Above or below the equator, in the boardroom or in remote fields of Africa, Jennifer Birtcher influences change.
Currently Birtcher is a force for good in Saudi Arabia, as the first woman to be hired outside of the country for the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco. As a leadership practitioner, Birtcher holds two- or three-day leadership training workshops for Saudi Aramco leaders, including Women in Business training courses.
“Saudi Aramco’s goal for its leaders is to have world-renowned capabilities and to be a role model for other companies,” Birtcher says. “It’s fulfilling to train a really receptive audience.”
Birtcher obtained her bachelor’s degree from the Marriott School in organizational behavior and human resources in 1994. She began her professional career at RR Donnelly in Los Angeles. Five years later she earned her master’s degree in human resources from Claremont Graduate University.
Shortly after graduation Birtcher returned to work for RR Donnelly as its international HR specialist in London. After about three years across the pond, Birtcher returned to the United States, joining two Fortune 500 companies; first Medtronic in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and later Nestlé in Los Angeles.
While working for Nestlé, Birtcher says she felt unsettled and desired to do more for others. Having previously visited Kenya, she decided to take a year off from the corporate world and start the Humanitarian Food Project in Kenya in 2008.
“I’ve got street smarts and am not scared to roll up my sleeves and try new things,” Birtcher says. “There was a lot of get-yourself-dirty work in Africa, and I loved it.”
While in Kenya, Birtcher also had the opportunity to do some consulting work for the Strategic Leadership Centre. The highlight of her consulting work in Africa was training United Nations World Food Programme leaders in Somalia, but the training itself wasn’t the only unique experience she had. Due to civil unrest, Birtcher was escorted to Somalia in a un plane to train the Somali leaders.
The flight itself was a new experience, but Birtcher is no stranger to travel and adventure. While in Africa she scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, the largest peak in Africa, in five days. She has traveled to forty-six countries on six continents and shares the goal to travel to all fifty states with a friend. In each state the duo takes a picture with a Middle Eastern pashmina scarf, as their own take on the book The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
“I view life as an open window; I try to breathe deep and take it all in,” Birtcher says. “That’s what makes life so enjoyable, trying as many things as I can.”
Birtcher loves her home on the beach, just a ten-minute walk from work in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia. In her free time she can be found at Arabic lessons, running, or riding her cruiser bike along the beach.
