What is the Bagel Leadership Circle?

• A three-month program in which a cohort of bagel shop owners and operators identify, discuss, and develop plans to address their most important adaptive challenges.  
• An opportunity to learn tools and techniques to improve your leadership and problem-solving skills, while working on your specific adaptive challenges.
• Group discussions and written reflections on key leadership skills
• A process grounded in a facilitated peer-consulting framework designed to foster mutual growth and learning.
• A platform for cultivating a network of trusted peers to support each other long after the workshop ends.

How does it work?

The Circle will meet weekly on Zoom to develop your leadership skills and to work through a facilitated peer consulting exercise.  Within the peer consulting exercises, members will identify real-life bakery challenges and the group will share insights to spark new ideas and solutions.

Outside of the Zoom sessions, Circle members will have access to a private discussion forum, where they can share ideas, dig deeper into challenges and receive feedback.

By the end of the workshop, you will develop one or more actionable goals to implement at your shop.  Plus, the Circle will continue to meet for regular updates, helping you stay accountable to take action at your shop.

The program has helped me to commit to specific and measurable goals, while at the same time allowing me to re-look at my role in the company I started and embrace a new way of leading as we grow.  -Shelby Kibler, Field & Fire 

• Hannah Bjornson, Ceres Bakery
• Maria Brennan, Victorian Bakery
• Whitney Brien, Fleur Bake Shop
• Dulce Calderon, Brick Oven Bakery
• Chuck Conway, O Bread Bakery
• Amy Corliss, Little Bird Bakeshop
• Christopher DiPiazza, Mighty Bread Company 
• Noah Elbers, Orchard Hill Breadworks
• Laura Fessenden, Moxie Bread Co.
• Scott France, Macrina Bakery
• Jessie Frost, Nightingale Breads
• Byron Fry, Frys Bakery
• Mark Gavigan, Bread And Flours
• Randy George, Red Hen Baking Company
• Travis Gerjets, Prairie Sky Breads

• Ian Herrington, Leavened Cleveland
• Nathan Houge, Brake Bread
• Andrew Hutchison, Madison Sourdough Bakery & Cafe
• Tim Kastner, The Bread Lab at Patisserie 46
• Shelby Kibler, Field & Fire
• Katie Kopsick, Bolivar Bread
• Angela Kora, Ethos Bakery & Stone Mill
• Gonzalo Lanao Tapia, Bread Alone
• Erica Leahy, Three Daughters Baking
• Viv Lee, Leftie Lee’s
• Gillian Lundgren, Black Jet Baking Co.
• Nicole Marie, Bakery at Magpie
  
• Nicole Martin, Central Illinois Bakehouse
• Kevin Masse, Small State Provisions

• Claire Meneely, Dozen Bakery
• Amanda Michael, Jane the Bakery
• Aaron Quint, Kingston Bread Lab
• Dominic Romano, Romano Family Food Services
• Lisa Romano, Romano Family Food Services
• Carly Rossmeissl, Madison Sourdough
• Carlos Ruiz, El Horno de Pane
• Holly Showalter, Wild Oats Baking
• Kristin Ryall, Bread and Flours
• Adam Snow, Beans & Bagels
• Matthew Stinson, Stinson Breads
• Sarah Stone, Honey and Rye Bakehouse
• Tara Tanjasiri, Crema Artisan Bakers
• Ben Traore, See and Be Kitchen

My biggest desire/need was a sense of connection with peers, and a sense that I am "on the right track" within the larger industry. The BLC has very much provided those things.  -Sarah Stone, Honey and Rye Bakehouse

Program Facilitators:

Mark Dyck is the creator and host of Rise Up! The Baker Podcast featuring conversations with professional bakers and bakery owners from around the world.  He is the founder of Bakers4Bakers.org, a global community of bakery owners working together to build successful, sustainable bakeries.  

A Guild member since 2008, Mark previously owned Orange Boot Bakery in Regina, Saskatchewan with his wife Cindy.  He later ran a ‘secret’ brick oven bakery for a private group of friends and neighbours. 

Karen Bornarth is Executive Director of the Guild, and has been a member for more than 20 years.  In her work, she supports bakery owners and professional bakers to achieve success in their baking practices and businesses through education, training and community-building events.

Before joining the Guild as ED, Karen spent 8 years with Hot Bread Kitchen, a nonprofit in New York City.  At HBK she developed an initiative to improve job quality and business performance in small food businesses, and oversaw a team to design and deliver a dynamic workforce development program.

Karen launched her career at Guild member bakery Amy’s Bread where she worked her way up from packer to supervisor while teaching part-time at the Artisan Baking Center. The French Culinary Institute provided her the opportunity to focus her passion for teaching; she spent five years as the lead instructor and coordinator of their bread department, improving the curriculum and creating new classes for both professional and amateur students. She also worked for four years at Le Pain Quotidien, where she managed its Bleecker Street demonstration and teaching bakery, and then transitioned to product development, quality control and training on a national level.