SriRaj Kantamneni Runs the Playbook at Schreiber Foods

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At Schreiber Foods, SriRaj Kantamneni serves as senior vice president and chief information and digital officer, the latter of which blends traditional chief information officer responsibilities with steering the company’s digital transformation journey.

For Kantamneni, the challenge isn’t new. Prior to joining Schreiber in 2023, he spent over twenty years at Cargill, where he worked in supply chain, got to lead through a large enterprise resource planning modernization effort, helped integrate acquisitions into the company, set up a shared services center in India, and then moved into a digital role that looked at bringing transformation through disruptive technologies.

He says his current role is an opportunity to “run the playbook,” drawing from those experiences to bring growth and impact to Schreiber.

“I did a lot of thinking about how to transform the industries Cargill was serving, and it’s been fun to take that and help accomplish the same things at Schreiber but at a faster pace since I have those learnings and know the pitfalls from the last go at it,” Kantamneni says. “Our mission is about growing with our customers, our employees, and the communities we live and work in by pushing for sustainability, efficiency, adopting modern technology, and making our customers’ lives better.”

Kantamneni breaks his team’s contribution to that vison down into two buckets. He calls the first “transforming the core” which involves leveraging technology that allows the company to be more efficient, effective, and seamless. Modern analytics, dashboarding, collaboration, and native technology tools have been implanted to check those boxes.

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The second is about disrupting with digital, which has seen the team bring in emerging technologies like generative AI, machine learning, and computer vision to reimagine the way work is done and to help drive business results. Those efforts have resulted in the development of innovative systems like the Hive, a complete inventory managing system with the ability to create items, resources, and tasks. It manages connections with automated guide vehicles, automated storage, retrieval systems, and auto palletizers at several outside warehouses.

Solutions like the Hive and Happy Farmer, a platform and suite of apps that help dairy companies and cooperatives be efficient, were so successful for Schreiber that Kantamneni and his team decided to bring them to market. That’s why they stood up Schreiber Digital Labs (SDL), which sells software solutions and provides technical and functional expertise to help customers accelerate their digital journeys. SDL also partners with the company’s corporate venture capital arm, Schreiber Ventures, to invest in or partner with startups to bring digital solutions to fruition.

These are efforts that Kantamneni is particularly proud of.

“It’s really cool to see us taking things that we’re doing really well and monetizing it,” he says. “We’re now able to take the requirements of our customers and simultaneously improve solutions for our purposes. We’re on the precipice of integrating our solution with startups that we’re partnering with.”

Kantamneni was born in India and moved to Iowa at five years old as his father pursued a masters. Always interested in IT and computer, Kantamneni studied computer engineering in undergraduate school. In 2002, he joined Cargill, where he went on to serve as a business consultant; director of technology for transportation and logistics; director of technology for manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, logistics and procurement; senior director of business services; and other roles of increasing responsibility. He left the company as managing director.

“Our mission is about growing with our customers, our employees, and the communities we live and work in by pushing for sustainability, efficiency, adopting modern technology, and making our customers’ lives better.”

SriRaj Kantamneni

That journey taught him the value of being a lifelong learner.

“Curiosity is super important,” he says. “Organizations needs to be learning organizations. To make growth and impact truly come alive, everyone must be willing to change. To do that, you must be curious. You need to understand what’s happening in the world around you and bring new ideas and ways of doing things to the forefront.”

Today, the leader also believes in the power of collaborating with his business colleagues.

“High performing teams rely on each other’s strengths to win and that’s exactly what I see here. In the past, people were looking to avoid IT, but now we’ve been bringing IT and the business to the table to collaborate on the tech that exist and how it can make us all better,” he says. “It’s been really exciting to be a partner rather than a roadblock.”

“As an AI and data partner for Schreiber, I have had the privilege of working alongside Sri as he has built Schreiber Digital Labs and transformed Schreiber’s digital strategy,” says Ben Kessler, CEO of 66degrees. “Within our clients who are creating value with AI, the common thread is partnering with a leader who blends technical expertise, business understanding, courage, and empathy to drive change. Sri epitomizes these qualities and is creating real value for his stakeholders.”

Kantamneni isn’t sure what’s next, but he knows this: he wants to make an impact that will open doors for others.

“Every job that I’ve had, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I’m a firm believer that if you remain humble, stay true to yourself, get things done, and work hard, good things will come,” he says.

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