Behind the Billboard - Ed Broczkowski

Ed Broczkowski ‘87, works in the Strategy Realization Office at Just Born, Inc. where his role is essentially to help the organization navigate from where it is to where it wants to go. 

He started his NCC journey thinking business was the practical choice for his career. The trajectory of his career has had him working with different facets of consumer-products companies. NCC gave him both the technical foundation and the confidence to keep saying yes to new opportunities. 

Broczkowski was the youngest of three brothers, all of whom had already attended NCC. The family philosophy was: spend two years at NCC; figure out what you want to do; save money; and pursue a bachelor’s degree. He began as a business administration major because he felt it was a transferable and marketable degree. Through his courses, he discovered he enjoyed accounting, even becoming a tutor in the subject. 

“Accounting is the language of business, and I can tell a lot about a business by financial statements. Knowing how to read those documents gave me a leg up in the business world,” he says. 

At NCC, Broczkowski found a mentor in his accounting professor. His professor saw his potential and gave him a recommendation to pursue accounting at Lehigh University in Bethlehem. “When I made the transition to Lehigh, and I stepped into the first accounting class, I really felt super prepared to take on that work. I thought, ‘Wow, not only can I do this, but I can succeed because of how NCC prepared me.’” 

Through Lehigh, Broczkowski learned of a position with Crayola, which was then Binny & Smith. Thinking it could open doors to other opportunities, he took the position. The company helped him earn his Master of Business Administration (MBA) while working. With not much room to grow after eight years and five different roles in Finance, he needed a change.  

“My time at Crayola taught me about marketing and the power of brands, and it was the first time I realized that I enjoy consumer packaged goods. I enjoy seeing the product on the shelves, and seeing a little of your work is neat,” Broczkowski says. 

Broczkowski was attracted to Just Born, Inc. after leaving Crayola, not simply because of the job, but because of how the company operated. The business is family-owned and operated, and the culture is that of taking care of each employee like family. The company stood on the fact that how you do something is just as important as what you accomplish. With that, Just Born is a purpose driven organization. The vision is to grow the company to impact the community positively. 

“They believe you’re only as strong as the community you exist in; so, they have a lot of interdependence with the community,” Broczkowski says, citing volunteer hours, United Way Day of Caring, and a mentality of giving back at Just Born.  

In his close to 30 years at Just Born thus far, Broczkowski has worked in finance and accounting roles, handled an SAP implementation, spent time with international sales and marketing, and now, holds the role of chief strategy officer. He’s had the opportunity to open the company's first retail store; he’s created new flavors of Peeps while leading the Peeps side of the house, with mystery flavor campaigns being some of his favorites. 

But, Broczkowski 's relationship with NCC isn't in the past. 

He's now on the Business Advisory Council, which is involved with accreditation for the College. At the annual Awards Convocation at NCC, Broczkowski presents the Just Born Business Management Award to students. He says he enjoys working with marketing students from NCC as well. “We have students come in to Just Born from NCC, and they come up with a campaign for one of our products. We help them get that experience and give them professional feedback.” 

NCC gave Broczkowski the foundation to enter the business world, but perhaps more importantly, it gave him the confidence to keep moving into unfamiliar territory.