Reilly Berk

August 2023:

Reilly Berk, MBA Alumna was was named to the Forbes Under 30 Local Leaders list in advance of the Forbest Under 30 Summit to be held in Cleveland in October of 2023. You can view the list on the Forbes site here and also on the Greater Cleveland Partnership site here.

Reilly is the Chief Executive Officer of Berk Enterprises. Berk Enterprises was founded 77 years ago as a distributor of food service disposables, such as plastic cutlery, straws and to-go containers. The products are used by 3,000 different customers, including restaurant chains like Chipotle, schools, distributors and more.

Reilly worked at the company for over 10 years before taking over for her grandfather, the founder. She manages 115 people in multiple states across the United States. Her goal is to quadruple revenue over the next 10 years.

September 2022:

MBA Alum and CEO of Berk Enterprises, Reilly Berk is expanding Berk Enterprises by adding a second warehouse and distribution center to assist customers in the south according to the Tribune Chronicle. The new warehouse is intended to better serve customers in the South, save time, money and lay a foundation for future growth.

"We have a lot of big goals and dreams and plans for the company. We have evolved a lot since we were founded in 1946, but I have bigger plans and ideas for the next 10 years, so we wanted to better service our customers in the South, Southeast," Reilly said.

"We are growing, which is really exciting," Berk said. "We are passing all of our sales targets for the year, which is great, but that was another reason. We needed more space and we figured we would move somewhere else to be more competitive and help our customers long-term."

The company has about 90 employees.

Reilly Berk is the third generation of the Berk family to work at the business founded by Harold and Suzanne Berk. Her father, Robert, came on board when his father died unexpectedly and began to diversify the company's product line.

Reilly started working with the family business at around 12 years old part-time on school breaks or holidays "wherever I was needed just to try to learn as much as I could."

Reilly worked for a period at a logistics company in Cleveland before coming back to Berk Enterprises. She started in sales then became the director of operations for about a year. She transitioned to CEO around July.

You can read the full article here.