individual versus the needs of the organization is no easy quest. Nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit while also fostering collaborative and cooperative work is one of the most challenging aspects of leadership today. How does one engage employees so that it serves the interests of both the business and the individual? Is it possible to design an organization’s hierarchy and governance so that they enable the business to be nimble and innovative but also allow individuals to have a voice and feel heard?

In this thought-provoking keynote, Amy Emberling, Managing Partner of Zingerman’s Bakehouse, will lead you through how Zingerman’s has managed that balance and nurtured the individual, innovative and entrepreneurial spirit while also serving the larger mission and vision of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. Delivered in Amy’s impassioned style, this keynote is chock full of radical ways to think about the everyday aspects of business leadership, ownership and more!

Amy Emberling is a Managing Partner at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, one of the eleven businesses in Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. Zingerman’s Bakehouse is an artisanal bakery with a retail shop, a baking school and 100 wholesale customers in southeastern Michigan. Before coming to Zingerman’s Amy studied social movements at Harvard College, attended L’ecole de Gastronomie Francaise at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France, worked in many restaurants and bakeries and received an MBA from Columbia University. Amy’s love of great food began in her childhood home of Nova Scotia, where she feasted on lobster and wild blueberry cake.

Amy was one of the original bakers at Zingerman’s Bakehouse when it opened and became a Zingerman’s partner in 2000. She is the co-author of the cookbook Zingerman’s Bakehouse. In addition to leading the bakery, Amy teaches seminars with ZingTrain and develops food tours for Zingerman’s Food Tours. She’s been combining her interests in organizational design, making delicious food, travel, and business management at Zingerman’s since 1992. She believes that business can be the source of positive social change and create value all at the same time.

Amy lives in Ann Arbor with her husband Geoff, their two grown children, Jake and Ruby, daughter in-law Emily and grandson Miles.