When Angela Breitbach sees a complex problem, she breaks it down into manageable steps to solve it. “I liken it to looking at a lot of puzzle pieces scattered on a table and figuring out how to sort it to make it as efficient as possible to complete,” she said. “Complex problem solving or data mining is something I enjoy diving into.”
Now as the chief financial officer of Radius Packaging, she has had to navigate complex problems since she began as a staff accountant at the firm in 2008. Radius Packaging is a rigid plastic packaging manufacturer that specializes in consumer packaging to a broad range of markets. The company’s broad range of capabilities deliver off-the-shelf solutions for quick problem solving, tailored products for flexibility and scale and fully customized packaging solutions.
Steadily moving up the ranks within the company, Breitbach served as the lead to move the company to a new ERP system while also implementing an operations MES system and then laying the groundwork to the company’s current information platform. She spent time leading purchasing, warehousing and scheduling during her first 10 years which has helped round out her understanding of the business, she said.
Rising to the role of VP of Finance in 2017, Breitbach was part of the core team created to expand into a greenfield facility while overseeing a 250k square foot state-of-the-art blowmolding and injection molding facility in 2019.
“Since taking over as the head finance lead, she has helped the company expand by 22+ machines and over double its top line revenue,” said her staff. “She prides herself in knowing the business not only from the dollars and cents side, but she is deeply rooted in the customer and operations strategy, serving as a mentor to others in the organization.”
According to her staff, Breitbach has been one of the main leaders driving Radius Packaging’s growth over the last 15 years. She was also named Plastic News CFO of the year in 2022. “Of all the accomplishments Radius has achieved, as well as her personally, she will say her greatest accomplishment is her ability to grow her team and coach them to be independent outstanding contributors to Radius’ growth as well as growing their careers,” said her staff.
Breitbach said it’s the coaches she has had along the way that have helped form her leadership style. “I coach to my team to always learn, ask questions, challenge the status quo and don’t be afraid to go with your gut and make changes,” she said. “I want to be the leader to my team that I had, that allowed me to be curious and learn and even fail.”
For her unwavering determination to serve as a mentor to others, Breitbach has been named a titan.
